Crispy Baked Onion Petals with Fry Sauce

Crispy baked onion petals dipped in a super easy and delicious fry sauce. Whether it’s an appetizer or snack or side, you’ll love them!

My friends, do I have an appetizer, a.k.a snack or side for you.

A baked bloomin’ onion of sorts.

Heaven is crispy, spicy, Panko crusted onion petals and a bangin’ fry sauce. I’m not even kidding. All of it is super simple and did I mention it’s baked? Baked because I’m a chicken when it comes to deep-frying. Oh-yeah annnd it’s healthier, but really it’s because I’m deathly afraid of bubbling hot oil.

This is one of those recipes I kinda just thought of while vacuuming one morning. I wanted something to go along with these kick-butt burgers I was about to make that evening {and ones I’ll be sharing here real-real soon}. I thought about onion rings but I didn’t want to have to bust out the mandolin and risk an injury to my precious lady fingers {those things scare me too}. So since I was feeling all lazy-like I took the bones of my baked onion rings recipe and applied them to onion petals, but this time I made them a smidgen spicy and I also made kick-butt fry sauce that is literally two ingredients and ridiculously delicious.

Who doesn’t love the sound of that?

Don’t worry about that big basket of onions, you do not need that many unless you’re feeding an army. One large sweet onion will do just fine.

Preheat your oven to 400°.

Meanwhile; trim, peel, halve and slice your onion vertically to make the onion petals.

I took the center part of the onion out and discarded it. It’s too thick and doesn’t make for good petal making.

Next, separate the layers of the onions and place them into a bowl.

Then season the cup of flour with cayenne pepper, all purpose season salt, garlic powder and black pepper.

Next add the same exact spices to the Panko breadcrumbs. This insures the petals to be perfectly seasoned and flavorful.

Then whisk 4 egg whites until frothy. 

Next add a few of the onion petals at a time, into the seasoned flour and tossed to coat.

Tap off the excess flour.

And then dip them into the egg whites. This part is important. If there’s a dry spot on the onions the crumbs will not stick.

Allow the extra egg whites to drip off the onion and back into the bowl.

And then coat them in the seasoned breadcrumbs.

Next, line them up onto a parchment or silicon mat lined sheet pan, fit as many onto the sheet pan as possible as you can clearly see I did and then bake in a preheated 400° oven for 18-20 minutes.

Meanwhile whip up the fry sauce. Fry sauce is simply mayonnaise and ketchup. But when those two things unite a crazy-delicious sauce is born. It sort of reminds me of big mac sauce mince the relish.

Be my guest and go all out here and make homemade mayo and ketchup. You could even make this sauce smoky and spicy by mincing up a chipotle pepper and add it in. 

Finally stir until smooth and pop it into the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

Once the onion petals are golden and crispy remove them from the oven and serve immediately.

Finally, The proper way to eat an onion petal is this:

Pick a petal…

then dip…

…and devour.

I’m mean, look how pretty! These baked onion petals almost too pretty to eat.

Almost.

Enjoy! And if you give this Baked Onion Petals recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!

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Yield: 6 servings

Crispy Baked Onion Petals + Fry Sauce

Spicy and crispy baked onion petals dipped in a super easy and delicious fry sauce.

Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Cook Time: 20 minutes mins

Total Time: 50 minutes mins

Ingredients

FOR THE ONION PETALS:

• 4 egg whites, whisked until frothy
• 1 large sweet onion, halved and slice vertically {discard the thick center pieces}
• 2 cups panko breadcrumbs
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons all-purpose season salt, divided
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, divided

FRY SAUCE:

• 2/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup ketchup

Instructions 

MAKE THE ONION PETALS:

• Preheat your oven to 400° and line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment or silicon baking mat.
• Place the onion petals, flour, bread crumbs and egg whites in separate bowls. Divide the spices among the flour and the breadcrumbs, so that's 2 teaspoons of the all purpose seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne in both bowls and mix to combine.
• Dip the onion petals in the flour and shake off the excess. Dip the petals into the egg whites and let the extra whites drip off.
• Then place the flour and egg coated onions into the seasoned breadcrumbs and toss to coat.
• Place the breaded onions onto the prepared sheet pan and repeat with the remaining onions.
• Bake in your preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
• Serve immediately with the fry sauce and start dipping.

MAKE THE FRY SAUCE:

• Combine 2/3 cup mayo and 1/3 cup ketchup, mix until smooth, cover and store in the fridge until you're ready to serve.

Serving: 1g, Calories: 370kcal, Carbohydrates: 39g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 20g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 12g, Monounsaturated Fat: 5g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 10mg, Sodium: 700mg, Potassium: 218mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 8g, Vitamin A: 121IU, Vitamin C: 4mg, Calcium: 58mg, Iron: 2mg

Author: Laurie McNamara

Course: Appetizers & Snacks

Cuisine: American