Fried Pickles

The minute I discovered the air fryer, I was fixated. And, making fried pickles is so easy! Air fryer fried pickles are one of my favorites! Don't have an air fryer? No worries, baking instructions included. In less than 15 minutes, enjoy crispy fried pickles!

When I started eating vegan, I made the fatal error of ordering anything resembling a vegetable that didn't contain animal products. Of course, that included fried foods like fried pickles, zucchini, or anything I could find to eat. Of course, it did not take long to discover the health consequences of those decisions. But the sir fryer changed that! And now, I can enjoy air fryer-fired pickles that are healthy and taste exactly like the unhealthy bar version I wanted years ago.

Jump to:

• Types of Pickles
• Batter Ingredients
• Breading Ingredients
• How to Make Air Fried Pickles
• Baking Option
• Sauce Options
• Recipe FAQs
• Tips
• Other Vegan Air Fryer Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Reviews

I'm not going to lie. I love fried foods like french fries and fried pickles. But, despite my love for fried foods, I don't eat fried foods unless I use my favorite air-fryer.

Fried pickles are the perfect bite-sized treat with a tangy dill pickle flavor and crunchy texture that leaves you wanting more. So why not enjoy an air-fried, perfectly healthy version?

Types of Pickles

First, select the type of pickles you want to air fry. I chose dill pickle chips because love dill. However, there are many different types of pickle flavors and shapes to choose from.

Flavors

• Dill Pickles: Dill pickles are the most popular pickles of the bunch, and, as you might have guessed, they get their name because of their distinct dill flavor.
• Bread and Butter Pickles: Bread and butter pickles add sugar to their sweet taste, while dill pickles add dill weed, peppercorns, and, if they are kosher dill pickles, garlic to give them their familiar robust flavor.
• Sweet Pickles: Sweet pickles are packed in a sweet mixture of vinegar, sugar, and spices.
• Gherkin Pickles: Gherkins are pickled cucumbers (either sliced or left whole) that have been fermented and preserved in either salty brine or vinegar. The acidity of the brine helps perform Lacto-fermentation with the cucumber, resulting in the sharp and tasty gherkins we know and love.
• Cornichons: French for "gherkins" -- are tart pickles made from tiny gherkin cucumbers. Finding these cucumbers can prove difficult, so we created an equally tasty and petite alternative by slicing the smallest pickling cucumbers into thin spears.
• Sour Pickles: Sour pickles are pickles that you ferment in saltwater brine. The slow process of fermentation gives them a deeply sour flavor with a salty edge that many people find irresistible. 
• Kosher Pickles: n order for a pickle to be classified as kosher in terms of flavor, it must be made with brine and garlic. The common term "kosher pickle" is derived from kosher salt, a thick-grained salt used to brine or season meats and vegetables inside and outside Jewish tradition.
• Refrigerator Pickles: Refrigerator pickles are preserved in vinegar but are not processed through a water bath canner.

Shapes

Although I chose pickle chips, there are also many different pickle shape options. I mean, technically, any shaped pickle is air fryer friendly.

• Chips: Pickled cucumbers sliced to form "rounds" (i.e., "cross-cut"), as is done with Bread and Butter Pickles
• Chunks: Pickle chunks are larger than chips but still bite-sized.
• Gherkins: Gherkins, also known as baby pickles or miniature cucumbers, are usually one to two inches long.
• Halves: Pickle halves are full pickles cut in half lengthwise.
• Lengthwise slices (for sandwiches): These pickles are called sandwich stackers. They are pickles cut in half but then sliced thin using a mandoline to make them thin slices.
• Salad Cubes: These pickles are made with a more significant cut than relish, giving them a crunchier texture.
• Spears: Cut the pickles in half and then cut them half again lengthwise. And then you'll make pickle spears. So you should get about twelve spears out of one cucumber.
• Sticks: Pickle sticks look like french fries. They are cut into sticks that are thin and squarely cut.
• Ovals: Larger than chips, ovals are cut on an angle and used for sandwiches but are great for air frying.

So, basically, you can pick any flavor or shape to air fry. However, the larger the pickle shape, the more batter, bread, and time you will need to cook.

Batter Ingredients

• Oat Flour: The entire oat is used to make oat flour, so it boasts the nutrition of whole grains. A serving of oat flour is ¼ cup. It contains 110 calories, 3 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, calcium, iron, potassium, thiamin, and riboflavin. Overall, oat flour offers significantly more nutritional benefits than white flour.
• Water: Water is used to make the batter.
• Smoked Paprika: Smoked paprika is made from smoke-dried chili peppers that were dried over an oak fire before being ground into a powder.
• Garlic Powder: Garlic powder is the dried and finely ground form of garlic. 
• Nutritional Yeast: Nutritional yeast is a highly nutritious vegan food product with many potential health benefits.

Breading Ingredients

• Bread Crumbs: I make my own bread crumbs by toasting dave's bread and crumbling it in a food processor.
• Italian Seasoning: Italian seasoning usually consists of basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and marjoram.

How to Make Air Fried Pickles

To cook without oil, I suggest a two-part process for air frying. First, create a batter for dipping the pickles, then dip into a bread crumb mixture.

• Dry pickles on paper towels before dipping them into the batter.
• I suggest blending the flour mixture to ensure all the ingredients are well mixed.
• Pour the flour batter into one bowl and the bread crumb mixture into another bowl.
• Preheat the air-fryer to 400 degrees.
• Dip each pickle chip into the flour batter mixture and dip into the bread crumb mixture.
• Place each pickle chip into the air fryer basket or pan in a single layer, not touching each other.
• If batch cooking, prepare a baking sheet and preheat an oven to 325 degrees, so you can keep the pickles warm while cooking the subsequent batches.
• Cook for 10 minutes.
• Be advised cooking time varies with different sized and shaped pickles

Baking Option

Suppose you don't have an air fryer, no worries. You can bake the picked as well.

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
• Follow the exact instructions for the air-fried pickles for dipping into the flour mixture and breading.
• Then, prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Place breaded pickles in a single layer, not touching each other.
• It was baked for 20 minutes.
• Be advised cooking time varies with different sized and shaped pickles.

Sauce Options

I'm all about the sauce! And my favorite way to eat air fryer fried pickles is with vegan ranch. However, there are many dipping sauces for individual tastes.

• Vegan Southwest Dressing
• Lemon Basil Dressing
• Vegan Thousand Island Dressing
• Mustard Dipping Sauce
• Ranchero Sauce
• Vegan Green Goddess Dressing
• Creamy Italian Dressing

Recipe FAQs

Tips

• Dry pickles first before dipping them in batter and breading mixture.
• I recommend preheating the air fryer before cooking.
• If cooking in bathing, place pickles in the basket and a single layer, not overlapping.
• Place cooked air fried picked on a prepared baking sheet in a 325-degree oven to keep warm while preparing the other batches.
• Using larger pickles increases the batter and breading ingredients and the cooking time.

Try these healthy air-fried pickles! You will love these bite-sized crunchy treats!

Other Vegan Air Fryer Recipes

If you love these crunchy air fryer fried pickles, give us a 5-star review and comment below. We would love to hear from you!

📖 Recipe