Our family’s Zoom-based cooking competition’s featured ingredient this week: sweet onions! My dad is something of an onion freak (understatement) and selected the ingredient. I LOVE onions. I put them in all kinds of things — sweet, yellow, white, raw, cooked, sautéed, caramelized, you name it. With the challenge being to cook a sweet onion dish, I pondered, Googled, and landed on this: bacon onion rings!
These are literally doubled up concentric rings of onion wrapped tightly with thick-cut slabs of bacon. Tossed with brown sugar and a few seasonings, secured with toothpicks to ensure prettiness and served plain or with any assortment of dips, you will LOVE these. The onion turns out juicy, the bacon is sweet and chewy, and your house will smell DIVINE.
My partner is used to yummy food but even he was impressed. After trying it, he said, “This food may end up being how I die.” So there!
Also, I did try making these on a rack, versus right on the pan. Nope. Not as good. You want to do these right on the pan. It will help with them getting that syrupy sweet build-up and glistening caramelization. Yum!
The family put forth some truly impressive sweet onion dishes but this won the day — because, bacon.
Bacon-Wrapped Onion Rings
Ingredients:
- About 8 pieces of thick-cut bacon1 large Walla Walla sweet onion (WW is preferred, though other sweet onions will work)
- About a half-cup of brown sugar
- Onion powder
- Garlic powder
- Black or cayenne pepper
- Salt*
Makes about 5-6 onion rings
Directions:
- Bring bacon out of fridge about a half hour before cooking so it is more pliable.
- Line a large baking sheet with foil, spray with cooking oil.
- Slice the bulb and root ends off the onion, then turn it on its side and slice into 1/2 inch thick rings.
- For your onion ring, use two concentric rings — just one on its own won’t hold up to the long cooking time. I liked the medium-sized rings the best. The smallest are too small to thread the bacon around, and the largest will definitely use two pieces of bacon, so this is a data- and calorie-driven decision!
- Holding the two rings together, begin wrapping one piece of bacon around the ring. Stretch and pull as you go to maximize bacon use. You may need an additional 1/2 or a full piece of bacon to complete this.
- Use a long double-pointed toothpick to secure the bacon in place. This isn’t totally necessary but it will help your bacon maintain its prettiness.
- Once you’ve wrapped your rings…
- Scoop your brown sugar into a shallow dish or pie pan; sprinkle with the onion and garlic powder, pepper and salt, and mixed up with a fork.
- One at a time, press your rings into the brown sugar mix, both sides. Use your fingertips to rub the mixture around the surfaces of your rings.
- Put the rings on your baking sheet, place in oven, and set oven to 350 degress.
- Note: you do NOT preheat the oven. Letting the food come to heat with the oven helps the bacon warm and maintain its shape and meld together.
- After 30 minutes, remove pan and gently and carefully flip your rings.
- You may want to use two spatulas to hold them together as you flip. The toothpicks can also really help here because they won’t be hot! Another vote for toothpicks!
- After 30 more minutes, remove the rings, let them cool.
- Plate and sprinkle with minced parsley and serve!
- We like them with a yogurt-based blue cheese dip, but it would be good with Sriracha mayo, ranch, or any number of dippers!
Happy cooking!