Southern Fried Pickles

My sister-in-law, Erica is a true southern gal; born and raised in North Carolina. If you live around here, you'll know how rare it is to meet someone who is actually originally from North Carolina. Erica is a self described "terrible cook." However, I beg to differ. She has taught me a lot about southern cooking and tradition. Her Southern Fried Pickles are to die for! She has informed me that all southern women have their own recipe for breading and it's a heavily guarded secret. So consider yourselves lucky that she has decided to share her secret with us!

Southern Fried Pickles
Yield: 4 servings

16 oz jar of dill pickles
1 cup flour
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
2 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cayenne powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk

• Preheat a deep fryer or heavy bottomed dutch oven filled with 1" of oil to 375° F.
• Drain the jar of pickles but do not rinse them.
• Combine the flour, bread crumbs, seasoned salt, onion, garlic, and cayenne. Set aside.
• Whip together the eggs and milk.
• Soak the pickles in the egg mixture for 1 minute.
• Toss the pickles in the flour and bread crumb mixture then shake off any excess.
• Fry the pickles until golden brown, about 2 - 3 minutes.
• Serve with ranch - we mixed a little sriracha sauce into our ranch!

Note: The first time I ever made these, I made the grave mistake of getting bread and butter pickles. It was terrible. I don't know how much more I can say about this other than, "just don't." Make sure to get dill pickles.

And in case you didn't think I was completely insane yet... This post has inspired the name of Erica's new puppy - Simon James Alexander Ragsdale Picklesworth III M.D. but you can just call him Professor Pickles for short.