I have been craving a bloomin’ onion from Outback.

I love fried food. Onions. Pickles. Eggplant. Mushrooms. Green tomatoes. Squash. Cauliflower. Oreos…

What I don’t love are the calories and all the grease. It tastes amazing, but after I feel gross and bloated and kinda hate myself for eating the entire basket of fried onion rings.

My husband bought me an air fryer a few years ago and I started to make my own fried treats at home. I’ve mastered fried squash, tomatoes and pickles. But I have never tried onion until now!

I will start by saying that it took a few tries before I was able to get this right. I also make a huge mess in the kitchen each time I have made this. But the results were delicious.

Here is what you need:

◦ Medium Sweet Onion

◦ Cup of white flour

◦ Cup of Panko crumbs

◦ Cup of bread crumbs

◦ 2 large eggs

◦ 2 cups of milk

◦ 2 tablespoons of pancake mix

◦ 2 teaspoons of paprika

◦ Olive oil spray

You will want to have 3 different mixing bowls.

Fill 1 mixing bowl with the milk and two eggs. Add about 2 tablespoons of spoons of pancake mix. Whisk together.

Fill bowl 2 with a cup of flour, panko crumbs and bread crumbs. 2 Table spoons of paprika. Mix together.

Peel the onion and cut off the top. Leave the root attached to the bottom. Place the onion flat side down on a cutting board (root side up). Now using a knife starting about 1/2 inch from the root, make a clean slice downward. Continue this around the onion making the petals as thin or thick as you want. Keep in mind the thinner the petals the harder it might be to keep the onion together.

Soak the onion in the first bowl with the milk mixture. I use a spoon to pour over the onion. This is to make sure I get all the petals covered. Once covered move the onion to an empty mixing bowl. Then pour the flour mixture over the onion. Again you might want to use a spoon or fingers to get all petals covered with the flour mix. After I have it covered I use a spoon or cooking brush to add additional milk mixture over the onion.

Spray your air fryer with olive oil spray. Place the onion in the fryer and then spray the onion with olive oil spray. I spray onion with to make the onion more crispy and it gives that golden color. I cook at 390 degrees for 20 minutes. Through out the time the onion is cooking I will check every 5 minutes or so and spray again. You need the check the petals and separate any that are stuck together so it cooks more evenly.

Then enjoy with some Yum Yum Sauce!

You will likely have left over mixture, the milk and flour.