Michael's Onion Rings...recipe

Michael has always been my aspiring chef. This past Friday he came home dreaming of Onion Rings. I had already planned dinner, BBQ chicken Po'Boys, but onion rings would fit right in. He Googled onion ring recipes and found a good one, to which we modified it. Here's the revised one. :)

Onion Rings

Ingredients
makes 3+ servings
1 large onion, cut into 1/4-inch slices (very important to not get thicker slices than this)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp seasoned salt (we used Tastefully Simple's version)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper (we used Watkins' brand)
1 egg
1 cup milk, or as needed
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs (we needed a lot more than this, so plan on probably about 2 cups) We used Panko bread crumbs.
kosher salt to taste
1 quart oil for frying, or as needed (we used lard)

Directions
1.Heat the oil in a deep-fryer (we used our enameled, cast iron dutch oven with a thermometer) to 365 degrees F .

2.Separate the onion slices into rings, and set aside.

3.In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt, garlic powder, seasoned salt & pepper.

4.Dip the onion slices into the flour mixture until they are all coated; set aside.

5.Whisk the egg and milk together, then into the flour mixture using a fork.

6. Dip the floured rings into the batter to coat, then place on a wire rack to drain until the batter stops dripping. The wire rack may be placed over a sheet of aluminum foil for easier clean up (we just let them drip dry a few seconds from tongs instead).

7. Spread the bread crumbs out on a plate or shallow dish. Place rings one at a time into the crumbs, and scoop the crumbs up over the ring to coat. Give it a hard tap as you remove it from the crumbs. The coating should cling very well. Repeat with remaining rings.

8.Deep fry the rings a few at a time for 2 to 3 minutes, or until deep golden brown. Remove to paper towels to drain. Season with kosher salt, and serve. If your rings are not deep golden in all spots your onions will not be cooked through, so check each ring carefully. Also watch your oil temp, if it's not getting back up to temp between batches, your onion rings will not cook properly.

We kept our onion rings warmed on a big cookie sheet in a 200*F oven until all the batches were finished. We got about 6 servings out of one good-sized yellow onion.