I love fried pickles, probably a little too much, but who doesn’t? So when I got my air fryer I was determined to make an alternative to actual “fried” pickles. I love to try to take generally unhealthy things and make them at least a little bit healthier. And let me tell you, I am so impressed with these pickles that they can pass for the Buffalo Wild Wings fried pickles (my favorite).

Ingredients:

• Hamburger style pickles
• Cornmeal
• Flour
• Cornstarch
• Creole seasoning
  • If you don’t have this, use garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, paprika, parsley, oregano, and a dash of chili powder).
• Milk
• Oil

I used about half a jar of pickles when I make these (there’s only two of us and we eat them all). Pour half the jar of pickle juice and half of the pickles into a bowl. Pour about a cup of milk into the bowl with the pickles and the pickle juice (or as much milk as pickle juice in the bowl). Let this sit while you make the breading.

For the breading (this is enough for half a jar of pickles), add about a cup of corn meal, a tablespoon of cornstarch, and two heaping tablespoons of flour into a bowl. Add in your creole seasoning (heaping tablespoon if you like a lot of seasoning like me) or add in garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, paprika, parsley, oregano (a healthy dash of all of these), and a dash of chili powder. Mix the seasoning together and taste it to make sure it is to your liking.

Warm up your air fryer to 400 degrees while breading your pickles. I have found that the easiest and quickest way to bread the pickles is to put about 20 pickles into the breading bowl and then tossing the bowl or using your hand to stir the pickles in the bowl until they are all covered. Once the air fryer is warmed up, spray with oil and put a single layer of pickles in the air fryer. Spray the top of the pickles with oil and put in the air fryer for 10 minutes. I don’t bother flipping the pickles halfway, but you can if you want a more even crispiness. I’ve done it both ways and haven’t noticed much difference between the two.

Serve with ranch or with my favorite sriracha ranch dipping sauce.

Equal parts ranch and mayonnaise, a squirt of sriracha, a dash of garlic powder, paprika, and chili powder. Then a little bit of water just to thin it out. You could also just use some of the creole seasoning instead of the garlic powder, paprika, and chili powder if you want.

Let me know if you have tried this by commenting below!