Spicy Onion Rings with Sweet Heat Dipping Sauce

Course: Appetizer

Author: Southern Made Simple

Vegetable Oil for frying
2 large yellow or vidalia onions
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups pancake mix
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
Panko bread crumbs
salt as desired
.
.
For Dipping Sauce:
1/2 cup low fat mayo
1 tbs ketchup
1 tbs horseradish sauce
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp jalapeno juice
salt & pepper to taste
small handful of canned jalapenos - diced optional
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and allow to chill for a few hours - this step isn't necessary, but it makes the flavors marry together nicely

Preheat grease in fryer to 350 F
Remove skins from onions and slice into roughly 3/4 inch slices - then separate the rings
In a large bowl, combine pancake mix, cayenne pepper, paprika, chili powder and salt and pepper
Slowly pour in buttermilk and stir well. Batter will be thick, but you can add additional butter milk if batter is too thick for your liking.
In a separate bowl, pour a generous amount of bread crumbs to use for coating the onion rings
Dip each onion ring into into the batter, followed by dipping them into the bread crumbs
Fry the onion rings in the grease for 1:30 - 2 minutes - only doing 2-3 rings at a time to prevent from sticking together
Remove from grease and allow to cool on a wire rack on top of paper towels - add additional salt if necessary
Serve with sweet heat onion ring dipping sauce and enjoy

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