While the traditional way to make pickles involves sugar, heating, and canning, I love to make cold, garlicky refrigerator pickles. They’re easy to make, crispy, and I think they taste the best!
For super fast and easy pickles, all you need is an instant pickler, like a Vacu Vin Instant Pickler (cheaper, generic one here.) Or you can simply store them in a mason jar, and they should last about a month.
Wicked Garlic Refrigerator Pickles Recipe
Servings: 16 – 1/4 cup servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes| Cooking Time: 5 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes plus 2 days to marinate
Nutritional Facts: 0g Net Carbs| 5 Calories | 0g Fat | 1g Carbs | 0g Protein | 2g Fiber
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs pickling cucumbers
- 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 2 tbsp pickling salt
- 6 whole, peeled garlic cloves
- 2 sprigs of fresh dill
- 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
- 1/8 tsp mustard seeds
Steps:
- In a medium saucepan, combine vinegar, water and pickling salt. Mix to melt salt, and once it reaches a boil, remove it from the burner and let cool.
- Meanwhile, slice your cucumbers how you’d like them pickled. You can do them tall and long, or I prefer them as ½” nuggets.
- Add your garlic cloves, dill, peppercorns and mustard seed to your jars or instant pickler, then add sliced cucumbers on top until about ¾ full.
- Add cooled brine over the pickles, making sure that the tops of all the cucumbers are completely covered, but leaving a little room at the top.
- Cover with the lid, and if you’re using an instant pickler, use the vacuum pump to remove all the air from your pickles, then let them refrigerate for at least three hours for half-sour pickles, and overnight for full-sour pickles. If you’re doing it the old fashioned way, you’ll want to let them marinate for at least two days.
- They should last and stay crispy for at least 1-2 months in the fridge.
Wicked Garlic Refrigerator Pickles

While the traditional way to make pickles involves sugar, heating, and canning, I love to make cold, garlicky refrigerator pickles. They’re easy to make, crispy, and I think they taste the best!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes plus 2 days to marinate
- Yield: 16 – 1/4 cup Servings 1x
Ingredients
- 2 lbs pickling cucumbers
- 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 2 tbsp pickling salt
- 6 whole, peeled garlic cloves
- 2 sprigs of fresh dill
- 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
- 1/8 tsp mustard seeds
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, combine vinegar, water and pickling salt. Mix to melt salt, and once it reaches a boil, remove it from the burner and let cool.
- Meanwhile, slice your cucumbers how you’d like them pickled. You can do them tall and long, or I prefer them as ½” nuggets.
- Add your garlic cloves, dill, peppercorns and mustard seed to your jars or instant pickler, then add sliced cucumbers on top until about ¾ full.
- Add cooled brine over the pickles, making sure that the tops of all the cucumbers are completely covered, but leaving a little room at the top.
- Cover with the lid, and if you’re using an instant pickler, use the vacuum pump to remove all the air from your pickles, then let them refrigerate for at least three hours for half-sour pickles, and overnight for full-sour pickles. If you’re doing it the old fashioned way, you’ll want to let them marinate for at least two days.
- They should last and stay crispy for at least 1-2 months in the fridge.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 16 – 1/4 cup servings
- Calories: 5
- Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 1g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 0g
Keywords: Refrigerator Pickles
5 comments
by far and away, this is the BEST pickle recipe I have ever used. This is the second batch I have made as the first batch was gone in two days. This recipe deserves the 5 star rating plus 2 more.
Thank you! I LOVE pickles so I wanted this to taste exactly how I’d want them!
I used this same brine for some cabbage, zucchini, red onion and carrots I needed to use and they came out perfectly 🙂
I don’t believe I’ve used ACV in pickles before (I think I used white vinegar in the past), but in any case, this pickle recipe was the delicious. The pickles came out crunchy and nice. I am wondering if I should make a huge batch of these to can and enjoy in the winter. I love pickles.
★★★★★
Amanda is others: Has anyone tried processing these pickles, meaning, canned them for later use? I normally water bath process quarts of pickles and am wondering if any adjustment should be made to do so with this recipe?