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These pickle fries are made with only 3 ingredients (plus the pickles!) and less than 30 minutes of your time! They are light and crisp and pickle-y and oh so good! Serve them with this spiced bbq mayo and watch them disappear!
Have you ever had fried pickles? I hadn't even heard of them, let alone tried them until about 2 years ago. I found out that, apparently they're a thing. And once I had them, I understood why. I am now officially a member of the fried pickle lovers club.
We had some of our besties in town a while back and somehow we got a wild hair and decided to go on a fried pickle tour. It seems that almost every restaurant or bar in the Flathead Valley of Montana has fried pickles in some form, so we set out on a mission to find the very best ones.
After deciding on 4 different spots that we suspected could possibly hold the winners, we set out. We gorged ourselves on beer battered and breaded pickle chips and spears, and unanimously voted the winner at one of the classic bars in Whitefish. The Bulldog.
So these Panko crusted Pickle Fries are my take on the ones they serve at the Bulldog. Thin, crisp and surprisingly light! I hope you love them and appreciate the >ahem< tough research that went into creating this most delicious of pickle recipes. ๐
If you love all things pickle, check out this recipe for Dill Pickle Popcorn. It is a super quick and super light pickle flavored snack option!
Ingredients
- Dill Pickle Spears- I LOVE the fresh crunch of Grillo's, but any quality pickle spear will do!
- Flour- Just regular all purpose flour
- Egg- A couple of eggs, scrambled up to help the panko stick
- Panko- This Japanese breadcrumb creates the lightest and crispest pickle fries!
Equipment
Frying can seem intimidating. However, there are a few simple tools that will make frying a piece of cake.
- Frying Thermometer
- One very important tool for frying is a thermometer. It is important that your oil is heated to the proper temperature when you are frying. Too cool and you will end up with soggy, greasiness. Too hot and you risk burning the food before it is cooked! I know! How is that even possible? Well, just make sure you have a good thermometer and you will never have to find out! This thermometer on Amazon clips to the side of your pot. Plus, it is digital so no need to try and guess which teeny tiny line the mercury has settled on!
- Heavy Bottomed Sauce Pan
- The other must have for frying is a heavy bottomed saucepan with high sides. You want a sturdy, heavy duty pot that will be stable. High sides are nice because they give the oil plenty of room to bubble up without bubbling over. This pot includes a strainer that will make it so easy to gently drop the fries in and pull the fries out.
- Spider Strainer
- This tool will come in handy for more than you realize! In this recipe, or for frying foods in general, it is the tool that helps you fish out the food, without bringing the oil with it.
Optional Tool to Make Fry Life Easy
Trav gave me this All-Clad Fryer for Christmas (he should have given me some bigger pants along with it!). It. Is. AMAZING. It heats the oil to a consistent temperature, and then when you are done, it filters the oil for you! It really is nice, and if you like delicious fried foods, I highly suggest putting it on your wish list.
How to make Fried Pickles
Prep
- Start by measuring your 3 ingredients out onto 3 separate plates. The flour on one plate, the 2 eggs (scrambled thoroughly, not whole like in this pic) on another plate and the panko on the last plate. Have a cooling rack ready to place the finished pickles on when they are done.
2. Slice your pickle spears in thirds, the long way, so you have 3 thin pickle fries from each spear. Once they are all cut, use a paper or dish towel to dry them off.
3. Take one pickle at a time and dip it in the flour. Shake off the excess, and then dip it in the scrambled egg mixture. Finally, dredge it in the panko breadcrumbs. Gently press the breadcrumbs into the pickle so they stick and then place them on a plate or cooling rack until it is time to fry.
Frying
4. Next, fill your heavy duty pot with about 3 inches of oil and heat it on medium high heat. Use your thermometer to watch the temperature. Heat the oil until it reaches 375ยฐF.
5. Use a spider, fry basket, or your fingers to carefully place about 5-7 pickles at a time into the oil. Let them fry for about 2-3 minutes, until they become golden brown like in the picture above. This is one of those things that you can't really abandon. So, stick close and watch them fry right up! When they are nice and golden brown, TURN YOUR BURNER OFF and use a spider, or tongs to pull the pickle fries from the oil. Lay them on the cooling rack, or some paper towels to drain while you fry the rest. I emphasized turning your burner off before you pull the pickles because I am a freak and worry when I fry things. All I will say is you just don't want any oil dripping on your burner. So I suggest turning it off. Then, turn the burner back on and bring the oil back up to 375ยฐF before dropping the next batch in.
6. Once they are all fried, place them on a pretty platter and serve them with the yummy sauce. Enjoy!
Spiced BBQ Mayo Dipping Sauce
This delicious sauce is my attempt to copycat the sauce that was served with the fried pickles that we awarded, "runner up". The pickles were delicious, but the sauce was ridiculously delicious! Understandably, they wouldn't divulge their secret recipe, so I did my best to recreate it.
Spoiler alert!! Cinnamon is the secret ingredient! Sounds weird, right? But for some reason it works! Cinnamon, bbq sauce, mayo and pickle juice! Plus a little ketchup and brown sugar. It is sweet and smoky and tangy and so good with the crunch of the pickles. There is no seasoning in the pickle fry ingredients, but there is plenty of salt and dill flavor in the pickles themselves, and then this dipping sauce adds another extra flavor bomb!
I hope you love it and feel free to let me know if you would tweak it in any way. But promise me you'll give it a shot as is, first. Another option is the dipping sauce for these Grilled Artichokes with Sriracha Aioli. That would also be good.
Alternate Frying Options
Air Fry Instructions
To air fry these pickles, simply heat your air fryer to 400ยฐF. Spray the pickles with Avocado Oil, or your cooking spray of choice. Place the pickles in the fry basket so that they are not touching. Depending on the size of your air fryer, you made need to work in batches. Fry them for 4 minutes, then turn them over and continue frying for another 3 minutes until they are golden brown. Enjoy!
Oven Baking Instructions
Preheat your oven to 375ยฐF. Place your panko breaded pickles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and spray them all with Avocado oil or your preferred cooking spray. Bake for about 8 minutes and then flip each pickle and then bake for another 8 minutes or until the pickles are golden brown. Enjoy!
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I truly hope you love these pickle fries! I would love to hear from you in the comments at the bottom. Thank you and thank you for visiting Mollie in Montana~*! โฅ๏ธ
๐ Recipe
Pickle Fries with Spiced BBQ Mayo Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
Method
- Place flour, egg and panko breadcrumbs all on separate plates.
- Whisk eggs together until throroughly scrambled.
- Slice each pickle spear in half the long way, so that you have 2 thin pickle spears.
- Use a paper or dish towel to dry the pickle spears.
- One at a time, dip each pickle spear in the flour, completely coating the pickle, and then shaking any excess flour off, then dip it in the egg, and then back into the flour and egg a second time. Then dip it in the panko. Press the coating gently onto the pickle so it sticks. Then place the coated pickles on a baking sheet and let them sit while the oil heats.
- Fill a dutch oven, or heavy bottomed sauce pan with vegetable or canola oil about 3 inches deep. Attach a frying thermometer to the side of the pan. Make sure the thermometer is in the oil but not touching the bottom of the pan (touching the bottom will make the thermometer read a higher temp.)Heat oil to 375โ.
- Once the oil has heated to 375โ, use tongs or a spider to carefully place 4 or 5 pickles at a time into the oil. Carefully turn the pickles about halfway through so that each side gets evenly browned.
- Let them fry for 2-3 minutes until they are a deep golden brown.
- Once golden brown, carefully use a spider or tongs to remove the pickles from the oil and set on a cooling rack or paper towel until you are ready to serve them.
- Sprinkle them with a pinch of flaky sea salt.
- When they are all done, serve them with the dipping sauce and enjoy!
- Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl, then set it aside while you make the pickles.
- Serve it in a pretty bowl with the Pickle Fries and Enjoy!
Nutrition
Notes
Notes:
- Before you remove the pickles from the hot oil, turn your burner off. This is especially important if you have a gas range! You don't want a bit of oil to drop onto the burner. As always in frying, have baking soda or a fire extinguisher handy. I don't mean to scare you, but safety first! ๐
- You can use pickle chips in place of the spears if you would rather have fried pickle chips than pickle fries.ย
Air Fryer Instructions
You can make these in the air fryer if you prefer. In this case, just dip the pickles in the flour and egg once instead of twice, and then spray the coated pickles with avocado spray before frying them in the air fryer. Fry them for 4 minutes on 400ยฐF and then flip the pickles and fry for 4 more minutes until golden brown.Oven Instructions
Preheat oven 375ยฐF. Follow the same instructions for breading, then place pickles on a parchment lined baking sheet. Spray them with Avocado oil or your cooking spray of choice. Bake them for 8 minutes, then flip the pickles and return them to the oven for 6-8 minutes until golden brown. Serve and enjoy!Tried this recipe?
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