The Secret Ingredient Sonic Uses In Its Onion Rings

Sonic is an American institution. Since its inception in the 1950s, the brand has mushroomed into a name to reckon with thousands of outlets in the U.S. (via The Daily Meal.) The brand prides itself on its menu, and has come up with new innovations over the years, such as the blended burger in collaboration with the Mushroom Council in a bid to offer something different to its patrons. 

The brand's CEO, Cliff Hudson, is a big fan of Sonic's onion rings as well as its signature slinger. As per Thrillist, some of the best options you can go for at the restaurant include its chili cheese tots and the SuperSONIC Bacon Double Cheeseburger. By the way, its onion rings also come in highly recommended. On a Reddit thread about the best onion rings from fast food outlets, a Sonic fan wrote, "Sonic actually hand batters their onion rings every day. [I don't know] if anyone else does, but these are my favorite."

According to an former Sonic employee, they spruce up their onion rings with a bit of vanilla ice cream. Surprising, eh? The former Sonic staffer wrote on the Copykat blog, "I worked at Sonic as a teenager and had to help make the Sonic onion rings  every day ... the secret is using vanilla ice milk mix, but using melted vanilla ice cream works just as well." In case you'e ever tried the brand's onion rings and wondered what makes them sweet, you now know why.

Other ingredients in the recipe include Spanish onions, flour, cornmeal, oil, and water. According to a commentator on the blog, the original Sonic onion rings did not have ice cream mixed into the recipe. They wrote, "The menu was a simple menu to prepare, unlike what it is today. The original batter was made with a condensed milk called Milnot and not ice cream mix as earlier stated." Still — dairy products and onions. Who'd have thought?