You've likely heard of blooming onion from Outback Steakhouse or the likes of your favorite chain restaurants, but now you can make it right at home. This fried appetizer is a cool little twist on onion rings and is fun to pull apart and dunk in sauce.
Fill a 5-5.5 quart dutch oven half way with vegetable or other frying oil. Preheat to 375F.
Trim the top of the onion by about 1 inch. Remove the outer layer of the onion. Flip upside down and make four cuts, leaving the center in tact, across from each other as a compass.
Make two additional cut between each of the primary cuts. Be sure to keep the center base of the onion in tact.
Flip the onion back over and use fingers to help fan out the petals.
In a large bowl combine the milk and eggs.
In another large bowl combine the dry ingredients with a whisk.
Dip the onion in the egg mixture, followed by the dry ingredients. Repeat. Be sure to fan the petals of the onion during the process to get as much coverage as possible with the batter.
Use a spider strainer to lower the onion into the frying oil. Fry for 10 minutes.
Remove and drain excess grease from onion on a paper towel. Serve with dipping sauce.
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Notes
You can pair this blooming onion with ranch, garlic aioli, BBQ, southwest ranch, ketchup, honey mustard, chipotle sauce, fry sauce, and Sweet Baby Ray’s Special Sauce which tastes similar to the blooming onion dipping sauce from Outback Steakhouse.
Be sure to coat the onion in between each petal with the dry ingredients.