There’s no shame in using store-bought crispy fried onions as a topping for your casserole. They have an excellent taste, appetizing color, and delicious texture. Nevertheless, to impress your guests and take your green bean casserole up a notch, consider making homemade fried onions. It’s more straightforward to make the topping homemade than you might think, and when you make it with fresh onions, it has a more complex flavor profile. There are a couple of ways you can do this.

The easiest way is to thinly slice your onion into rings, then dunk the rings into soy flour, or another type of flour you prefer. Working in batches, you can fry the onions in canola oil. Another option is to season the flour with ingredients like cayenne, smoked paprika, white pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, or salt. You can dip them in buttermilk first, which helps the flour stick. Either way, if you have a mandolin slicer, this is a perfect opportunity to put it to use. The onion slices shouldn’t be too thick. Otherwise, you won’t have green bean casserole with crispy onions, instead ending up with thicker and less crunchy onion pieces.