Easily Improve A Classic Burger With Some Crunchy French Fried Onions

You can't go wrong with a griddled or grilled burger topped with lettuce, tomato, raw onion, and cheese. These are pretty standard burger toppings, but if you ever feel like branching out, there are many ways to spice up a regular burger, including a unique topping that may be buried in the back of your pantry from Thanksgiving. If you have a can of fried onions lying around, it may be time to dust them off and pop a handful on top of your burger.

For those unfamiliar, french-fried onions are crispy, salty, battered onions that pack a punch when it comes to flavor. An essential garnish for green bean casserole, they are fried just enough to turn the onions into tiny, crunchy bits, making them ideal as a burger topping. Not only will they add a slightly sweet and salty onion flavor, but the crunch will also lend your ground beef sandwich some unexpected texture. Sure, a classic burger doesn't necessarily need too many frills, but on days when you'd like to walk on the wild side, crispy fried onions will help you do just that.

Buying a can of these onions at the grocery store likely won't cost more than a few bucks, and luckily, the cost of making them yourself is also very low. All you need are onions, flour, buttermilk, your choice of seasonings, and oil for frying.

Slice your onions super thin (small yellow onions are a great choice) and soak them in buttermilk for up to 30 minutes to help reduce their astringent bite. If you don't have buttermilk on hand, submerging your onions in a solution of baking soda and water will achieve similar results. While the onions are soaking, mix the seasonings into the flour. A hefty amount of salt and pepper works just fine, but you can also experiment with other seasonings depending on your burger. Chile powder would be fantastic for an extra kick of heat; Old Bay fried onions would go great on a seafood or surf-and-turf burger; or you could simply add onion and garlic powder to accentuate the allium flavor even more.

After the onions have soaked, drain out the buttermilk (or rinse the baking soda solution off) and coat them in the flour mixture, then carefully add the onions to hot oil. Fry until golden brown and pat them dry with a paper towel. Frying shouldn't take more than two to three minutes, so keep an eye on them to prevent burning.

Adding french-fried onions to your list of classic burger toppings is a great way to try something unexpected, but the topping goes well with more than just lettuce and tomato. Fried onions would be a fantastic addition to a barbecue cheeseburger; just top it with a generous helping of barbecue sauce, coleslaw, and crispy fried onions.

Opting for blue cheese instead of cheddar or American is another tasty twist, as the saltiness from the fried onions will pair especially well with the pungent tang of blue cheese. Top your blue cheese and fried onion burger with arugula for a peppery, vegetal bite.

Finally, these salty morsels are great sprinkled over mac and cheese, so why not put both on a burger? Go big or go home, as they say, and a scoop of mac and cheese on top of a burger, followed by a handful of fried onions, is undoubtedly the move if you're going for decadence.

It should also be mentioned that these toppings are vegetarian and would go wonderfully on a veggie burger. And while store-bought versions of these onions aren't gluten-free, using gluten-free flour at home will make them a topping that anyone can enjoy. No one should be left out of the joy these tiny bites of salt and crispy batter bring to a burger.