Ever had a Texas Toothpick? They are so good! Often we order them as an appetizer or as our main meal if it is just Top Girl and me. Generally they have something that looks and tastes like tempura batter on it and taste so scrumptious that sometimes we sit eating them until the entire basket is gone – I know……..we are pigs. They are mostly served with Ranch dressing but you can eat them with anything or nothing at all. I kept trying to get a picture of an entire pile of the rings and toothpicks together but Mr. Picky Eater and Son-in-law kept snatching them away from the plate and eating them so it was of no use to get any better picture than I got. Just know they are great! Also, after they finally began eating, I quickly fried up some more and then put them in the fridge. Two days later, I pulled them out and put them on a baking sheet in the oven at 350F for 10 minutes and they were as crisp as the first day I made them – so leftovers were fantastic!
You will need to slice two onions (I used Vidalia onions) about 1” thickness.
10 or 15 Jalapenos should be seeded with the vein taken out as well as slice in small “sticks”.
Rings and Toothpicks
You will need:
2 Cups Buttermilk
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour, Divided
1 Cup Beer or Seltzer
2 Eggs beaten
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional – I put it in and loved it!)
Oil for frying
Directions:
Put the onion rings and jalapeno toothpicks in a Pyrex dish then cover with the 2 cups of buttermilk then cover with plastic wrap and set in fridge for about 2 hours.
After a few hours in the fridge, take them out and mix up all the ingredients listed above except for 1 Cup flour and the vegetable oil.
Put the 1 Cup flour in a dish.
Put oil in a pot and turn it on medium high heat.
Mix all other ingredients in another dish.
It should be a rather thick batter so take the jalapeno sticks and the onion rings and dredge them through the batter covering all parts.
Remove a few rings and toothpicks from the buttermilk, dredge in the flour and then in the batter.
In a pot of hot oil (350F), drop several rings and or sticks in and let them cook until golden on one side and then flip to cook to golden on the other.
Do not crowd or let them touch because they will stick to each other. They still taste great but they can become very large pieces!
Let them drain on paper towels and then start again until they are all fried.
These are great with steak or with BBQ Pork Chops like this one in the picture (recipe coming) or……. just by themselves.
I want some so badly; just talking about them makes my mouth water! Just so you know, the Texas Toothpicks are warm, but not hot because the seeds and veins are gone and that’s what makes peppers so hot anyway!
I am trying to figure out what to do with the one cup of flour that is separate from the rest of the recipe. Do I dip the onion rings that have been soaking in buttermilk in it first and then the batter or after the batter? It kind of makes sense to do first, but just want to get it right. Looks amazing and I want to try this asap.
Thanks!
Thank you Georgina – I updated the directions to make them more clear. You take out of the buttermilk, then dredge in the flour, then into the batter and finally into the pot of oil! I appreciate you catching that – sometimes I get in a hurry and forget something!
yum! That’s awesome to share the batter so now I could cook something like that at home. Thanks!
You are more than welcome – the batter just makes it the best!!
I’ve never heard of these but they sound wonderful and not that hard to make (except maybe seeding the peppers).
Lillian
You are right – seeding the peppers wasn’t much fun but worth it in the end!
The 1 cup flour put in a bowl next to the batter mixture, do you dredge the buttermilk soaked onions/peppers in the flour and then the batter, and then fry? These look amazing!
Yes, I re-wrote the instructions and I think I made them a bit more clear – out of buttermilk, into flour, into batter, into pot of oil! Thank you for the compliment – they were!!
OMG those look so great!!! I will have to try it!
You will love them!
Your onions do not look like they are 1″ thick, but whatever size they really are, they look absolutely wonderful and we will be having these soon! Thanks so much!
Believe it or not, i have never even heard of Texas toothpicks. These look delicious and I will try them as soon as the peppers start popping in the garden. Thanks, Kelli. Learned something new today!
I’m very glad! They are fantastic – I think you used to be able to get them at Santa Fe Steak House. There may still be one in Glenpool, but I know they have them at Texas Roadhouses – you will love them!
Whoa, I would be snatching these off the platter, too!!! What an irresistible treat!
Thank you very much – they were great!
These look amazing! The men in my family would LOVE to live at your house. They would be in heaven. If we lived closer to each other, I’m sure they would just hang out on your front porch with their cute looks, hoping to be invited in for dinner. Another winner, Kelli!
Ah Beth, you make me smile – but since my cute boys hang out on the front porch – yours would fit right in and of course all be invited to eat! 🙂 You could come too and teach me how to sew!
Kelli, no, I’ve never heard of a Texas toothpick, but I want some now! Your rings look perfect, too. I’ll take this recipe over to my bff’s house — I do all my deep-frying over there, don’t want to mess up My kitchen!
They will get great and your BFF will love you forever! 🙂
OMG onion rings are my absolute weakness, need to try this 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
You will love it!!
Never had the toothpicks, cool idea! I love onion rings, a big weakness I have, just can stop!
They look good – unfortunately, I don’t think I can eat them … peppers and onions sometimes do nasty things inside my tummy.
I also wanted to make a general comment about your blog. I really have enjoyed it so much more since you changed its name. It feels like you also changed the gasic content and it is a much nicer blog to read. Thanks.
BASIC, not gasic. Gotta learn to proofread BEFORE I hit enter.
I understand that tummy troubles! Thank you for the compliments about the blog – the change happened so slowly, I almost didn’t notice myself! When I changed the blog to self-hosted in early December, I began trying very hard to take better photographs and also to stick to the kinds of recipes I and the people I know would want to make – mostly easy with a few complicated ones here and that that tasted amazing enough to bother with a bunch of steps. I decided if I was going to pay about $1,000 per year minimum, I wanted to enjoy the blog myself instead of what I thought everyone else would want. Thanks!
Ooooooh Kelli, deep fried foods are a weakness of mine and I would gobble these up in no time flat! Hell, just put ’em straight from the oil right into my mouth (third degree burns be damned 😉 These onion rings and Texan toothpicks look incredible!
That’s what I was telling the boys! No time passed from me setting them on the paper towels until they were trying to grab them to put in their mouths – what the heck?!? I told them they were going to end up with Pizza Mouth (you know where you eat pizza is too hot and the cheese burns the roof of your mouth? You’ll end up with that too! 🙂
How have I never heard of Texas toothpicks? Seriously! They sound wonderful and my mouth is watering too!
I am very surprised! Next time you are home – check out the appetizers at your favorite steak house or chop house and see if they don’t have them. Bet they do!
Thanks for this recipe.
these are great.you can also get them at dairy queen,they are called jaletos there.
I love Dairy Queen! We only have 2 in my area and one of those is 50 miles away. Thanks for stopping by and please come back!
I use to order these at a little bar we have here in Belt, MT. I’m sure they got them from a supplier but never found out which one!
After making hot pickles I have 2 jalapeños left over and thought I could see if there was a recipe on the internet and found yours!
I will be trying it tonight.
Thanks
They also had the onions sliced lengthwise just like the peppers!
Great! Let us know what you think — we love them!