Hot Cheetos Fried Pickles Recipe

Hot Cheeto fried pickles are dill pickle spears in a crust of crushed Flamin' Hot Cheetos, deep-fried until crisp. Dry the pickles well, roll them in flour, dip them in beaten egg, press them into finely crushed Cheetos and fry them at 375°F for about a minute. The pickles only have to heat through; the crumbs are already cooked and burn fast.

Fried pickles with a Flamin' Hot crust

Fried pickles are a side dish of the American South: sliced dill pickles in batter, deep-fried. Wikipedia dates the first printed recipe to 1962 and credits Bernell Austin of the Duchess Drive In in Atkins, Arkansas, with making fried dill pickles popular from 1963.

This version replaces the batter with crushed Flamin' Hot Cheetos, the spicy variety of the Cheetos corn snack made by Frito-Lay. MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Frito-Lay.

Recipe

Hot Cheeto Fried Pickles

Dill pickle spears in a crust of crushed Flamin' Hot Cheetos, deep-fried until crisp and served with ranch dressing. Twelve spears, four servings.

4.0 (2)Print

Prep

15 min

Cook

8 min

Total

35 min

Serves

4

Cuisine

American

Ingredients

• 12 dill pickle spears
• 8.5 ounces Flamin' Hot Cheetos (1 bag)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 4 cups vegetable oil, for deep-frying
• 1/2 cup ranch dressing, for dipping

Instructions

1. Drain the pickle spears and pat them completely dry with paper towels.
2. Crush the Cheetos to fine crumbs in a food processor, or in a sealed bag with a rolling pin, and put them in a shallow dish. Put the flour in a second dish and beat the eggs with the milk in a third.
3. Roll each spear in the flour, dip it in the egg and press it into the crumbs until it is covered. For a thicker crust, dip it in the egg and the crumbs a second time.
4. Set the coated spears on a rack and let them stand for 10 minutes while the oil heats.
5. Heat the oil in a deep, heavy pot to 375°F. Fry the spears four at a time for 60 to 90 seconds, until the crust is crisp and a shade darker.
6. Lift them onto a rack or paper towels and serve them hot with the ranch dressing.

Why the pickles have to be dry

A wet pickle turns the flour into paste, and the crust slides off in the oil. Water on the surface also makes hot oil spit. Two rounds with paper towels, one before cutting and one after, are worth the minute.

The ten minutes on the rack let the egg and the crumbs set into a coat that holds.

Fine crumbs and a short fry

• Crumbs like coarse sand. Large pieces do not stick and fall off in the pot.
• 375°F, measured. Cooler oil soaks into the crust; hotter oil burns the crumbs, which are cooked already.
• Four at a time. More spears cool the oil.
• About a minute. The colour deepens by one shade. Dark red-brown means too long.

For a dip with heat of its own, see the fire ranch sauce.

Air fryer or oven

Spray the coated spears with oil. In an air fryer they take 6 to 8 minutes at 400°F, turned once; in a 425°F oven, on a rack, 12 to 15 minutes. The crust comes out drier and less even than from the fryer.

Chips, whole pickles and the stuffed pickle

• Pickle chips are coated the same way and fry in 45 to 60 seconds.
• Whole pickles need the double coat and 2 minutes.
• The stuffed pickle is not fried at all: cut a whole dill pickle in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds with a small spoon and fill the hollow with crushed Hot Cheetos.

Straight from the fryer

The pickle inside gives off steam, and the crust softens within a quarter of an hour. Fried pickles are made to be eaten at once. Leftovers crisp up only partly, in 5 minutes in a 400°F oven.

More fried snacks on this site are the Dave's Hot Chicken loaded fries and the Taco Bell chicken nuggets.