Homemade Pickles Recipe

I’ll be honest, I haven’t always been a big pickle gal. Even on Chick-fil-a sandwiches, I usually took the pickles off. It’s only until I got older and started making my own that I grew to love pickles (and now keep them on my sandwiches). Especially when I make them with my homegrown cucumbers. This is the pickles recipe I’ve developed over the last couple summers, and it’s now my go-to.

I always thought pickles were made over the course of days. In fact, my great aunt’s sweet pickles recipe takes almost a week from start to finish. They’re delicious, of course, but I don’t always want to wait seven days for pickles. Sometimes I need them for burgers in a couple hours.

That’s the beauty of refrigerator pickles. They’re ready to eat in as little as an hour.

Easy Refrigerator Pickles Recipe

Our cucumber plant has produced quite a bit this year. Which means I’ve gotten to make a TON of homemade pickles this summer. It’s one of the reasons I love to grow cucumbers.

These pickles are somewhere between bread and butter and dill. If you like pickles more on the dill side, by all means you can add some additional dill to your jars. If not, just skip it, or add an additional tablespoon of sugar. For other flavors, you can add a clove or two of garlic, some chili flakes (or whole chilies), or any other herbs you might like.

Once you’ve got this pickle recipe down, you can pickle just about anything: We love making pickled red onions and pickled carrots. My husband also loves pickled jalapeños and chilies, and we’ve made pickled banana peppers. Red onions and carrots are staples in our fridge, though.

To make these, you will need:

• 2-3 large cucumbers
• Pickling salt (or kosher salt)
• Sugar
• Pickling spices
• White vinegar
• Boiling water

For storage, we use regular pint jars, or these clamp-lid jars. Both work just as well.

First and foremost, make sure your jars are sterilized and still a little warm. Otherwise the hot pickling liquid might crack the jars!

Next, wash and slice the cucumbers into chips. I prefer my pickles pretty thin, so I try not to slice them any thicker than about 1/4 inch. Then, stuff the slices into your jars. For this recipe, I used two pint-sized jars. You could use one quart-sized jar.

To each jar, add pickling salt, sugar, and desired spices. I just use store-bought pickling spice, but you can customize your own. I used 2 tbsp of pickling salt, 2 tbsp of sugar, and 2 tsp of pickling spices per jar.

Fill each jar halfway with white vinegar. Then fill the rest with boiling water, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace at the top.

Cover the jars with their lids and let them cool for about 15 minutes. Once cooled, put the jars in the refrigerator to fully cool and pickle. They’ll be ready to eat in as little as an hour!

There y’all have it: homemade pickles in an hour! These babies are delicious on your favorite burger or sandwich, diced and added to a dip, chopped into a salad, made into fried pickles, or just as a little snack on their own.

Did you enjoy this recipe? You might also like:

• Caramelized Onion Dip
• Southern Cheese Biscuits
• Baked Zucchini Nuggets
• Easy Chicken Salad

Thanks so much for reading and eating along, y’all! If you’re craving more, follow me on Instagram and Pinterest, and sign up for my email list so you never miss a recipe. If you make one of my recipes, tag me on Instagram or share a photo on my Facebook page so I can see your creations!

Homemade Pickles

Quick homemade refrigerator pickles are ready to eat in an hour! Great for sandwiches, burgers, wraps, dips, snacks, and more.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Refrigeration 1 hour hr

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Servings 2 jars

Ingredients

  

• 2 large cucumbers
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 2 tbsp pickling salt (per jar)
• 2 tbsp sugar (per jar)
• 1 tsp pickling spices (per jar)
• Boiling water

Instructions

 

• Wash and sterilize your jars.
• Wash and slice your cucumbers into chips, about 1/4" thick at the most.
• Pack the jars full with the cucumber slices.
• Add the pickling salt, sugar, and pickling spices to each jar.
• Pour white vinegar into the jars, about halfway up. Then fill the rest of the jars with boiling water.
• Cover the jars with their lids and let them cool on the counter for about 15 minutes. Once they've cooled down, store them in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

Keyword dill pickles, homemade pickles, pickles, refrigerator pickles

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