Easy Sweet Refrigerator Pickle Recipe (2024)

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I grew up eating these sweet refrigerator pickles and now my kids love refrigerator pickles as much as I do. They’re a crispy, crunchy, bread and butter pickle that taste great on hamburgers or just as a side dish!

There’s something reminiscent about a crisp refrigerator pickle. Reminds me of warm summertime days eating my mom’s pickles. We will warn you, it’s hard not to want to eat all of these sweet pickles right out of the container.

Our sweet pickles are easy recipe to make, and great to have stored in the refrigerator to have on hand whenever a sweet and crunchy craving strikes.

We have had these in the fridge for weeks before and they stay super crispy–even when we slice them thin. Let’s get pickling!

Where’s the Recipe?

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Ingredients in Sweet Refrigerator Pickles

• Cucumbers: You’ll need about 7-10 cucumbers that you will slice into thin cucumber slices. We tend to like our cucumber slices thinly sliced, however it’s up to your personal preference. The thicker the cucumber slices, the more thick of a crunch you’ll get.
• White vinegar: The vinegar is the ingredient that turns the cucumber slices into pickles.
• Sugar: Although we tend to steer clear of usually using unrefined sugars in our recipes, this recipe just calls for the classic granulated sugar. The sugar dissolves nice and adds sweet to the pickles. We love homemade pickles.
• Salt: Would it even be a pickle without the delicious salty flavor?
• Celery seeds: You can find celery seeds in the spice section at all grocery stores.
• Optional: These sweet pickles can be easily customized to your liking. Some other great additions to this simple recipe are garlic cloves, mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, hot peppers, red onions, or fresh dill if you want to make dill pickles.

How to make Sweet Refrigerator Pickles

1. Thinly slice cucumbers, using a mandolin, knife, or any other tool you’d like. These crinkle cut knives are fun to use for pickles and other vegetables.
2. Add sliced cucumbers and all the remaining ingredients to a large container that closes and stir it up a little.
3. That’s it. You’re done. Seriously. Put the cucumber mixture in the refrigerator and wait patiently (or not patiently). You’ll be tempted to add more liquid to them, but it’s not necessary–they make their own. Just stir or shake them up a few times in the next few hours.

See Also

Kristen Bell shares her easy holiday pickle soup recipeEdna Lewis & Scott Peaco*ck's Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe on Food52One to Five: One Shortcut Recipe Transformed Into Five …31 Recipes for a Gloriously Extra, Next-Level Thanksgiving

Recipe Tips

• We like to store our sweet pickles in a large mason jar that is glass, but if you’re comfortable with using a BPA free plastic container you could also use that. You may also divide the ingredients between smaller mason jars.
• The hardest part is the waiting. As the refrigerator pickles sit, they’ll add more liquid to the container. Eventually they’ll get soft (but the skins will stay crunchy!) and they will wilt a little, making room for you to add more sliced cucumbers.
• I usually add more cucumbers about once a week to keep the container full. Your sweet refrigerator pickles will be ready to eat in a few hours, but will taste so much better after about 48 hours.
• We have a container full of these sweet refrigerator pickles all summer long–from March to about October here in Arizona! I slice more cucumbers every week or so and add a little celery seed and sugar every 3-4 weeks. Even if you’re not adding more and rotating through them, I think they’ll be safe for a few months at least!
• We don’t recommend freezing the homemade pickles. Our sweet pickles recipe is best enjoyed in the refrigerator.
• It’s almost nearly impossible to only eat one sweet pickle at a time. We love bringing our refrigerator sweet pickles to BBQs to share with family and friends.

Favorite BBQ Recipes

• Instant Pot Cauliflower Salad
• Beef Greek Kabobs
• Cottage Cheese Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Tuna Macaroni Salad