For the second fried onion experiment, I dabbled in a little potato starch, a potato starch/baking soda mix, and used coconut oil as a frying medium.

Also Texas sweet yellow onions and a batch of pre-cooked chicken gizzards would be objects to be dredged, egg-washed and fried up for testing.

Results: potato starch = bad for solo coating. It was clear that as soon as the potato-coated onion ring hit the oil that it wasn’t going to develop the crisp exterior that I aimed for. The potato simply began to flake away, almost like pastry bits, and never formed the crunchy shell I hoped for.

The potato starch/baking soda mix also had no effect on the final fried onion, neither puffy or crisp as I had predicted. Because of this, I relegated the potato starch as the first dredge in a 3-step process, with tapioca starch becoming the final dredge prior to the hot oil drop.

The outcome was similar to last week’s experiment with deep frying with tapioca starch, with onions and gizzards emerging from frying with light and crisp coatings. My only complaint was that the onions weren’t sharp enough for my liking.