Another dive bar staple – the fried pickle.
This recipe spices up the traditional battered and breaded fried pickle, adding some Cajun heat and hot sauce, along with a spicy cajun-dipping sauce. The only thing that’s missing is an ice-cold beer.
I went with whole slices of dill, but you can tweak the recipe to use sandwich-style slices or dill pickle chips. Whatever tickles your pickle.
Time You Need
- ~5-10 minutes prep
- ~10 minutes frying
- Yields: 10-12 fried pickles
What You Need
- For the pickles:
- ~2 cups of vegetable or canola oil (for frying)
- 10-12 dill pickles (pat them dry with a paper towel, like really dry, otherwise you’ll have trouble getting the batter/breadcrumbs to stick).
- ~2 cups of panko breadcrumbs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk
- 1 ½ tbsp Cajun seasoning
- 1 tbsp hot sauce, like Franks Red Hots
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- Salt, to taste
- 1 tsp black pepper
- For the dipping sauce:
- ½ cup of sour cream
- ~2 tbsp mayo
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- ~3 tbsp frank’s red hots, or similar sauce
- 1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
What You Do
- In a cast-iron skillet, preheat oil to around 350 over medium heat. Do the popcorn test thingy to tell if it’s hot enough.
- In a bowl, add flour, baking powder, seasonings, and hot sauce. Then whisk in egg and milk.
- Pat pickles dry with a paper towel, then working in batches, dunk pickles in batter.
- Pour panko crumbs in a plastic gallon-sized bag. Add pickles ~2-3 at a time, and shake to coat pickles.
- Fry pickles in batches for 3-4 minutes at a time, until golden brown and crispy.
- Serve with dipping sauce.
- For the dipping sauce:
- Combine all ingredients into a bowl. Whisk together until blended smoothly.