Red Robin Pickle Nickels are fried pickles that you simply must try. Red Robin’s version of fried pickles goes oh so well with the Red Robin Campfire Sauce.
If you are lucky you live near a Red Robin, home of the bottomless french fries! If not, you may need to take a journey to this amazing burger place.
Red Robin makes lots of creative and fun food. This place is fun and festive and it has something for the whole family.
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Who started making fried pickles first?
It is believed that fried pickles originated in the South. In the South, fried foods were very common because fried foods cook quickly, and there is no need to heat up ovens, or spending a lot of time at a hot stove cooking.
Until the widespread use of air conditioning, many people in the South looked for quick cooking methods like deep frying to quickly cook their food.
The first recorded recipe for fried pickles was in 1960, and it was for sweet pickles fried in pancake batter. That recipe was found in the Oakland Tribune.
A few years later, fried pickles showed up in Atkins, Arkansas at the Duchess Drive-In. Ever since then, the recipe has continued to evolve and now fried pickles are served at many different restaurants.
Ingredients
Here’s a list of what you need:
- Dill pickle chips
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Ground black pepper
- Buttermilk
- Louisiana Fish Fry Breading Mix
- Vegetable oil for frying
How to Make Fried Pickles
- Drain pickles.
- Set up a breading station with 3 shallow containers.
- Add the flour, salt, and pepper to the first container and stir to combine.
- Add the buttermilk to the second container.
- Add the fish fry breading mix to the third container.
- Heat oil to 350 degrees.
- Place pickle chips in the flour and toss to coat the pickles with flour.
- Shake off excess flour and lay the floured pickles on a wire rack.
- Quickly dip the pickles in buttermilk.
- Place the pickles into the fish fry breading mix and toss to coat the pickles with the breading.
- Shake off the excess fish fry mix and place them on a wire rack for 2 minutes before cooking.
- Fry the breaded pickles for about 1 to 1½ minutes in the hot oil.
- Drain the fried pickles on a wire rack.
What Makes the Fried Pickles at Red Robin so special?
Many places use just seasoned flour or cracker meal for their recipe. If you have never tried these fried pickles before, you will notice that they use cornmeal as part of the breading.
The cornmeal really changes the texture and keeps fried pickles from becoming soggy like some can. Homemade fried pickles with fish fry breading replicate the flavor and texture of Red Robin’s pickle nickles.
Love Red Robin? Try these copycat recipes!
Favorite Appetizer Recipes
- Air Fryer Avocado Fries
- Asian Chicken Wings
- Bacon Wrapped Little Smokies
- Fried Cheese Curds
- Fried Jalapeno Poppers
- Fried Mozzarella Sticks
- Pasta Chips with Lasagna Dip
- Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings
- Texas Fries
Check out more of my easy appetizer recipes and the best fast food recipes here on CopyKat!
Red Robin Pickle Nickels
Ingredients
- 16 ounces dill pickle chips
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 package Louisiana Fish Fry Breading Mix (8 ounces)
- Vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Drain pickles.
- Set up a breading station with 3 shallow containers.
- To the first container, add the flour, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine all ingredients together.
- In the second container, add the buttermilk.
- In the third container add the fish fry mix.
- Heat oil to 350 degrees. You will need to add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pot or cooking vessel to a depth of 3 inches.
- First bread the drained pickle chips with flour, then, shake off excess flour and lay on a wire rack.
- Quickly dip the pickles in buttermilk.
- Dip the pickles in the fish fry mix. After they have been coated with the fish fry mix, shake off the excess fish fry mix,
- Place the breaded pickle chips on a wire rack for 2 minutes before cooking. This will help keep the coating on the pickle.
- Fry pickles for about 1 to 1½ minutes in the hot oil. Remove when they start to turn a darker color.
- Drain the fried pickles on a wire rack.
Emily
I’ve had fried pickles from several restaurants, but never Red Robins so I can’t speak to how this recipe compares to them. But regardless, these were delicious and will be making again in the future. My family loved them and we could eat them everyday, but that’s probably not a wise health move. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
akhil kasanagottu
Wow, this is so good.
Celeste Goodin
Although I cannot remember the name of the restaurant, it was in Memphis, Tennessee. I was traveling on business in the mid 1980’s and my colleagues took me to a classic Memphis steakhouse restaurant. It was not fancy, the tables were formica and the chairs were red naugahyde. The water glasses were plastic red juice glasses. But the steaks were magnificent and the baked potatoes were perfection. But before our entree we ordered the deep fried pickles. They were batter dipped medium sized whole dill pickles and they were great. They had been serving them since 1942. The reason I remember it so vividly, is because the folks I was with were so delightful, I was there to integrate them as a recent acquisition to our company. About 5 months after that trip, I read an article in our Clevleand paper about the Annual Chicago Food and Restaurant show–and the hit of the show was this new pub food–‘deep fried pickles’! I could be very wrong, but I kind of smiled because I’d thought I had them from their original source. Maybe, maybe not. Nonetheless, for the uninitiated, they are a delightful first time treat
Stephanie
Hey, that is awesome. I wished we knew the name of the steakhouse. I have no doubt these were made sooner, documenting it can be difficult. I will do further research.
MaryH
We gobbled these right up!
Lee T Ward
Oh I love pickles like this, drats, I am not frying things now, only oven or air fryer. Will keep recipe to play with, thank you
Stephanie
This recipe may work in an air fryer since these are breaded. I find anything that is battered works poorly, but breaded works very well.
I would make this recipe as prepared and then cook at 390 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes.
Becky Turner
No Louisiana fish fry in my part of the country…
What to use instead?
Stephanie
I would use another brand of seasoned cornmeal based fish fry.
baltisraul
Look for Zatarain’s brand. They are nationwide. If you find this brand choose the version that say’s “Wonderful” on the front of the box. This “Wonderful” version is more Creole than Cajun in taste.
Stephanie
I will have to check that out! Thank you for the suggestion.
Coral Dickinson
I love these. So tasty.