The Ultimate Crunch: Our Handmade Onion Rings

We need to talk about onion rings. Specifically, we need to talk about the difference between the onion rings you've been eating your entire life and the onion rings we make at Hires Big H, because there is a very good chance you have never had a real onion ring. And that sentence might sound dramatic, but stick with us here. By the time you're done reading this, you're going to be either very hungry or very angry at every other restaurant that's ever served you a sad, soggy, pre-formed ring of breaded disappointment. Probably both.

Most onion rings at most restaurants arrive frozen, in a bag, from a factory. They're machine-stamped, pre-breaded, flash-frozen, and shipped across the country in a refrigerated truck. The "onion" inside is often reconstituted — basically onion paste pressed into a ring shape. The breading is uniform, thin, and designed for efficiency, not flavor. You heat them up, you serve them, and they're... fine. They're fine in the way that a microwave dinner is fine. They'll do the job if you're not paying attention.

But you deserve better than "fine." And at Hires Big H, we do it the hard way because the hard way tastes better.

It Starts with Hundreds of Pounds of Fresh Onions

Every single morning, our kitchen teams begin slicing onions. Fresh, whole, real onions. Not onion powder. Not reconstituted onion paste. Not some frankenfood product that vaguely resembles an onion if you squint. Actual onions that grew in the ground and arrived at our kitchen still wearing their papery skins.

And we're not talking about a small operation here. We go through hundreds of pounds of onions every single day across our three locations. Hundreds. Every day. That's a lot of onions. That's a lot of tears, frankly. Our kitchen crew has developed an almost superhuman resistance to onion-induced crying. (Almost. There are still bad days. We don't talk about the bad days.)

Each onion is sliced by hand into thick, even rings. The thickness matters — too thin and the onion disappears inside the breading, too thick and you get that awkward moment where you bite through the breading and the entire onion slides out like a greased snake. We've all been there. It's not dignified. Our rings are cut to the perfect thickness so that the onion and the breading work together as one glorious, unified bite.

The Homemade Egg Batter

Here's where most restaurants check out. Even the ones that start with real onions usually buy their batter pre-made or use a commercial mix. Add water, stir, dip, done. It works. It's fast. And it tastes exactly like every other onion ring made from a commercial mix, which is to say: forgettable.

We make our egg batter from scratch. In-house. Every day. Real eggs, our own blend of ingredients, mixed fresh each morning. It's not complicated in theory — eggs, flour, seasonings — but the proportions matter, the consistency matters, and the freshness matters enormously. A batter made three hours ago performs differently than a batter made thirty minutes ago. We know this because we've tested it. Extensively. (We told you we were obsessive.)

The egg batter serves a dual purpose. First, it adds flavor. The eggs give the coating a richness and depth that you simply cannot achieve with a water-based batter. Second, it acts as the glue between the onion and the breadcrumbs. It's the foundation layer, and like any foundation, if it's not right, everything built on top of it suffers.

The Breadcrumbs (Made from Our Own Bread)

This is one of our favorite details to share, because it's the kind of thing that makes people stop and say, "Wait, really?"

Really.

The breadcrumbs we use for our onion rings are made from the same bread we use for our garlic bread. It's not store-bought breadcrumbs from a canister. It's not a commercial breading product. It's bread — real bread, the same bread that becomes our beloved garlic bread — processed into crumbs and seasoned with our custom spice blend.

Why does this matter? Because the quality of the breadcrumb determines the quality of the crunch. Commercial breadcrumbs are uniform, fine, and designed for efficiency. Our breadcrumbs are made from quality bread, which means they have more flavor, more texture, and more character. They create a coating that's thick, craggy, and spectacularly crunchy — not the thin, smooth, uniform shell you get from the canister stuff.

The custom seasoning is its own thing entirely. We're not going to give you the full recipe (some things are sacred), but we will tell you that it's been developed and refined over decades to complement the sweetness of the onion and the richness of the egg batter. It's savory, it's aromatic, and it has just enough complexity to make you wonder what exactly is in there without being able to pin it down. That's by design.

The Double-Dip: Why One Layer Is Never Enough

Okay. Here's the big one. The thing that truly sets our onion rings apart from everybody else's. The move that takes an already impressive onion ring and launches it into a completely different stratosphere of crunch.

We double-dip our onion rings.

That means: after the onion ring is dipped in our homemade egg batter and coated in our house-made seasoned breadcrumbs, we dip it in the batter again and coat it in breadcrumbs again. Two full layers of batter. Two full layers of breadcrumbs. Double the coating. Double the crunch.

This is, to put it mildly, a lot more work. It doubles the labor in the breading process. It uses more batter and more breadcrumbs. It takes more time. And every single one of our competitors has decided it's not worth the effort.

They're wrong.

The double-dip creates an onion ring with a breading layer that is thick enough to provide serious structural integrity and crunch, but not so thick that it overwhelms the onion inside. It creates texture that you can actually hear — that crispy, crackling sound when you bite through the exterior. It creates a coating that holds up to dipping sauces (may we suggest our house-made fry sauce?) without getting soggy or falling apart. And it creates a visual presence on the plate that is frankly magnificent. These are not dainty little rings. These are bold, beautiful, golden-brown monuments to the art of deep-frying.

The Anatomy of the Perfect Bite

When you bite into one of our onion rings, here's what happens, in order:

1. The crunch. Your teeth break through the outer layer of seasoned breadcrumbs. It's crispy, it's audible, and it's deeply satisfying.
2. The second crunch. Because of the double-dip, there's a second distinct layer of breading. This one is slightly softer than the outer layer because it's been insulated by the first, creating a textural contrast that is genuinely addictive.
3. The egg batter layer. A thin, rich, savory cushion between the breading and the onion. This is where a lot of the flavor lives.
4. The onion. Sweet, tender, and steaming hot. Not mushy, not raw, not that weird rubbery texture you get from reconstituted onion paste. Real onion, cooked to the perfect point where it's soft and sweet but still has enough bite to let you know it's there.

Four layers. Four textures. Four flavor profiles. In every single bite. That's not an accident. That's decades of refinement. That's a kitchen team that cares deeply about the difference between "good enough" and "the best onion ring you've ever had in your life."

Fried to Golden Perfection

The frying itself is the final piece of the puzzle. After the double-dip, our onion rings go into hot oil and are fried until they reach a very specific shade of golden brown. Not pale. Not dark. Golden. That perfect, warm, sunset-amber color that tells you the breading is cooked through, the onion inside is tender, and everything is exactly as it should be.

Our kitchen teams know this color by heart. They've fried thousands — tens of thousands — of onion rings, and they can tell at a glance when a ring is ready. It's a skill that comes from experience, from repetition, from caring enough to pay attention to something that most people would consider trivial. But at Hires Big H, nothing about the food is trivial.

The rings come out of the fryer, they get a moment to drain, and they go straight to you. Hot. Fresh. Crunchy. Everything an onion ring should be and almost never is.

Why We'll Never Take a Shortcut

Every year, we could switch to pre-made onion rings and save a significant amount of money. Every year, we don't. We could buy commercial batter mix. We don't. We could do a single dip instead of a double dip, cut our breading time in half, and most people probably wouldn't even notice.

But we would notice. And the regulars would notice. And Don Hale — the man who built this place on the principle that you never cut corners on quality — would absolutely notice. Year after year, generation after generation, we make the choice to do it the hard way. Fresh onions. Homemade batter. House-made breadcrumbs from our own bread. Double-dipped. Every ring, every day.

That's not a business strategy. That's a family value. And family values don't come with an opt-out clause.

How to Order: Onion Rings at Hires Big H

An order of our Handmade Onion Rings is $6.66. That's a pile of hand-sliced, hand-dipped, double-breaded, custom-seasoned, golden-fried onion rings made from scratch that morning. For less than seven bucks. We think that's a steal, but we're biased.

They're available at all three of our locations across the Salt Lake Valley: Salt Lake City, Midvale, and Daybreak. You can order them as a side with any of our burgers, or honestly, just order them on their own as the main event. We won't judge. Some of our most loyal customers come in specifically for the onion rings and nothing else. We respect that level of commitment.

Pair them with our fry sauce for a dipping experience that borders on spiritual. Or try them with our house-made ranch dressing, because everything is better with ranch, and our ranch is — you guessed it — made from scratch.

The Best Onion Rings in Utah

We know that's a bold claim. Utah has a lot of restaurants, and some of them make very good onion rings. But we're going to say it with confidence: nobody else is slicing hundreds of pounds of fresh onions every day, making egg batter from scratch every morning, processing their own breadcrumbs from their own bread, and double-dipping every single ring by hand.

Nobody. We've checked.

And that's why, bite after bite, year after year, our onion rings keep bringing people back. Not because of marketing. Not because of some viral social media post. Because they taste different. Because when you bite through that golden, crackling exterior and hit the sweet, tender onion inside, something in your brain lights up and says, "Oh. This is what an onion ring is supposed to taste like."

Come find out for yourself. We'll be here, slicing onions, mixing batter, double-dipping rings, and doing it the hard way — because the hard way is the only way that's ever been worth doing.

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