The Special Ingredient That Makes Jack In The Box's Onion Rings Crispier Than Everyone Else's

An onion ring should be light, tender, but most importantly, golden brown and incredibly crispy. While there are plenty of secret ingredients to make the tastiest onion rings, it seems like Jack In The Box takes an approach to onion rings that's uncommon in the wide world of fast food. Rather than just battering or using regular breadcrumbs to coat onions before deep frying, Jack In The Box uses a Japanese-style breadcrumb that's beloved by chefs and home cooks alike: panko breadcrumbs. 

Many fast-food onion rings are dipped in a batter, which is a classic way to make onion rings. Burger King, for example, doesn't even use whole slices of onions in its onion rings, but rather a batter that's filled with minced onions, while Whataburger's and Carl's Jr.'s onions are battered and fried. Those fast-food spots that do dip the battered onion rings in a mixture post-battering are usually using a more traditional breading, giving them a more uniform texture and appearance that's still crunchy and crispy but homogenous. 

What Jack In The Box does differently from other fast-food restaurants is swap the fine bread crumbs for panko bread crumbs, which are lighter, airier, and crispier than most other types of breadcrumbs. Panko bread crumbs are usually larger in size, which allows more surface area for crisping as well as leaves a lighter feel due to the space in between each crumb, as opposed to fine breadcrumbs which can adhere together and become thick and homogenous. 

Along with regular bleached wheat flour and modified corn starch, Jack In The Box's onion ring batter also includes corn flour, which helps to create a thicker and slightly more dense batter that's well-hydrated before any onion slices take a swim in the batter. Due to the larger size of the individual panko breadcrumbs, the exterior of the Jack In The Box onion rings has more texture and cragginess, perfect for picking up more sauce as they're swiped through ketchup, ranch, or any other sauce. 

A review at TheImpulsiveBuy refers to the panko coating as "wonderfully crispy," and says that "with every chew [of the onion rings] it's as if a staticky television is going off in my head," because of the extreme crunch factor on the rings' exterior. One Redditor at r/fastfood calls the Jack In the Box onion rings "really good," adding that they're "crispy, with a sweet but not overpowering onion flavor." The next time you swing by a Jack In The Box, make sure to order some of our highest-ranked Jack In The Box sauces to pair with your thick, crispy panko onion rings.