Amp Up Fried Pickle Batter With A Dash Of Ranch Seasoning
Just about anyone you ask can most likely agree that most foods taste good fried. There's nothing like a salty plate of potato chips, for instance, or the crunchy, buttery flavor of battered onion rings. Heck, even sweet dishes taste great when they get the frying treatment, with snacks like deep-fried Oreos making for a drool-worthy indulgence.
Another snack that you can batter and cook this way is pickles. This snack combines the oily, salty taste of the batter with the vinegary, briny flavor of the pickles into one bite-sized treat. While this snack is certainly plenty flavorful on its own, one way that you can make it even better is to add a bit of ranch seasoning to the batter mixture.
Part of the reason why ranch seasoning works so well is thanks to what's in it. This condiment has umami notes, thanks to the MSG in the seasoning, which adds a whole new layer of flavor to the fried pickle bites and complements their sour taste. On top of that, it contains buttermilk powder, which adds a slight tang and a more buttery taste to the batter. Besides these two ingredients, you'll also find dried herbs such as garlic, onion, and mustard powder to add a little bit of pungency to the batter. Other herbs in the seasoning, like dried parsely, dill, and chives, will add a pop of color to the fried pickles. All of that results in an upgraded snack that tastes even better than the original.
Choosing your pickles and selecting the seasoning
Before even getting started, you'll want to choose your pickles. You can go for slices or spears (or heck, even whole pickles). Just note that smaller ones may be easier for quick, grabbable, bite-sized snacks.
Besides the size, you'll also want to think about the type of pickles you use. Each one has different flavors that will affect the final outcome of your snack. For example, there are classic dill pickles, which may work well with ranch seasoning, as both the gherkin and the condiment contain dill. Another choice could be to use a bread and butter variety, which is soaked in a liquid containing onions, mustard, and celery seed, along with other herbs. These may play up the light sweetness of the onion powder in your ranch dressing, giving a slightly different flavor profile. Think about what tasting notes you want to enhance and choose your pickles accordingly.
Next, it's time to grab your ranch seasoning mix. Any store-bought variety will do, or you can use a homemade ranch powder. If you don't have either of these, you could also just throw some of the herbs found in the seasoning into your batter, although it won't have exactly the same notes. Adding things like dried dill, chives, and parsley, as well as onion, garlic, and mustard powder, can all help add some of the subtleties of ranch dressing mix to your batter.
Adding ranch seasoning to your fried pickle batter
If you've fried pickles before, you probably already know there are a few different ways to go about it. You could make a liquid batter and dip your pickles in that, or you could use a dry coating instead. The good news is that you can add ranch seasoning to either one. Whichever you go with, you'll generally want to add a single 1-ounce package of dressing mix for every cup of flour in your batter, although you can adjust this ratio a bit to make the flavor more or less pronounced.
For those who want to use a dry batter method, note that you'll want to coat your pickles in beaten eggs to help the dry ingredients stick to them. You can use just plain, beaten eggs, or you can add some seasoning mix and a bit of water to the egg mix. The latter method may help to make the ranch flavor more pronounced. Or, you can get a stronger taste by stirring the powder into your pickle brine and letting them pre-soak in the seasoning before you even begin making the batter.
If you're going with a liquid batter, you'll just sprinkle the seasoning into the bowl with your usual ingredients for the mixture and stir it all together. Regardless of which of these methods you use, you'll finish the snack off by dipping your pickles in the batter and frying them as usual. Then chow down and enjoy!