Last Updated October 12th, 2021 at 10:02 am by Lisa
Refrigerator Pickles with jalapeno zing, garlic, and fresh dill require no canning and make perfectly crisp and crunchy dill pickles. Pickling cucumbers at home is easy, anyone can do it. I promise you will enjoy the process as it is quite relaxing.
This dill pickle recipe will last about a month in the fridge, and you can give extra jars to a friend, neighbor, serve them at family gatherings, cookouts, or picnics.
Make spears, chips, and halves, and wait just one day to let the flavors develop. Once you can't wait any longer, crack open a jar...
Reader Comments
"OMG Great crunchy pickles. My husband & I absolutely luv them. About to make more." Iris
"These pickles are very good! Easy to make, just the right amount of salt. Next time, I will add more Jalapeno for a bit more heat!" Elena
"These are great! My family loves them!!" Monica
"Crunchy and delicious!" Beth
"Made these with dill seeds because that's what I had on hand. And processed them for canning. They are delicious. Hubby loves them." Melissa
What are Refrigerator Pickles?
Refrigerator pickles are made without CANNING! While they don't last as long as canned and processed ones, they are still just as crisp, crunchy, and delicious.
What are Quick Pickles?
Refrigerator pickles are also known as Quick Pickles. They are a quick and way to preserve vegetables short term without canning and processing. The veggies are packed with a pickling liquid of vinegar, water, and salt (sometimes sugar), mixed with spices, stored in the refrigerator, and used within a month.
You Will Need...
Let's Make Them!
sterilize your quart jars
- Each quart holds 32 ounces. Clean and sterilize your glass jars in the dishwasher.
- OR, in a pot of boiling water, sterilize for 10 minutes under water. Then sterilize the lids and rings in a pan of simmering water on the stove.
Prepare cucumbers and jalapenos
- Wash cucumbers and jalapenos in water with a splash of vinegar.
- Slice jalapeno into ¼" slices and set aside.
- Lay cucumbers on a clean cutting board, slice cucumbers into spears, halves, or ½" round chips. You can even cut the chips using a crinkle cutter so they look like commercial pickles.
- Place cut cucumbers in a colander, sprinkle 1 tablespoon sea salt all over the cut cucumbers and toss gently. This helps draw out the water in the cucumbers to keep them crunchy.
- Don't rinse off the salt and let cucumbers rest while making pickling liquid. If you have time, let the cut cucumbers rest with salt on them for up to 3 hours so they are crisp and the flavor is better. Even better if you leave them overnight salted in the fridge, but that is totally optional.
Make pickling liquid
- In a large pot, bring vinegar and 6 cups of water to a boil.
- Add 2 tablespoons salt, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, and whole peppercorns.
- Bring pickling liquid to a boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and cool till lukewarm.
Fill Jars
- In each jar, place 2 peeled garlic cloves, 2 fresh dill pieces (or dry dill seeds), and 5-8 jalapeno slices.
- Divide the cucumbers between the jars, they should fit in tight.
- Ladle lukewarm brine into jars and cover the cucumbers completely, fill within ½" of jar rim.
- Let jars rest on the counter uncovered for an hour.
- Put lids and rings on jars and keep the pickles in the refrigerator.
- Wait 24 hours before eating the for best flavor.
- Store in the fridge for up to 1 month.
PRO TIP: Occasionally, you need to refresh wilted herbs like dill. Simply cut off ½ inch of the bottom stem, and submerge in a bowl of ice water for 30 minutes.
You will be amazed as it springs back to freshness!
Discard any black or spoiled bits of dill, and use the freshest pieces in your recipe.
My Kitchen Garden
On the far right, you can see the pickling cucumber vine creeping up the trellis in early spring.
You can easily grow pickling cucumbers or buy them in stores.
And here is a pickling cucumber just before I picked it...
You can eat your refrigerator pickles in about 1 day. They will keep in the refrigerator for 1 month and will start to lose their crunch after 30 days.
Pickling cucumbers are the best for this recipe or use regular garden cucumbers. Do not use waxed cucumbers sold in supermarkets as they are used for slicing into salads, and the vinegar and salt will not penetrate them properly. Also, avoid using thin-skinned English cucumbers, they don't hold up well to pickling, and can make softer pickles.
Two possible reasons...
1. Failure to cut off the blossom end of the cucumber is important, as it has enzymes that make the cucumbers go soft. The stem end is indented and smooth, the blossom end is rough, simply trim it off.
2. Not salting the cut cucumbers to pull the excess water, and letting them rest for at least an hour.
You can use dry dill seed instead of fresh dill, 1 teaspoon dried dill seed equals a tablespoon of fresh dill.
So for this recipe, use 2 tablespoons of dill seeds.
My Easy No-Canning Pickling Recipes
Try one of these recipes that don't need to be processed and canned. Pickled Red Onions are an easy beginner pickle that takes 10 minutes to prepare and they're ready to eat in 30 minutes but taste even better after a couple of days. Pickled Green Beans (aka "Dilly Beans") jazz up relish trays, pop into Bloody Marys or toss pickled beans into salads.
Zucchini Pickles are ready in 30 minutes. These are refrigerator pickles (aka quick pickles) and last 30 days refrigerated. The pickling brine gives these a zippy flavor and crisp texture, and what a great way to use up the summer squash that grows so fast in our gardens...
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Jalapeno-Dill Refrigerator Pickles (No-Canning)
Equipment
Ingredients
jar ingredients
- 3-4 pounds pickling cucumbers
- 1 tablespoon sea salt to draw moisture out of cucumbers
- 4 fresh jalapenos sliced
- 8 peeled cloves garlic
- 8 pieces fresh dill or use 2 tablepsoons dry dill seeds
pickling liquid
- 5 cups distilled white vinegar
- 6 cups water
- 2 tablespoons whole mixed color peppercorns or black peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
- 3 tablespoons kosher sea salt
Instructions
sterilize your quart jars
- Each quart holds 32 ounces. Clean and sterilize your glass jars in the dishwasher.
- OR, in a pot of boiling water, sterilize for 10 minutes. Then sterlize the lids and rings in a pan of simmering water on the stove.
prep cucumbers and jalapenos
- Wash cucumbers and jalapenos in water with a splash of vinegar.
- Slice jalapeno into ¼" slices and set aside.
- Lay cucumbers on a clean cutting board, slice cucumbers into spears, halves, or ½" round chips. You can even cut the chips using a crinkle cutter so they look like commercial pickles.
- Place cut cucumbers in a colander, sprinkle 1 tablespoon sea salt all over the cut cucumbers and toss gently. This helps draw out the water in the cucumbers to keep them crunchy.
- Don't rinse off the salt and let cucumbers rest while making pickling liquid. If you have time, let the cut cucumbers rest with salt on them for up to 3 hours so they are crisp and the flavor is better. (Even better if you leave them overnight salted in the fridge, but that is totally optional for 10-12 hours.)
make pickling liquid
- In a large pot, bring vinegar and 6 cups of water to a boil.
- Add 2 tablespoons salt, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, and whole peppercorns.
- Bring pickling liquid to a boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and cool till lukewarm.
fill jars
- In each jar, place 2 peeled garlic cloves, 2 fresh dill pieces (or dry dill seeds), and 5-8 jalapeno slices.
- Divide the cucumbers between the jars, they should fit in tight.
- Ladle lukewarm brine into jars and cover the cucumbers completely, fill within ½" of jar rim.
- Let jars rest on the counter uncovered for an hour.
- Put lids and rings on jars and keep the pickles in the refrigerator.
- Wait 24 hours before eating the pickles for best flavor.
- Store in the fridge for up to 1 month.
OMG Great crunchy pickles. My husband & I absolutely luv them. About to make more.
Question- you mentioned that The brine can be reused if refrigerated. Do I need to reboil the brine again? Just wondering because the recipe says to let it cook before pouring over the cucs anyway.
Thanks for the recipe😋😋
Yippie!!! So excited you loved them Iris, well that is a great question. You can certainly reboil the liquid, but in my opinion, you don't need to. As long as it was kept cold! I reuse commercial pickling liquid a lot, I toss in clean slice veggies from my garden and it works. Thank you SO much for such a lovely comment, people want to know how the recipe works!!
Before putting the cucumbers slices into the jars do l rinse off the salt after letting them sit overnight? Thanks!
Michele, don't rinse off the salt and let cucumbers rest while making pickling liquid. If you have time, let the cut cucumbers rest with salt on them for up to 3 hours so they are crisp and the flavor is better. (Even better if you leave them overnight salted in the fridge, but that is totally optional.)
I want to use this recipe but I want to put them in a water bath canned to seal them instead of refrigerator pickles
Can I do that & if so how long in water bath canner
Hi Trish! Well, this is a refrigerator quick pickle recipe. You can, but I would advise following the Ball Canning Book for a reference. I do have plans to take a preserving/canning workshop course but until I do would say there are lots of recipes online for canning. One thing people do is remove the ends of the cucumbers and use pickling salt, with other strategies to keep the pickles crisp. I am not that skilled at canning YET, but want to be!! Good luck, you can also look at A Farmgirls Kitchen at this recipe for Bread and Butter pickles, which is a good reference https://afarmgirlskitchen.com/grandmas-bread-and-butter-pickles/#wprm-recipe-container-6744.
I'm so excited to try this! This year was my first year growing jalapeños so I've been looking forward to trying some recipes. Hoping for cucumbers next year so I can try this refrigerated pickle recipe straight from my garden. Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks so much Ashley! For some reason this year my jalapenos didn't do well, got a few cucumbers so far...hoping for more as Summer weather continues here in Southern California till well into October. It's a fun recipe, and skips all that canning! Enjoy your Jalapeno Dill Pickles....
These are great! My family loves them!! Can I save and any unused brine and use for a later batch? If so, any tips? Thanks again!!!
Oh YAY! and thanks for leaving a comment Monica. It helps everyone trust that the pickle recipe is a good one! It is so funny when I developed this recipe I had no idea it would be so popular and loved. As long as the brine has been kept cold, it should be fine for one more batch. Often I use commercial pickle juice that way! Also, you can use pickle juice in my Mac Salad recipe which makes it over the top good. Here is that recipe if you would like to make it? https://www.delicioustable.com/macaroni-salad-recipe/
Thank you so much for your quick reply and the tip on the commercial brine, I’ve often wondered about that.
I’m in luck as I have kept the brine cold and plan to use again tonight 🥰
I’m excited to check out the link for the other recipe you sent also. Much appreciated!!!
You are so welcome Monica, I am thrilled to have your comments....and for you to love the recipe!
Can this recipe be used for canning?
Hello Elizabeth, this recipe is just for quick refrigerator pickles (not for canning). If you are interested in canning, I would look for the Ball canning cookbook as a resource, it is considered to be a very good recipe source.
Looks great! Thanks so much for sharing! I love the idea of jalapenos
Wow I can't wait to try this! I love how thick these chips are cut. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Miranda, I used one of those inexpensive crinkle cutters...we appreciate your comment so much!
Oh my goodness yum!! We grow 40 feet of picking cucumbers each season and I cannot wait to make your delicious pickles. The flavors sound so good!!!