Got Jalapeños? Make Our Easy Crunchy Jalapeño Rings - The "Onion Rings" of Southwest Cuisine

I need a Twelve-Step Program. I have a serious addiction. To onion rings.

When I am going out to a burger joint, I actually choose restaurants by which one has the best onion rings. No, I am not making this up.

I decided that peppers deserve to have the same golden brown crunchy delicious treatment as onions. So, I set out to make jalapeño rings. I wanted a very thin and very crispy crust. I thought of John Besh's crispy fried okra. Just toss your rings in buttermilk and then a mixture of one part flour and one part cornmeal. Fry  your rings up in 350 degree oil and you're set!

I live in a place where they serve a thing called "pink sauce" with fries and rings. I decided to make a pink sauce with a little heat, so I stirred some salsa into Greek yoghurt - a perfect match for your spicy rings!

Oh, and these little crunchy tasty rings are perfect to toss into salads or on top of burgers. Try that, too!

JALAPEÑO RINGS

8 large jalapeños
1 cup buttermilk
1 ½ cups all purpose flour, divided
1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
Peanut oil and/or vegetable oil ( I used half of each)

Heat oil to 350 degrees.

Cut stem and very top off jalapeños. Using a small paring knife or jalapeño corer ( I just bought a cool gadget for this at Williams Sonoma!)  remove seeds and pulp from inside jalapeños. Cut into rings a little thicker than ¼ inch. Put ½ cup of flour in a small bowl. Toss rings in flour.

Dip rings in buttermilk.

Stir together the remaining cup of flour, cornmeal and salt. Toss rings in flour/cornmeal mixture and then fry until golden brown.

Serve immediately with dipping sauce of choice.

I love these other inventive rings:

Baked Panko Onion Rings, Never Enough Thyme
Oven Fried Rings, Brown Eyed Baker
Roasted Vidalia Onion Rings, Kalyn's Kitchen
OMG Oven Baked Onion Rings, Go Dairy Free
Fried Onion Rings, One Perfect Bite
Gluten Free Onion Rings, Gluten Free Girl

-- posted by Donna