Baked Sriracha-Brown Sugar Glazed Bacon-Wrapped Onion Rings

These have been making the blogging circuit for awhile now.

• Ready In: 50 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 2  large  vidalia onions, peels and cut into 1/2 inch rings (do not separate rings)
• 3  tablespoons  sriracha  garlic sauce
• 1 1⁄2 cups light brown sugar
• 16  slices bacon (thinnest cut you can find, which is usually the cheapest)
•  wooden skewer (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F, rack in the middle. Line a baking sheet with foil and place a cooling rack on top. Lightly spray the cooling rack.
2. Place the brown sugar in a pie tin.
3. Place the Sriracha in a bowl.
4. Gently separate the onion rings leaving 2 rings together (you want to double up on the onions when you wrap them). For this dish you want the larger rings. The smaller, inner rings you can set aside and use in another dish.
5. Take 2 strips of bacon and coat each side with brown sugar (doesn’t have to be caked on but coated evenly).
6. If your hands are sensitive, put on plastic gloves and using a pastry brush or rubber tipped brush, baste the Sriracha on all sides of the onion rings (leaving the 2 together).
7. Starting at one end of the bacon, snuggly but gently wrap the bacon around the onion ring slightly overlapping itself. You should be able to get half way around (again, depends on how big your rings are).
8. Take the second piece of bacon and place one end over top of the previous piece of bacon (where you left off) and continue wrapping until you have completely wrapped the onion ring in bacon. If you wish at this point you can skewer the bacon in place.
9. Place end side down on the rack and continue wrapping the rest of the rings. For the smaller rings use 1 1/2 slices of bacon. You really don’t want to overload this with bacon as you want the bacon to cook evenly.
10. Once all the rings are wrapped, place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Using tongs GENTLY flip over.
11. Cook for another 15-20 minutes. The last 3 minutes the rings may be broiled for a charred appearance.
12. Remove from the oven and immediately plate. They will be soft so be careful but the bacon will crisp up and they will become crispy and crunchy.
13. Side note: To help with cleanup, have a sink of hot soapy water ready that you can immediately put your cooling rack inches Don’t let this stuff dry on the rack as it’s a pain to get off. Soaking it for 15 minutes will take it off really easily.