Quick and Easy Refrigerator Pickles
Alright, you caught me. This is not a recipe that involves an oven at all, BUT its just too good not to share. Nothing says summer like a fresh batch of pickles and this recipe is practically fool proof. With no more than 10 minutes of prep and 3 days of waiting, you will have delicious pickles ready to snack on.
Recipe
- 2 English Cucumbers
- 1c. white vinegar
- 1c. hot water
- 1tbs. salt
- 1tbs. dill
- 1tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1tbs garlic (optional)
- Quart Jar
Instructions:
- Prepare your cucumbers, cutting them into the size and shape of your choice
- To one cup of hot water, add 1tbs of salt. This recipe doesn’t need the brine to be boiled, but I find it better to dissolve the salt into the hot water before adding it all to the jar.
- Add your spices to your empty quart jar.
- Add cucumbers to the jar.
- Pour in the salted water and one cup of vinegar
- Put a lid on and leave in the refrigerator. Pickles will be ready in 3-5 days
A note on cucumber sizing. I like to cut them into slices, rather than spears, but you can cut them any way you like. Remember, the bigger the pieces the longer they will take to be ready.
This recipe makes one quart of pickles, but you can easily double it and make more, or pack your cucumbers into 2 pint jars instead. If using two pint jars, combine your water, salt and vinegar in a sperate container and then add to the jars of cucumbers. This recipe doesn’t need the brine to be boiled, but I find it better to dissolve the salt into the hot water before adding it all to the jar.
What’s awesome about this brine is you can use it to pickle so many other things as well. I have used the core brine (water, vinegar, salt) to pickle onions and green beans before and they always turn out great so feel free to experiment a little bit!
For spices, I used dried dill, but if you have fresh dill that will brighten these pickles up even more. This is where you can get creative with your pickles. My go to add ins are always garlic and crushed red pepper, but you can truly add just about anything. This time around, I went with jarred garlic, but putting a couple of cloves of garlic works great too. You can also switch out the crushed red pepper for jalapeños or dried peppers. The options are truly endless. The world is your oyster…er, pickle jar?
These are NOT shelf stable. These pickles are meant to be stored in the fridge from day one. The last for quite a while in there as well, although I can’t give you an exact life expectancy since these go pretty quickly in my house. If you added the red pepper flakes or other peppers, expect these pickles to get spicier with time!
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