Food: Italian Sausage and Oven Baked Onion Rings

A couple of weekends ago my family came into town to visit. Since they were arriving on Friday evening and I was going to be at work until almost dinnertime, I decided to make a relatively low-maintenance meal. First, my sister Meghan helped me sear some spicy Italian sausage on the stove top which we then added to a crock pot with sliced green peppers and marinara sauce. We put the pot on high and let it cook until my parents arrived. Next, we decided to try making Ellie Krieger's oven-baked onion rings. Although the flavor turned out great, we did have a few issues in coating the onions - the buttermilk caused massive chip clumping early on in the process. As a result, next time I make these I'd plan to follow two tips posted by reviewers of the recipe: Grind the chip mixture to the point it resembles cornmeal; Put the onions in the fridge for 15-20 minutes after coating them with buttermilk. Also, be sure to follow the last step in Krieger's directions - coating the rings with cooking spray keeps them from burning.

Ellie Krieger's Oven Baked Onion Rings

Ingredients
Cooking spray
4 cups baked potato chips (Baked chips made from whole potatoes work best)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (I left this out since we were having spicy sausage - they still tasted great)
1 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 to 2 large Vidalia onions, peeled

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
• Spray a baking sheet slightly with oil and set aside.
• Place potato chips in the bowl of a food processor and process into crumbs, about 20 seconds. Transfer to a shallow bowl, add cayenne, and set aside.
• In another bowl, combine buttermilk, 2 tablespoons of flour, salt and pepper and set aside.
• Slice onions into 1/2-inch circles and separate into rings, keeping only large, whole rings (reserve rest of onions for other uses). You should come out with about 12 to 14 rings.
• Place the remaining flour in a sealable plastic bag, then add onions, and shake to coat.
• Dip onions 1 at a time into the buttermilk mixture, then dip into potato chip crumbs and place on baking sheet.
• Spray canola oil evenly over rings and bake for 20 minutes, or until coating is crisp.
• Season with salt, to taste, and serve immediately. (I didn't think they needed any salt due to the potato chips containing plenty already).