There is always a jar of sweet and spicy refrigerator pickles in my fridge. No matter what time of year, cucumbers are always available to make this recipe!
Time for a little confession. I have a fear of canning. I have always wanted to try and can my own tomatoes, jams and pickles but I have this little voice whispering botulism to me.
Luckily that little B word has not stopped me from putting food in jars or having a freezer fulled with homemade tomato sauce. Instead I make small batches of pickles and jams and keep them in the refrigerator. One of these days I will try the canning process but right now I am perfecting some refrigerator pickles. They are really easy to make this way with no special equipment needed. I use canning jars but any type of glass jars will do. Canning jars can be bought by the case as this is an inexpensive way to have plenty of pretty little jars to put vegetables in.
I love these pickles. They are a little sweet, a little spicy and a lot yummy.
So yummy that I could eat the whole jar and just forget about the sandwich at lunchtime. We can always have the chicken cordon bleu sandwich for dinner after eating a whole jar of pickles for lunch.
Refrigerator pickles are so easy to make!
These pickles are really easy to throw together. I buy a bag of baby cucumbers at my farmers market and put these pickles together in 20 minutes.
The hardest part is waiting 24 hours to eat them. After making them, be sure to keep them in the fridge for 24 hours as all the delicious flavors get soaked into the cucumbers. I know that's a hard thing to do but it will be well worth it. I actually hide them in the back of the fridge to forget about them for a few days. Then my jar of crisp pickles is ready.
What pairs well with these sweet and spicy pickles?
My family loves pickles on burgers and I eat them with lunch all the time. They are also a required ingredient to put in my chicken salad.
There is nothing like homemade refrigerator pickles next to a grilled cheese sandwich. Refrigerator pickles are good next to almost every sandwich I eat. I have never served them with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That might be one sandwich I don't recommend eating pickles with.
My Brunch burgers do not get served without these!
Are Refrigerator Pickles Healthy?
Cucumbers are healthy but store bought pickles can contain lots of sodium.
These refrigerator pickles are much lower in sodium than jarred pickles from the store. You can control the sodium even further by adding less salt than this recipe calls for. I've tried them with less salt and they are still very good. I also use sea salt instead of table salt because I like the coarse texture and I use a lesser amount of salt.
The pickles also have red peppers and jalapeno peppers in them giving an extra added vegetable which is never a bad thing. The slight sweetness comes from sugar but I tried my latest batch with some splenda and it worked great. You could really use any other low calorie sweetener if you want to cut down on the sugar.
Pickled cucumbers can be stored in the fridge for a month but mine do not last anywhere near that. Try making some homemade pickles and you will never want to buy another jar again!
Sweet And Spicy Refrigerator Pickles
Ingredients
- 6 cups Kirby cucumbers sliced
- 1 cup red peppers sliced in 1 inch strips
- 2 jalapenos seeded and minced
- 1 TBS sea salt
- 1 cup white balsamic vinegar
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tsp dried dill
- ½ tsp celery seed
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- Place the cucumbers, red peppers, jalapenos in a medium size bowl. Sprinkle with the salt and toss well. Let the mixture sit for an hour.
- In a small sauce pan, mix together vinegar, sugar, dill, celery seed, pepper and water. Heat to a boil and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
- Place cucumber mixture in glass or plastic containers and pour vinegar mixture over them.
- Let the pickles sit in the fridge for 24 hours before eating them.
I can but I have to be honest, I totally love refrigerated pickles better! They just always taste more crunchier and fresher to me. Your pickles look delicious!
These are so beautiful! I also have a sort of fear of canning, but one of these days I will learn!
My husband made a batch of homemade pickles last year and they were fantastic! We ate them up waaaaay too quickly! The sweet/spicy combo of flavors you used looks so refreshing. I will definitely be getting cucumbers this weekend so I can try these for myself!
These pickles sound wonderful! I only recently conquered my fear of canning ... as recently as this summer. Turns out, nothing to be nervous about 😉 But despite being over my fears, I definitely will be making these refrigerator pickles. Yum!
I totally have a botulism fear as well!! So refrigerator pickles are definitely for me. Definitely want to try this before summer produce is totally gone!
I make my own pickles too, but your version is so much more intriguing! Definitely trying this. Thanks for sharing. Pinning!
I have that fear too!!
And a few people told me about how NOT safe some of those "2-minute" canning are NOT safe. And one of those people works in a lab! LOL
So I'm with you on this one!
Sold! I'm looking for a good sweet/spicy fridge pickle recipe because the 4 pickling cuke plants I grew are producing bushels. Will circle back and share my experience and taste test. Thanks for posting this recipe!
OMG Great Pickles with a kick! OK, so I confess I am also afraid of canning - and like you, I get around it with freezing - but the freezer is no help for a bumper crop of pickle cucumbers. I actually planted the cucumbers for a daughter who wanted to take a crack at pickle making. She's been trying out other recipes with OK results. Yours, however, is the winning recipe! In fact, I will keep planting pickle cukes in my garden just to churn out this recipe through the summer. Thanks Very much for an Outstanding and super easy recipe! (P.S. The pickling solution did not cover the sliced cukes/peppers in the two quart jars the recipe filled, so I did make another 1/2 batch of the solution to fill the jars - not a big deal - may have been the way I measured or packed them into the jars.) Thanks again!
I used two quart jars and had to double the brine also
These look great!
I made a pint and 1/2 quart . I didnt have white balsimic vinegar. I used white and a splash of reg. Balsimic. We will see they are chilling now. Garden fresh . My husband is waiting patiently!
White vinegar can easily be substituted but a splash of red balsamic is a great idea. I think you will love them!
Thanks so much for this recipe! I love pickles but am always looking for ways to decrease sodium in my meals. I can't wait to try this!
I want to try the sweet and spicy refrigerator pickles but what kind of red peppers are used?
They are red bell peppers you would find in any grocery store. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
OMG! These were delicious! I made a big jar and had to do 1.5 times the liquid recipe to cover all of my cucumbers. No big deal. These are going with me to our Father's Day barbeque. I can't wait to share them. Thank you for the great recipe!
Thank you! Glad you liked them! It's time that I make a big jar too!
I made these last week before going on vacation. It was 1:30 am and I couldn't sleep. I had tons of cucumbers and jalapenos from my garden. They were fast and easy. I put them in the fridge & couldn't wait to get back home to try them. OMG-they're amazing, crunchy and just the right amount of heat and sweet. You won't be disappointed in this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Has anyone tried actually canning these pickles? I would like to bottle some to give away during the Holidays.
I have not canned them but I’m sure you can. They would make a great gift!
I can’t wait to try these however you will need to make double the brine to cover the pickles!
Mine worked out fine with plenty of brine. I guess it could depend on the shape of the jars you use though.
I have a question. Do you toss the salt water after the cucumbers have soaked or add it to the jars as well?
Yes, it all goes in the jars together.
I can't have sugar can you use honey or pure maple syrup as a substitute for the sugar and if so how much?
Hi Mary. I have never tried that but I think an equal amount of honey or maple syrup would work fine. An artificial sweetener would work also. Or you could just leave a sweetener out and they would be spicy pickles.
Made these and they are excellent! Just the right amount of spice. Thanks for sharing. ????????❤️❤️❤️
We have some touchy stomachs in our family. Can I leave out the jalepenos and still have a good pickle?
Of course! They will be slightly sweet without the spiciness.
This looks so good! What else can I use white balsalmic vinegar for?
I use balsamic vinegar in all my salad dressings. So good!
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
They go pretty quick in our house but you can keep them in the fridge for up to a month without losing their crunch.
I'm diabetic so I'm going to use swerve instead of sugar. Wish me luck.????
That should be fine. I'm sure they will turn out great.
I can’t find white balsamic anywhere, could I substitute white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar?
Both would be fine!
I think the calorie count way off unless you are drinking the brine. I’m sure 90% of the sugar goes right down the drain when the pickles are gone:)
You are right Kathleen. The pickles do retain some sugar but it really is hard to calculate the actual value because you have to add all the ingredients in the nutritional values.
These were a bit spicier than my old recipe. My husband thinks they are the perfect amount. I was short on brine and my bottle of white balsamic only had enough for the one batch. I used apple cider vinegar for the rest. It was much cheaper! I also added a couple of teaspoons of mustard seeds because I love them.
Glad you liked them!
Made these with my end of summer cucumbers. So good!
I just made up a batch of these. I had enough cokes for two full quart jars but made one and a half times the brine which was a perfect amount. I’m giving these pickles a 5 star prior to even tasting them; the brine was delicious when I did a taste test.! I can’t wait to try in 24 hours! My son is the sweet spicy pickle eating pro...But has never had them homemade ... he is looking forward to them as well. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe Lisa.
P.S. I have canned pickles and banana peppers with a canner and made two failed attempts... they ended up being mushy overcooked) even though I followed the directions! I’ll stick to refrigerator pickles from now on
Glad you liked them! I just made a batch too this week!