The South Dakota Cowgirl

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Fried Pickles

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Homemade fried pickles!

Yesterday I posted on Facebook that I was making fried pickles. It didn’t take long to fill the page with comments and requests for the recipe. And since I aim to please, I figured, what the fey! It won’t take any time at all to type it out, because, it’s THAT easy!

What you’ll need:

About 2 cups of dill pickle slices. Vlasic is my pickle of choice for this project. I think they hold up the best.

1 cup of buttermilk
1 cup flour
1 cup corn meal
1/2 Tbs Season salt
Vegetable oil for frying (but don’t ask me how much- Okay?)

Now, there’s a couple ways you can tackle this project. You can drain your pickles by hand before adding them to the buttermilk, or you can put all the pickles in a colander and drain them that way. Either way works. I typically just pull them out of the jar with a fork- let some juice drip off and set them in the buttermilk mixture for about 10 minutes. Now, not all 2 cups of pickles will fit into 1 cup of buttermilk quite right, so I typically work in smaller batches for that reason, and because I don’t have a pan big enough to fry 2 cups of pickles at once.

While your pickles are soaking, mix the flour and corn meal together with the season salt. I like to use a whisk for that job because I think it does it best. Also, it’s a good idea to heat your oil. I’d say somewhere around 350 degrees will get ‘er done. Also, I don’t deep fry my pickles- they’re pan fried in my trusty cast-iron skillet. You want enough oil in the pan to cover the bottom and go about 1/2 way up the side. Remember as your oil gets hot it will get thinner, so take that into account.

Once your pickles are good and soaked, use a fork to remove them, one at a time, from the buttermilk recipe into the flour/cornmeal mixture. I like to put my breading into a pie pan, because it makes it easiest to batter the pickles.

Bread each pickle, place into the oil and cook for about 2 minutes total- or until they are golden brown. You’ll probably want to turn them at least once. Remove from the oil and set onto a plate covered in paper towels so the remaining oil can be drained.

Let them cool and then enjoy them plain or with some ranch dressing. Either way works for me!

Happy Trails and Happy Cooking!

About ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Jenn Zeller is the creative mind and boss lady behind The South Dakota Cowgirl. She is an aspiring horsewoman, photographer, brilliant social media strategist and lover of all things western.

After a brief career in the investment world to support her horse habit (and satisfy her mother, who told her she had to have a “real” job after graduating college), she finally took the leap and stepped away from a regular income; trading the business suit once and for all for cowgirl boots, a hat, and jeans. She has not looked back.

When Jenn first moved to The DX Ranch on the South Dakota plains, she never imagined she’d find herself behind a camera lens capturing an authentic perspective of ranching, and sharing it with others. Jenn has always been called to artistry, and uses music, writing, images, home improvement, and her first true love of horses to express her ranching passion.

Horses are the constant thread and much of her work centers around using her unique style of writing to share her horsemanship journey with others in publications such as CavvySavvy, the AQHA Ranching Blog, the West River Eagle, the family ranch website, and her own website.

Using photography to illustrate her stories has created other opportunities -- Jenn’s brand “The South Dakota Cowgirl” has grown to the level of social media “Influencer”. This notoriety has led to work with Duluth Trading Company, Budweiser, Wyoming Tourism, Vice, Circle Z Ranch and Art of the Cowgirl, to name a few. She also serves as a brand ambassador for Woodchuck USA, Arenus Equine Health, Triple Crown Feed and Just Strong fitness apparel. Her photography has been featured by Instagram, Apple, TIME Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Oprah Magazine. Jenn’s work has been published internationally, has been seen in several books and has graced the covers of several magazines.

Jenn became a social media influencer by accident when she started to explore Instagram as a way to share her life on the ranch with folks that don’t get to experience it. It’s grown into an incredible platform that she uses to empower women, create an environment for self improvement and share life on the ranch.

When she’s not working, she loves to drink coffee, play with her naughty border collie named Copper, start ranch colts, and run about the country chasing cans. Her mother still thinks she doesn’t have a “real” job.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Pseudo says

    I’ve always wanted to try these.

    You should link thsi post to Sprite Keeper’s spin cycle this week – it’s all about food.

    Reply

  4. Sprite's Keeper says

    Oh, I just want to snatch these off the page, they look so good! You also make it look so easy. I would probably screw it up royally, but I have all the ingredients in the house right now, it wouldn’t hurt to try??
    You’re linked!

    Reply

  8. Michele says

    I love me some fried pickles. Best place I’ve ever had them was in Nashville. Second best was Naches, Mississippi. But, they must be dill pickle chips! Spears are just Yankee knock offs.

    Great spin! Now, I have to try these at home.

    Reply

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