Southern Fried Pickles with Ranch Dip
Crispy, tangy dill pickle spears with a crunchy cornmeal coating, served with cool ranch dipping sauce.
- Prep
- 15min
- Cook
- 15min
- Total
- 30min
- Serves
- 4
- Calories
- 680per serving, est.
By Time for Burgers, updated
Pickles are wet, and moisture is what makes a coating slide off in one piece. That is why the spears get patted completely dry first, then go through buttermilk and the seasoned flour and cornmeal mix twice. The double coat builds a thick shell that grips the pickle.
Cornmeal gives a gritty crunch that plain flour can't, and the cayenne in the dredge makes the cool ranch feel necessary rather than optional. Fry at 375°F (190°C) in small batches, salt the spears the second they leave the oil, and serve within minutes.
Southern Fried Pickles with Ranch Dip
Prep 15 min, cook 15 min, total 30 min. About 680 calories per serving.
timeforburgers.com/recipes/southern-fried-pickles-ranch-dip
Serves 4.
Ingredients
Instructions
Tap a step to keep your place.
Pat 1 lb pickle spears completely dry with paper towels to remove excess moisture.
Pour 1 cup buttermilk into a shallow bowl. In another bowl, whisk together 5½ oz flour, 3½ oz cornmeal, 10 g garlic powder, 10 g paprika, 5 g cayenne, 5 g black pepper, and salt.
Heat 4 cups vegetable oil in a large pot or deep fryer to 375°F (190°C).
Working in batches, dip pickle spears in buttermilk, then dredge in flour-cornmeal mixture, pressing to coat well. Dip again in buttermilk and coat once more for extra crunch.
Fry pickle spears in batches for 3-4 minutes until golden brown and crispy, turning once. Don't overcrowd the pot.
Transfer to paper towels to drain and season with salt immediately while hot, and serve with 1 cup ranch dressing for dipping.
Tips
- After the first pat-down, let the spears rest on paper towels for 5 minutes and pat again. Brine keeps seeping out, and any left on the surface steams the coating loose.
- Keep one hand for the buttermilk and the other for the dry mix. With a double dredge, a single hand ends up wearing more breading than the pickles.
- Fry 5 or 6 spears at a time and let the oil climb back to 375°F (190°C) between batches. Cooler oil soaks into the cornmeal and leaves it greasy.
Substitutions
- Dill pickle chips instead of spears: more crust per bite. Fry them for 2 to 3 minutes, since they heat through faster.
- Gluten-free flour blend instead of all-purpose: cornmeal has no gluten, so the whole coating becomes gluten-free. Check that the cornmeal and ranch are labeled gluten-free.
- No buttermilk: stir 15 ml (1 tablespoon) lemon juice into 240 ml milk and let it stand for 5 minutes.
- Bread-and-butter pickles instead of dill: sweeter, and the sugar browns faster, so check them at the 3-minute mark.
Make ahead & storage
Fry only what you'll eat; the crust softens within about 30 minutes and never fully crisps again. The dry dredge can be mixed up to a week ahead and kept in a sealed jar. Leftovers keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge; reheat on a rack in a 400°F (205°C) oven until hot through, 165°F (74°C).
