The Onion Powder Swap For Fried Chicken With A Punchier Bite

For some home cooks, the pursuit of the perfect fried chicken recipe is an ongoing journey, producing remarkable discoveries around every corner. People take many different approaches to boosting the flavor, like swapping egg wash for Dijon mustard, which meshes well with savory garlic and pungent onion powder. Others focus on improving the texture by mixing saltine crackers into their dredge for a unique crust. But why not elevate the zesty depth that onion powder provides while simultaneously upgrading the texture? Katie Vine, the culinary mind behind Dinners Done Quick, says you can accomplish that by swapping out onion powder for crispy fried onions in your recipe.

"It adds texture, color, and honestly, more intense onion flavoring," she says. "The thing is, fried onions are already seasoned and fried themselves, so adding them in [brings] all that flavor and caramelization to your dredge." 

Bear in mind that fried onions can only grant an extra layer of crunch to the dish if they remain crispy before frying them. "Moisture is the enemy of a fried food being crispy, so never add them into your wet dredge if you want them to stay crispy," explains Vine. Instead, you can pulse them in a food processor and combine them with the dredge's dry ingredients, such as flour and breadcrumbs. "This means they get exposure to the hot oil, which helps them re-crisp," she states.

When added to the dry ingredients, you get the most out of the crispy onions in terms of texture and taste. "It gives you a lot more flavor than just the humble onion powder," says Vine. That brings a welcome mix of sweet and savory to the dish, but it also requires some retooling of your dredge recipe to ensure that the crispy onions aren't working against you.

There is one hitch to using crispy onions to enhance fried chicken. While they impart dynamic flavor to the dish, they can also make it taste too salty. Unless you make your own crispy onions in the microwave, Katie Vine says that the best way to balance the salinity is to adjust the amount of salt you add to the dredge. "I'd actually reduce salt overall, as the onions are usually salty (at least store-bought ones are)," she shares. "I still salt the chicken itself and the wet (like buttermilk), but forego adding extra salt to my dry dredge."

Of course, it takes more than just onion flavor to produce out-of-this-world fried chicken. Vine suggests also including some staple seasonings to elevate the dish. "Other good seasoning pairings would be garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, or cayenne pepper if you want a little heat; they all play nicely with fried onion flavor," she says. Oregano, basil, dry mustard, and ground ginger would also get along with those mentioned by Vine.

Once she's added her seasonings, Vine doesn't stop incorporating flavor into her fried chicken. She takes her recipe to the next level with a burst of acidity to give it a zesty finish. As she tells The Takeout, "Lemon can be a good choice too if you want to add a little pop of freshness, whether it's a lemon pepper sauce (think fried wings), or even just a squeeze over top before serving (like you would with fried fish)!"