If you love fried pickles but hate getting fat for no reason, these oven fried pickles are the healthy makeover you’ve been looking for! (joking… but totally serious about the pickles)

Oven Fried Pickles

These gluten-free, Oven Fried Pickles are not actually fried at all! Our Un-Fried pickles get baked to perfection in the oven, snubbing the deep fryer for greener pastures. Also because they don’t want to die getting dipped in scalding hot oil… they are better than that. The final product yields crunchy, oven-fried pickles that are much less heavy (yet just as delicious) as their greasy cohort. Not a drop of grease on ’em & no mess made…..very classy pickles, my my. THEN these pickles go and make you even more proud, joining forces with an Avocado-Dill aioli dipping sauce as the finishing touch. Très chic. This dreamy duo is now ready for dunking! A real class act, this combination- almost too immaculate to eat. Okay next up, they get demolished.

They’re not that immaculate ok… RIP pickles.

Note: If these don’t get maniacally scarfed down like a savage beast who needs a pickle fix pronto, you’re doing it wrong. Now, if you have never had the pleasure of trying fried pickles before, you may not understand the enthusiasm with which I speak. Which also means you may have some questions about fried pickles in general, which I will try to field below:

WHAT DO FRIED PICKLES TASTE LIKE?

Traditionally, fried pickles have two essential elements: an irresistable crunchy layer of breading on the outside, surrounding cool, crisp and tangy pickles on the inside. Basically your taste buds get blasted, ok? Fried pickles can be made using sliced dill pickles, or with whole pickles. The batter is made using flour, which also gets packed with flavorful spices, adding even more oomph. But perhaps the best part of eating fried pickles: the DIPPING SAUCE. You don’t just eat fried pickles. That’s egregious. You dunk ’em, into a finger-licking pool of zesty sauce. Usually the sauce is a creamy, mayo based offering. It’s quite wonderful. Now for the bad news. Fried pickles taste sinful because they are; fattening and entirely unhealthy, the jerks! Being fried in unhealthy oils actually TRIPLES the caloric density. SO… how to get a similar kick in the pants, without adding to your waistline and clogging your arteries? Simple: make a healthier version of fried pickles in the oven!

WHAT GOES WITH FRIED PICKLES?

Fried pickles are almost always served with a dipping sauce, and mostly enjoyed as an appetizer/finger food. However, if you want to make a meal of it, by all means. These oven-fried pickles would be the perfect side dish to a surprising amount of main dishes. Baked fish, BBQ anything (brisket, tri-tip, ribs, sausage, hot wings), chunky chili, meatballs… or basically anything else you feel needs a good punch of pickle. I will note: fried pickles are best served immediately after cooking, in my very professional opinion. Nobody likes a fried pickle gone soggy… so plan accordingly! Now, we will get to really important stuff with this next question. The question on absolutely everybody’s mind:

CAN DOGS EAT FRIED PICKLES?

Just trying to save you a Google search, ya know, in case you happen to affectionately feed one to your dog and then panic. That happened to my friend. Not me. Ok it was me. ANYWAYS, survey says: yes they can but they really shouldn’t. So there ya have it folks. Also. Since we’re here and all. DID YOU KNOW: in addition to chocolate, dogs also can’t have grapes, macadamia nuts, or avocado? I knew this long ago because I Google some really weird, random sh*t, but just spreading the knowledge because right now it seems useful and pertinent. VERY pertinent, since you came here for a recipe about pickles. Okaaaaay, moving on to our oven fried pickles recipe then! But first…

HOW TO FRY PICKLES IN THE OVEN?

Well, to make oven fried pickles, first you gotta ditch the deep fryer. Also ditch the unhealthy oil (canola oil is so last century). And finally, skip the white flour (gluten-free flour will be filling in). From there, simply coat your pickles in the batter, place on a wire rack, and bake to perfection! While the pickles bake in the oven, prepare your dipping sauce. You can make whatever flavor sauce you’d like, but typically something creamy really works well to bring everything together. We went with an avocado-dill ‘aioli’ style dipping sauce here, which is included in this recipe. We have included a few photos of the prep in this recipe as well. Check out the steps (& photos) for making oven fried pickles below!

OVEN-FRIED PICKLES, STEP BY STEP

STEP 1. Assemble ingredients / pickle workstation LIKE A BOSS. Most crucially, drain & set pickles aside on paper towels to dry off. Wet pickles straight from the jar are NOT gonna work here, so give yourself a head start. Also, pre-heat the oven now.

Then set up your pickle assembly line. You’ll need 3 shallow dishes, arranged in order Left-Right (GF-flour, egg wash, GF-breadcrumbs), plus a baking sheet lined with foil & fitted with a wire rack. Note: I forgot to take a photo of the “pickle station” before starting, soooo here’s a picture of it by the time I remembered that I forgot.

STEP 2. Pat pickles dry with a paper towel, then start at the front of your assembly line. Coat pickles in gluten-free flour:

STEP 3. Coat pickles in egg wash:

STEP 4: Dredge pickles in gluten-free breadcrumbs, packing each side thoroughly for maximum crust:

STEP 5: Place pickles on foil-lined baking sheet, fitted with a wire rack. The elevated rack is important; it ensures that the pickles aren’t sticking to the baking sheet and ripping off their precious crust. That would suck. PLUS, this will make cleanup a breeze:

STEP 6: Place pickles in oven to bake. Meanwhile, prepare the avocado-dill aioli, using a food processor or blender.

STEP 7: DEMOLISH.

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