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. Pickling cucumbers are so easy you'll never buy pickles again!
Why Make Refrigerator Pickles?
There are lots of reasons to make them. First they are easy, convenient and I love making a smaller batch.
I also have a little confession to make. 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.' I have never canned anything before.
Luckily that little B-word has not stopped me from putting food in jars or having a freezer filled with homemade tomato sauce or chili. Instead, I make small batches of pickles and jams and keep them in the refrigerator. I will try the canning process one of these days, 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 refrigerator pickles. They are a little sweet, a little spicy and a lot yummy.
So yummy that I could eat the whole jar of spicy refrigerator pickles and just forget about the sandwich at lunchtime. We can always have the chicken cordon bleu sandwich for dinner after eating an entire jar of pickles for lunch.
Ingredients Needed:
- cucumbers
- red peppers
- jalapeno peppers
- salt
- white vinegar
- sugar
- dill
- celery seed
- cayenne pepper
- water
How To Make Refrigerator Pickles
These pickles are really easy to throw together. I buy a bag of baby cucumbers (sometimes called pickling cucumbers) at my farmer's market or grocery store and put these pickles together in 20 minutes.
Here are the steps to pickling cucumbers:
- First, the pickling cucumbers are sliced and salted.
- The cucumbers sit for a bit while you are making the pickling juice or brine. The pickle juice gets mixed together and heated in a pan, so the sugar and spices dissolve.
- Next, the pickles are placed in a jar or container with the liquid and set to sit for a day.
The hardest part is waiting at least 24 hours to eat these spicy refrigerator pickles. 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.
Recipes to serve with 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. Cucumber pickles pair perfectly with almost every sandwich I eat. I have never served them with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That might be the 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.
How Long Do Cucumber Pickles Last in the Refrigerator?
Cucumber pickles can be stored in the fridge for a month, but mine does not last anywhere near that. Try making some homemade pickles, and you will never want to buy another jar again!
More Cucumber Recipes
- Greek Shrimp Skewers Recipe
- Herbivoracious and Middle Eastern Bread Salad
- How to Make Cucumber Water
- Tomato Cucumber Salad via A Southern Soul
If you like this Sweet and Spicy Refrigerator Pickles recipe, please give it 5- stars below.
RECIPE
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 ¼ cup white vinegar
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon dried dill
- ½ teaspoon celery seed
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ⅔ 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 and cool slightly.
- 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.
Nutrition
First Published July 2018; Updated February 2021
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Pamela @ Brooklyn Farm Girl
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!
Sunny
Try pickle crisp.Its made by ball and works well.
Sues
These are so beautiful! I also have a sort of fear of canning, but one of these days I will learn!
Jaylo
If you want suggestions on canning. Go on Facebook site, Gramma's old tome canning recipes. Itsa great site for beginners.
Jamie@Milk 'n' Cookie
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!
Joan
Di you rinse the salt off the cukes ?? Or drain them after soaking in salt ?? These sound yummy and am making them today!! Thanks much 🙃
lisa
Joan
They do not need to be rinsed or drained as the salt will help give them flavor. Good luck!
Lisa
Kate | Food Babbles
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!
Joanne
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!
Kristin @ Dizzy Busy and Hungry!
I make my own pickles too, but your version is so much more intriguing! Definitely trying this. Thanks for sharing. Pinning!
vanillasugarblog
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!
Jean Reynolds
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!
Jean Reynolds
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!
Sue M
I used two quart jars and had to double the brine also
Sue's Akorn Shop
These look great!
Jenny
I made a pint and 1/2 quart . I used white and a splash of reg. Balsimic. We will see they are chilling now. Garden fresh . My husband is waiting patiently!
lisa
White vinegar or cider vi9negar are both great in this recipe but you can really use any type of vinegar you'd like. I think you will love them!
Miranda
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!
Kathy
I want to try the sweet and spicy refrigerator pickles but what kind of red peppers are used?
lisa
They are red bell peppers you would find in any grocery store. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Angie
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!
lisa
Thank you! Glad you liked them! It's time that I make a big jar too!
Sue
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!
Barbara
Has anyone tried actually canning these pickles? I would like to bottle some to give away during the Holidays.
lisa
I have not canned them and don't know a lot about canning. I think the best thing would be to get a more suitable pickle recipe which are canned.
Sunny
Actually the ratio of vinegar sugar suggests they could be canned.
For Canning use a master brine that can be used for both Canning and refrigerator
pickles.Since it usually makes a larger batch you could either reduce the recipe or better yet save it.If you decide to do this use the amount of brine this calls for along with the spices called for in this recipe.I have already done this and it worked quite well.I raw packed and used pickle crisp.Processed for 10 minutes.
Note you can use
Yellow Hungarian
Wax peppers rather than jalapeño successfully as well.You can successfully up the garlic and heat when making refrigerated pickles.Please don't try it when canning.The results aren't predictable and lessens the shelf life drastically.
lisa
I have not canned this before and made the recipe specifically for refrigerator pickle use. But thanks for your input.
Julianne
I can’t wait to try these however you will need to make double the brine to cover the pickles!
lisa
Mine worked out fine with plenty of brine. I guess it could depend on the shape of the jars you use though.
Angie
I have a question. Do you toss the salt water after the cucumbers have soaked or add it to the jars as well?
lisa
Yes, it all goes in the jars together.
Mary
I can't have sugar can you use honey or pure maple syrup as a substitute for the sugar and if so how much?
lisa
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.
Kathleen
Made these and they are excellent! Just the right amount of spice. Thanks for sharing. ????????❤️❤️❤️
Angela
We have some touchy stomachs in our family. Can I leave out the jalepenos and still have a good pickle?
lisa
Of course! They will be slightly sweet without the spiciness.
Suzanne
This looks so good! What else can I use white balsalmic vinegar for?
lisa
I use balsamic vinegar in all my salad dressings. So good!
Vanessa
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
lisa
They go pretty quick in our house but you can keep them in the fridge for up to a month without losing their crunch.
Brenda
I'm diabetic so I'm going to use swerve instead of sugar. Wish me luck.????
lisa
That should be fine. I'm sure they will turn out great.
Lynette
I can’t find white balsamic anywhere, could I substitute white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar?
lisa
Both would be fine!
Kathleen Perregaux
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:)
lisa
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.
Goatmom
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.
lisa
Glad you liked them!
Maria
Made these with my end of summer cucumbers. So good!
Nancy
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
lisa
Glad you liked them! I just made a batch too this week!
Katy
I have a bunch of fresh dill, can I use this instead of dry?
lisa
Yes! Actually I like fresh better but I don't always have it as it is easier to keep dried dill.
Marie
How thick do you slice the cucumbers?
lisa
You can slice them as thin or thick as you like but I usually do the slices about 1/4 inch thick.
Sunburst Sally
I have cucumbers coming on in full force in my garden. Found this recipe a couple of weeks ago and have been handing out jars of pickles to friends, family and co-workers ever since.. I made a few subtle changes due to what I have on hand such as using habaneros instead of jalapenos and adding sliced fresh garlic. Easy recipe, great flavor.
lisa
Glad you liked it! Lucky friends and family!
Sam
I just made these today. But I have one question. After salting the cucumbers do you rinse them before adding the brine?
lisa
I don't because I like my pickles salty but if you are looking to make lower salt pickles, you can do that.
Tina Phippen
The recipe indicates 'white vinegar', yet in many of the comments, people refer to using white balsamic vinegar. Which is it supposed to be?
lisa
You can use either. Originally the recipe called for white balsamic vinegar but since not everyone can get that I changed it to regular white vinegar. I made it with both and like either!
Carolyn
These do indeed sound very good. I well be trying this recipe! I'm curious how you would rate the level of sweetness, are the like sweet gherkins, or more like pantry pickles?
A couple words of caution however to those talking about canning these who are not real familiar with canning... When canning anything, it is essential to have a proper mixture of vinegar to water and salt and sugar have important ratios as well for food safety. Canning is not hard, but proper preservation techniques must be observed. Don't use sugar substitutes in canning pickles. The only way to keep it safe is to follow a tested recipe for the acidity and ratio of non-acidic ingredients to acidic ingredients. You can never alter the acidic to non-acidic ratio. You can look this up online.
However, for refrigerator recipes, it is perfectly safe to make and keep in the fridge.
lisa
They are not super sweet , probably more like a pantry pickle. Yes, I am no expert in canning so I reccommened anyone that wants to can pickles, get a recipe specifically for canning.
Melissa
I read in a bunch of comments to use white balsamic vinegar... I've never heard of this. Can I just use plain white vinegar?? I recently found sweet spicy store brand pickles... but want to make my own.. this is happening this weekend!
lisa
You can really use whatever vinegar you'd like! Balsamic vinegar has a sweeter flavor but white vinegar works well too!
Joanne Throckmorton
Can these pickles be put in the freezer so they would last longer than a month. I have a very large crop of pickling cucks im trying to process.
lisa
I would not freeze these as I think it would change the texture and make them mushy. They keep fairly long in the fridge but you can can them to make them last really long.
Lynda
Couldn't have been easier. My husband and I ate two quart jars of pickles in 3 days! Also great roughly chopped as a relish for hot dogs. I did make two batches of brine, mostly because I always make a recipe exactly as written the first time and then make adjustments the second. To the recipe I added 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon of turmeric and 1 teaspoon of pickling spice, Pickles were great after 24 hours, better after 36 and gone after 48. Thanks for the recipe! 😀
lisa
Great ideas and thanks for your comment!
Jena
Anyone add garlic?
lisa
Yes, great idea! I hav edone that before. Enjoy!
Lynda
Reprise comment: You have created a monster in OK. I have now made the pickles 5 times since July. I even took the recipe to my family reunion in WA and made them there for the big pig roast we had. Everyone loved them! I gave the recipe to four family members. We are having them on sandwiches, having them on hotdogs, having them in our salads, mincing them to add to deviled eggs, sneaking them right out of the fridge with a fork. We have run out again, and I made myself wait a few days before making them again...because self control. We've started adding onions and serrano peppers for extra heat, but the main thing is, your pickles are delicious and we can't keep them in stock. Everybody needs these pickles. 😀
lisa
Lynda,
Haha! I'm so glad you like them!
Lisa
Karen
Hi, would using mustard seed vs celery seed make a big difference?
lisa
Karen,
You can use mustard seed but it will give it a different flavor. But as long as you like the flavor then it should work fine.
Best of luck, Lisa
Meredith Tooley
We are all confused, your recipe says white vinegar , However, one of the comments said that she didn’t have white balsamic that the recipe called for? Is it white vinegar? Or white balsamic?
lisa
Yes, use white vinegar. But you can substitute cider vinegar or use a balsamic white vinegar too if that is what you have or prefer.
Nicki
Do you cool the liquid before putting it in the jars?
lisa
Hi Nicki,
Cool it slightly. It doesn't have to be fully cooled but you just don't want it boiling hot. I would say remov efrom heat then cool for about 10 minutes before adding pickles.
Best,
Lisa
Julie
Hi, my husband loves your pickles, he ate them within a couple days! I am wondering, since it’s pretty fresh, can you reuse the brine for another batch?
Thanks, Julie
lisa
Hi Julie,
Yes, you can do that! We eat pickles so often that I reuse the brine often.
Lisa