Fried pickles with homemade Ranch sauce

Easy and indulgent, fried pickles with ranch sauce will forever change the way you snack. 

By Erin

Earlier this week I posted a picture on The Wine Sisters’ Instagram showing how I made fried pickles. Y’all. Lost. Your. Minds.

Recipe requests with drooly-face emojis filled my inbox. So, I thought it would be easiest (as y’all know I am lazy) and most efficient to create a blog for those inquiring minds and stomachs.

A caveat: I am the type of cook who eyeballs most things and doesn’t get too hung up on missing ingredients. This is also why I’m not a baker. Precision is not my strength. The recipe for the Ranch dressing I never measure – literally I use scoops of this and pinches of that, and taste along the way. There will be more here than you will likely use for the dip, so of course, it’s easily repurpose for salads or just eating with a spoon.

The pickle portion, well that’s hard to mess up, but I do use a candy thermometer and large sauce pot for the hot oil as that does have an element of danger to it. You don’t want to burn your pickle, after all.

Fried Pickles

Serves: 6-8 for a filling snack

Special equipment: candy thermometer, spider skimmer or perforated scoop, 2 baking sheets, 1 lined with paper towel

Ingredients

• 1 litre jar of pickles, drained and sliced into baby-finger width rounds
• 3 cups canola oil, for frying
• 2 cups flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 cup buttermilk
• Hot sauce
• 2 cups panko (or your preferred breadcrumb)

How you do it

1. Slice the pickles and let drain on paper towel
2. Mix the flour with the S+P in a shallow bowl
3. In a second shallow bowl pour in the buttermilk and add a few dashes of hot sauce
4. In a third bowl pour the panko or breadcrumbs
5. Submerge pickles slices in the flour, shake off excess.
6. Quickly dip in the buttermilk (don’t let them float in there) and let the excess drip off
7. Now place pickles in panko, covering to form a crust.
8. Shake off excess and put on clean, unlined, baking sheet ready to bring to the fryer
9. In a large pot pour in the canola oil. The pot should be large enough to only let the oil come up 2-3 inches.
10. Using your candy thermometer, heat the oil to 375 – note, unlike potatoes, pickles don’t seem to bring the temperature down so no need to heat over 375.
11. Using your spider, take a handful of pickles and carefully lower the spider into the oil, dispersing pickles evenly. Fry the pickles for a minute or so until golden. For the amount of pickles here, this will probably take about 6-8 batches.
12. Remove the cooked pickles from the oil and place on a paper-towel lined baking sheet to absorb excess oil.
13. Keep repeating this process until all pickles have been fried.
14. Serve warm with homemade Ranch dressing.

Ranch Dressing

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• ½ cup buttermilk
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder (or to taste)
• 1 Tbsp onion salt (or to taste)
• ¼ cup roughly chopped fresh dill
• ¼ cup diced fresh chives
• Few shakes of Worcestershire
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice

How you do it:

1. Combine everything in a bowl, adjusting seasonings as you go to your taste.
2. Chill until ready to use.

I served a crisp, dry rosé with this snack but you could equally find pairing success with Sauvignon Blanc, brut sparkling wine, or even a simple lager.

Care to learn more about food and wine pairings? Conveniently we have a tasting that teaches you the fundamentals!