I’m a sucker for unusual fried foods. So imagine my surprise when I found out that fried pickles were actually a thing! My mouth immediately started watering at the thought of a tart and tangy pickle wrapped in a light and flaky beer batter.
To the stove!
Ingredients:
- Sliced Dill Pickles
- Beer- I used PBR American Style Premium Lager, but any kind is fine. I say the paler the better.
- All Purpose flour
- Vegetable oil
- Your Choice of seasonings (optional)
First, combine your desired seasonings with the flour in a medium bowl. Now, of course the pickles will bring big flavor of their own, but I added pink salt, garlic pepper, garlic powder and cumin just to add a different dimension and make the breading stand out.
Next, pour the beer into the flour mixture and whisk; add enough beer so that the mixture is loose but not so much that it’s too thin. If it’s too thin just add more flour. It should slowly drip from the whisk.
Now the fun part! On a separate plate, thinly coat a pickle slice in plain flour, this will help your batter stick.
Then dunk the pickle in the batter, submerging it completely.
Carefully take your batter coated pickle and lightly coat it once more in the plain flour. The batter should look almost doughy at this point.
You can try to use a fork but that gets so frustrating. Using your hands gets pretty messy, but it’s all good.
In a small to medium skillet (depending on how patient you are) place your coated pickles in hot vegetable oil. Use enough oil so that the pickles have one side at least submerged in the oil.
Let them fry for about 2-4 minutes on one side, or until they are golden brown on one side. During this time you can repeat your coating process on more pickles. But trust me, this is one tedious process that is worth it!
Flip the pickles when ready and when they are golden brown on both sides, transfer onto a plate with a paper towel to soak up excess oil.
For a different texture you can follow the same process with a traditional egg-wash fry. Just replace the beer batter with beaten eggs and add your desired seasoning to the plain flour coat.
Serve while warm with ranch (or chipotle ranch!) on your good china. Because let’s face it, this is a very fancy appetizer!
