Author: Jasmine Smith, Megan O. Steintrager

Forget putting an egg on it—these days, our culinary directive is to put a pickle in it. Whether it's store-bought chips and popcorn, homemade fried chicken and rice, or a simple sandwich, pickles and their brine add a lip-smacking tartness, saltiness, and tiny bit of sweetness to so many foods. In this recipe, a jar of pickles works its magic on a creamy sour cream and mayo dip, which we punch up with ranch dressing mix, fresh dill, and lots of chopped pickles. And while we could have stopped there, we take it a step further with breadcrumbs that are toasted in a combination of butter and pickle juice—a nod to fried pickles—before being used to top the dip.

The dip calls for easy–to-find ingredients (including powdered ranch dressing mix) and comes together in just 15 minutes, with a brief chill in the fridge. It's easy to whip up at the last minute for a party, happy hour, or even dinner. (We're here to share recipes, not to judge what you eat for dinner.) Read on for tips on making and serving the dip, as well as the recipe from our Alabama-based colleague Jasmine Smith. Then grab some wavy pickle-flavored potato chips and dig in.

6 Tips for the Best Pickle Dip

Opt for sour cream and mayo for creaminess. Jasmine initially tested the recipe with cream cheese, but found that the cream cheese made the dip too thick and masked the flavor of the pickles. A combination of sour cream and mayonnaise gives this dip just the right balance of tanginess and creaminess and allows the pickle flavor to shine.

Reach for ranch dressing mix. Instead of making the ranch dip base from scratch, we opted for the excellent shortcut of ranch dressing mix. Be sure to choose ranch dressing mix, such as Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dressing and Seasoning Mix, not ranch dip mix—in our testing, the latter proved to be overly salty when paired with the other ingredients in this dip.

Brighten it up with fresh dill. While you could technically use dried dill in this dip, chopped fresh dill provides a welcome burst of freshness and brings out the dilly flavor of the pickles.

Toast the breadcrumbs in butter and pickle juice. We put the fried in this fried pickle dip with panko that's crisped up in a combination of butter and pickle juice. In testing, Jasmine found that the best way to keep the panko crispy was to add pickle juice in two steps: once at the beginning and once at the end. Keep cooking and stirring the breadcrumbs until they are deeply golden, but keep an eye on them so they don't burn. Once the breadcrumbs are browned and cooled slightly, you'll stir some of them in and put the rest on top so you'll get crunchy bits in every bite. Make sure to really mound up the ones on top so some of the crumbs aren't touching the dip.

Make it your own. While this dip is perfect exactly as is, you can mix up the flavors by using different varieties of pickles or by adding seasonings and spices such as mustard seeds, black pepper, and red pepper flakes.

Serve it with sturdy chips. During our taste tests of this dip, we dubbed it, "Chip Breaking Dip," because we kept shattering chips as we attempted to scoop up too-big bites. So grab the sturdiest potato chips you can find for this dip—we recommend dill pickle–flavored chips for even more pickle flavor, though salt and vinegar or just plain chips would also be delicious with it. One more tip: Consider making a double batch of this dip, because it disappeared very quickly from the test kitchen. 

In a medium bowl, whisk sour cream, mayonnaise, ranch dressing mix, 1/2 cup chopped pickles, 1/4 cup pickle juice, and dill in a medium bowl to combine. Cover and chill dip until thickened slightly, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat butter and 2 tablespoons pickle juice over medium heat until simmering, about 1 minute. Add panko; cook, stirring constantly, until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes. Add remaining 2 tablespoons pickle juice and salt; cook, stirring constantly, until deep golden and crispy, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool in skillet, about 5 minutes.

Stir 2 tablespoons of the pickled-panko mixture into sour cream mixture; mix until combined. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with remaining 1/3 cup pickled-panko and remaining 1/4 cup chopped pickles. Garnish with dill. Serve with potato chips.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Dip can be prepared through step 1 up to 1 day ahead and stored covered in the refrigerator. Toast the breadcrumbs shortly before serving. Leftover dip can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days. The breadcrumbs will soften slightly but the dip will be no less delicious.

During high summer I love using juicy, perfectly ripe red tomatoes raw in salads, caprese, tomato and mayo sandwiches, and—my summertime essential—gazpacho. But equally satisfying in its own way is the challenge of extending tomato season on the front and back end by using unripened green tomatoes in that Southern classic fried green tomatoes.

I grew up in North Carolina, where crispy cornmeal-battered fried green tomatoes are a star of the spring and fall tomato shoulder season, but I didn't fully appreciate this brilliant use for under-ripe tomatoes until about 10 years ago when I had a rooftop vegetable garden in Brooklyn and was faced with a late-fall harvest that was just never going to ripen on the vine.

Instead of composting the green tomatoes, I battered them in cornmeal and fried them in a cast iron skillet until they were golden and crispy and perfect for eating as-is, dipping in rémoulade, and tucking into sandwiches with pimento cheese (inspired by a melt at Elsie's Plate and Pie in Baton Rouge). Fried green tomatoes really are one of the best ways to turn trash (or compost) into treasure.

It's been several years since I've had a rooftop tomato garden so fried green tomatoes had unfortunately fallen off my culinary radar until recently. Now they've blasted back to the top of my summer and shoulder season must-eat list, thanks to the recipe we're sharing here for cornmeal-battered fried green tomatoes, which was developed by our Alabama-based test kitchen colleague Jasmine Smith. Jasmine tested round after round of tomatoes to develop perfectly crispy, golden brown fried green tomatoes. And when I say crispy, I mean it: I tried these tomatoes fresh out of the fryer and then again after they'd been sitting for a couple of hours and they were miraculously still crunchy. What sorcery is this? (Actually it's science.)

Read on for Jasmine's full recipe for the tomatoes and a tangy and creamy rémoulade sauce for dipping, plus serving ideas. 

7 Tips for Fried Green Tomatoes That Are Perfectly Crispy and Delicious

To create this recipe, Jasmine experimented with different combinations of breadcrumbs and cornmeal for the coating, salted vs. unsalted tomatoes, tomatoes that were soaked in buttermilk vs. unsoaked tomatoes, and various thicknesses of tomato slices. Her resulting recipe reflects the findings from her testing described here. 

Choose the right tomatoes. The tomatoes you want for fried green tomatoes are unripe tomatoes—that is the kind that would turn red given the time on the vine in the sun and warmth. Do not use the kind of tomatoes that remain green when they're ripe, such as green zebras. These will be too soft to batter and fry properly. Also avoid underripe supermarket tomatoes, which, while not in any way ideal as a peak-season summer tomato, are still too ripe to work as a fried green tomato.

Slice the tomatoes to the right thickness. Jasmine found that tomatoes that are cut no thicker than 1/4 inch are best, since the batter cracked and fell off tomatoes that are sliced wider than that.

Don't salt the tomatoes. Salting tomatoes can help draw out excess liquid, but Jasmine found that when the tomato slices are 1/4 inch or thinner, they didn't benefit from a pre-salting: The well-seasoned coating is more than enough for the thinner slices of tomato within and the thinner slices aren't holding enough water to risk sogging out the crust after frying. (It's worth noting she did find pre-salting helpful for thicker slices of tomatoes, both for seasoning and a liquid purge, but those thicker tomatoes suffered much more from the coating crumbling off.)

Dredge with flour and an egg-buttermilk mixture. Jasmine experimented with a variety of dredging methods, including with and without a light coating of all-purpose flour, and with a dunk in an egg wash, a buttermilk bath, and a mixture of both. She found that the best result came from the flour dredge combined with a subsequent dunk in a buttermilk-egg mixture, which creates a crust that's less likely to crumble than one built on buttermilk alone, but more flavorful than one that only uses egg, thanks to the mild lactic tang of the buttermilk.

Use an equal-parts combo of cornmeal and breadcrumbs. Cornmeal is traditional (and delicious) in the coating for fried green tomatoes, but cutting it with an equal volume of standard breadcrumbs results in the crispiest, most evenly browned fried green tomatoes. The breadcrumbs enhance the crisp texture and evenly browned color of the fried tomatoes without creating an overly tough shell.

Note that panko is not a good option here: Jasmine tested the mixture with panko in place of the standard breadcrumbs, but their larger crumb size didn't brown as evenly relative to the other coating components.

Press the coating onto the tomatoes. Be sure to press the tomatoes into the flour-cornmeal mixture so it adheres well. It's a small detail that pays dividends by helping the coating stay affixed when you put the tomatoes in the fryer.

Add flavor throughout. Green tomatoes are pretty mild on their own, so this recipe incorporates flavor boosters such as buttermilk in the batter and Creole seasoning in both the rémoulade and the cornmeal mixture. True Southern flavor means plenty of flavor, so don't skimp on the seasonings.  

7 Ideas for Serving Fried Green Tomatoes

• Dipped in rémoulade, ranch dressing, or another creamy sauce.
• In place of regular tomatoes in a BLT or tomato and mayo sandwich.
• Slathered with pimento cheese.
• Topped with fried eggs for breakfast or brunch. 
• As a side with barbecued chicken.
• On a veggie plate with black-eyed peas and succotash. 
• With burrata and fresh basil. 
  

For the Rémoulade: In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise, parsley, capers, hot sauce, mustard, Creole seasoning, horseradish, lemon zest and juice, and garlic; cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the Fried Green Tomatoes: In a wide and shallow bowl, gently whisk eggs and buttermilk together until well combined. Place flour in another shallow bowl. Thoroughly stir together cornmeal, breadcrumbs, and Creole seasoning to a third shallow bowl.

Dredge tomato slices in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in egg wash, allowing excess to drip off, and then dredge in breadcrumb mixture, pressing to coat all sides of each tomato slice. Place breaded tomatoes in a single layer on a plate or baking sheet.

Add vegetable oil to a large cast -iron skillet to a depth of 1/2 inch. Heat over medium-high until shimmering or oil reaches 375°F (190°C).

Working in 4 to 5 batches, place tomatoes in hot oil; cook, flipping occasionally, until crisp and golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer fried tomatoes to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Repeat with remaining tomatoes. Sprinkle fried green tomatoes with salt to taste. 

Transfer tomatoes to a platter and serve with chilled rémoulade.

Make-Ahead and Storage

The rémoulade can be made up to 3 days ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Leftover fried green tomatoes can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

To reheat fried green tomatoes on the stove: Place tomatoes in a cast iron skillet set over medium heat and reheat until warmed through.

To reheat fried green tomatoes in an air fryer: Place on air fryer rack and reheat at 350ºF (175ºC) until warmed through.

To reheat fried green tomatoes in the oven: Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Place fried green tomatoes on a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet and reheat until warmed through, 6 to 8 minutes.