Pork Rind Onion Rings

About

Set these Keto onion rings down and they’ll go fast! You won’t keep your hands out of this finger food and neither will any kids hanging around. Sweet yellow onions are breaded in a simple pork rind breading (your choice of plain or spicy). In fact, you only need 3 ingredients to make this Keto-friendly snack! They bake up perfectly crisp in the oven without burning or becoming too soft. The pork rinds add just the right amount of saltiness, but you are welcome to add any extra seasonings you enjoy to the breading. Make this recipe when you have the time because while the onion rings can be stored in your refrigerator for eating at a later time, they’re at their best quality if eaten fresh out of the oven. If you are looking for a Keto condiment recipe for dipping these bad boys in, some Carb Manager suggestions are made in the final step of the recipe!

Can I Cook Onion Rings In My Air Fryer?

You can save yourself a little time if you choose to use an air fryer instead of your oven. If you decide to use an air fryer, set it to 350 degrees instead of 425 degrees. Cook the onion rings for 10 minutes to start, and add on more time as needed. After 10 minutes, check if you need to flip the onion rings over or not to avoid burning. Depending on your style of air fryer, some items need to be flipped and some don’t.

Choosing The Right Onions

Yellow onions are the best for making onion rings. You can usually find yellow onions that are evenly round and just the right size for a Keto snack. Yellow onions are a middle-ground between white onions and Vidalia onions for sweetness. While Vidalia onions are sweeter, this also means they’ll have a little more carbohydrates per serving than yellow onions. Not to mention, yellow onions are cheaper anyways!

Ingredients

4 oz yellow onion
2 tablespoon cream heavy whipping
2 ounce fried pork skins

Instructions

Prepare the onions about 30 minutes before you want to bake them. Peel a medium-sized onion for 2 servings. Slice the onion(s) into wide, 1-inch rings. Pull the onion rings apart into individual rings and select approx. 6 rings per serving. Choose the largest and medium-sized rings. You can store the smaller rings in your refrigerator to use at another time. The onion weight listed in the ingredients is the final yield after selecting your onion rings.
Place the onion rings in a small bowl and fill it with cream until the onion rings are covered. You will likely need more cream than what is listed in the ingredients, but you will not be consuming this excess. Set the bowl of onion rings and cream in your refrigerator to tenderize for 30 minutes. This step is not necessarily 100% required, so you can move on directly to Step 3 if you are in a pinch for time.
Turn on your oven to preheat to 425 degrees. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper and set it aside. Grind pork rinds in a food processor or powerful blender until you have a fine bread crumb texture. Don’t over-grind the pork rinds, or else the oils will release and make your bread crumbs too dense and soft. Arrange the ground pork rinds on a plate for breading the onion rings.
One-by-one, use a fork to lift an onion ring out of the cream and shake off any excess liquid. Transfer the onion ring to the pork rinds and coat the ring in the crumbs. The onion rings do not have to be 100% coated in pork rinds. An 80%-90% coverage will let the onion rings bake perfectly. Arrange all breaded onion rings on the sheet tray.
Bake the tray of onion rings for 20 minutes in the oven, flipping them over halfway through. The pork rinds will become darker and the edges of the onion rings will be a golden or darker brown. The onions themselves will be tender but maintain their integrity. Serve about 6 onion rings per serving with your favorite Keto dipping sauce. Check out Carb Manager recipes such as Low Carb Tomato Ketchup, Keto Spicy BBQ Sauce, or Keto Ranch Dressing.