Fast and Easy Refrigerator Pickles

A cool, crunchy, and perfectly crisp pickle can elevate a burger or sandwich. Or if you’re like us, they can be the perfect snack right out of the jar. Taking a bite of a soggy, bland pickle can be a total letdown, but you don’t have to take that risk anymore. 

If you want perfect homemade pickles every time, try making them at home with our Easy Refrigerator Pickles recipe. The recipe requires only 20 minutes of hands-on time and is naturally gluten-free. After 24 hours in the refrigerator, your pickles are ready to be enjoyed.

Fermented Pickles vs. Quick Pickles

This recipe uses a method of pickling cucumbers called quick pickling, or refrigerator pickling. You make it by pouring the hot pickle brine over the cucumbers (or any other fresh produce, even beets and green beans).

What is pickling solution? Pickling solution is actually a type of metal treatment to remove surface impurities and oxidation. This solution is not related to refrigerator pickling liquid and should not be confused with pickle brine.

What is the best way to make pickles? We think the best way to make pickles is the quick pickle method, but that’s because we love pickles and can be a bit impatient! The prep time for these pickles is minimal and within a day you’ll have a great low-cal snack. 

You can pickle other veggies this way, too, like red onions or carrots. Pickled veggies make a great side dish for meal prep because they’re so quick and simple to make. 

Fermented pickles take much longer to process than quick pickles. Kosher dill pickles are an example of fermented pickles.

To make fermented pickles, you combine sea salt or pickling salt and water and spices to make a brine. This gets poured over the cukes in a jar where they must be weighted down, and stored in a dark place at room temperature or slightly cooler.

These pickles get their tang from the good bacteria that grow during the lacto fermentation process. Fermenting takes much longer. Depending on the temperature of storage, it can take 3-6 weeks. However, fermented pickles offer probiotic benefits like sauerkraut and kimchi. If you’d like to try your hand at fermentation, we suggest trying out these recipes:

• Easy Fermented Carrots with Dill
• Homemade Sauerkraut (includes photo tutorial)
• Preserved Lemons

Health Benefits of Pickles

Quick pickling is not only faster than fermenting, but it also helps preserve the nutrients in your veggies. Pickling produce from your garden or farmers’ market allows you to capture the nutritional benefits at peak ripeness. 

When you pickle cucumbers, you get a yummy snack with a boost of vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin A, and potassium.

Can I just throw cucumbers in pickle juice? Yes, you can throw cucumbers into pickle juice, but results may vary. For this reason, we prefer to make our brine. That way, we control the sodium content and know there are no artificial preservatives or coloring in our pickles.

Ingredients To Make Refrigerator Pickles

This is the best pickle recipe because you probably have most of it in your kitchen already, even if you’ve never made pickles. It all comes together with a handful of ingredients and one cup of water.

• Cucumbers – Kirby cucumbers or Persian cucumbers work best for refrigerator pickles because of their small size and their very tiny seeds
• Water 
• Vinegar – No need to make a run to the grocery store for apple cider vinegar! The distilled white vinegar you probably have in your pantry right now will give your refrigerator dill pickles their classic tang. 
• Kosher salt – Kosher salt grains are larger than ordinary fine salt or table salt. They also do not contain iodine. Coarse sea salt can be used 1:1 for kosher salt, but if all you have is fine sea salt, you’ll need to decrease the amount you use (see recipe below)
• Cane sugar – The small amount of sugar added to this refrigerator pickles recipe is strictly for flavor, not function. Sugar helps balance or offset some of the tartness of the vinegar. It is completely optional, so feel free to leave it out for a Whole30-compatible or sugar-free option if you’d like. If you like bread and butter pickles, adding more sugar will give you sweeter pickles.
• Garlic – Fresh cloves of garlic will give you the best results (as opposed to dried or granulated garlic). We call for 2-3 cloves in the recipe below to give you some flexibility depending on how large your cloves are and how garlicky you’d like your easy homemade pickles to be.
• Peppercorns – Black peppercorns are specified in the recipe, but pink or green would also work. Mustard seeds can also be used for an added zing to your jar of pickles. 
• Fresh dill – You can’t have a dill pickle without dill! Be careful using dill seed; it does not impart the same flavor that fresh dill or dried dill weed gives to dill pickles.

These are the ingredients we use, but you are free to experiment and find what works best for you.

Make spicy pickles with some jalapeno slices or red pepper flakes. You can pick up a jar of pickling spice or create your own blend with bay leaves, coriander seeds, and maybe even some clove.

How To Make Refrigerator Pickles

It’s time for you to DIY a batch of refrigerator dill pickles! We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how simple these are to make. Warning: You may never go back to store-bought pickles again after this easy recipe.

Step 1: Make the brine by combining the vinegar, salt, and sugar (if using) in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Stir until the salt and sugar are completely dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the peppercorns and water. Set aside.

Step 2: Using a large knife, cut the cucumbers into spears or slices. Whichever you decide to do, try to keep them relatively similar in size and thickness for best results.

Step 3: Peel and slice the garlic. Add the garlic and dill to a clean wide-mouth jar with a lid. A wide-mouth quart-size mason jar or flip-top canning jar work great with this refrigerator dill pickle recipe, but you can use any clean jar.

Step 4: Add the sliced cucumbers to the jar. If you’re making pickle spears, arrange them standing upright in the jar. However, if you’re making pickle chips or slices, layer them in the jar arranging them so that they all fit and will have a little room at the top for the brine. If using pint jars, just split the garlic, dill, and cucumbers between two jars.

Step 5: Pour the brine over the cucumbers in the jar and cover with the lid. Refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

For serving size and the complete directions and ingredient amounts, scroll down to the recipe card below. All of our recipes include the nutrition analysis, listing calories (kcals), protein, carbohydrates, fiber, sugar, sodium, cholesterol, and more per serving.

Leave out the teaspoon of sugar called for in this recipe to make it Whole30. We’ve added just a tiny bit of sugar to the recipe to help balance some of the acidity of the white vinegar, but it’s not required.

You can still make a very tasty batch of pickles that are perfect for topping your next Burger Bowl with Special Sauce. You can also serve it with a 5-Minute Salmon Salad when you’re short on time but need a hearty and satisfying lunch.

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