The Tony Roma’s train keeps rolling today. Yesterday’s Cole Slaw post was one part of this delicious summer BBQ meal! Today we continue with a delicious side/appetizer called an Onion Loaf. These days they make the loaf in the shape of a mini bundt pan, but the onion loaf of my childhood was this amazing towering loaf. You could order a half or full order (we always ordered the full size) and it would show up at your table, no less than a foot high, crispy sweet and savory with a large bowl of bbq sauce for dipping. Pay no attention to the calorie count of this dish. If you are working towards getting ready for bathing suit season, this is not the recipe for you. If you are looking for a finger licking good, sticky, salty, sweet fried onion ring….this is your lucky day!
The best part is that the recipe is so easy! The steps are uncomplicated and in the end you’re left with a great bbq side! To get started, slice the onions into rings. You’re looking for somewhere between 1/4 and a 1/2 inch thick.
Combine milk, eggs and salt in mixing bowl. Soak onion rings in mixture for 30 minutes to an hour. The longer, the more tender. Heat oil for frying in skillet to 375 degrees F.
Remove onion rings from milk mixture, coat with pancake mix. You can use a bowl or a plastic bag that you can shake up.
Tap excess pancake mix off onions. Make sure your oil is ready to fry. This is not ready…
Still not ready…
Almost….
Annnnnnd ready! 
Fry rings until golden brown.
Drain fried onion rings on paper towels.
Pack fried onion rings solidly, but loosely, without pressing, into 8 x 4-inch loaf pan.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes.
Garnish with parsley and serve with BBQ sauce. Heck, serve with Cole Slaw and BBQ Chicken while you’re at it!
Enjoy!
Tony Roma's Inspired Crispy Vidalia Sweet Onion Loaf with Original BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 medium Vidalia onions
- 1 cup milk , whole or 2%
- 3 eggs , beaten
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups pancake mix
- canola oil , for frying
- parsley , for garnish
- Tony Roma's BBQ Sauce
Instructions
- Slice onions crosswise and separate into rings. You're looking for somewhere between 1/4 and a 1/2 inch thick.
- Combine milk, eggs and salt in mixing bowl.
Soak onion rings in mixture for 30 minutes to an hour. The longer, the more tender.
- Heat oil for frying in skillet to 375 degrees F.
- Remove onion rings from milk mixture, coat with pancake mix. You can use a bowl or a plastic bag that you can shake up.
- Tap excess pancake mix off onions.
- Fry rings until golden brown.
- Drain fried onion rings on paper towels.
- Pack fried onion rings solidly, but loosely, without pressing, into 8 x 4-inch loaf pan.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Garnish with parsley and serve with BBQ sauce.
Recipe Notes
Adapted from: LA Times SOS Kitchen from 1995
Use open pit BBQ sauce for this. Had this it at Tony Roma’s and a few other places that had it. Open Pit was awesome.
I’ve never been to Tony Roma’s , nor had their onion loaf, but the recipe looks delicious and we love onion rings with bbq. Just some questions: What is the purpose of packing them in a loaf pan and baking them? Why not just put them in a bowl loose? How do you serve it? Slice it per serving or pull it apart with a fork at the table? It says yield 6. Is that really enough for 6 people? Thanks, I can’t wait to try it!
The presentation is just great and makes it fun to pull apart and dip as an appetizer. I hope you decide to give it a try.
I have always wanted to make an onion loaf like Bobby Rubino’s or Tony Roma’s. Didn’t know it was this easy. I remember the onions being very thin and packed into a loaf shape. Do the onions get thinner when fried? I thought you would have to slice them thinner. I am definitely going to try this since I’m home a lot during this whole virus thing.
Hey, they’re still going strong! (Even sells three kinds of BBQ sauce!)
Boy………ya’know what would be good with this article?
ANSWER: the BBQ sauce recipe.
I’m sure it’s here somewhere, I can’t find it from drooling all over my keyboard.
Sadly, wipe your drool because I’ve just been buying mine off of Amazon.
I love Onion Loaf!!! I’m pretty sure the small Hackney’s chain in IL has been making Onion Loaf since 1958 and I think they are the original creators. Thanks for the recipe I’d never tought of using pancake mix great tip.
You’re welcome!
Finally, someone else who remembers Tony Roma’s awesome Onion Ring Loaf! Used to eat these as a kid in Palm Springs. My folks would take us there once a year for a vacation.
Tona Roma’s was always the highlight of the trip, where our family of 5 would fight over that full-size loaf.
Can’t wait to give this recipe a try! 🙂
I hope you enjoy it!
You Yanks and you bizarre dishes,
I had an onion loaf on an old tug boat that was used as a restaurant in Swansea UK about 30 years ago and have been looking for a recipe ever since! I came across this one by chance and can’t wait to try it!
I hope you enjoy it! Please come back and let me know how it turns out for you!
I made this recipe last night and while the onion loaf was delicious, the onions lost all crispiness while baking. Don’t know what I could have done differently.
Did you overpack it? Were the onions crispy before they went in? I find if I overpack it and make it too tight, it sort of steams in the pan. Would love to troubleshoot more if you would like, email me at sabrina @ dinnerthendesser.com 🙂
I made these for my family the other night, and my oldest keeps begging me to make more! He says on a scale of 1-10 they are like an 11! LOL
LOVE THIS!