Silly’s, on Washington Ave., gave me my first pickle. Coated and deep fried ones, of course. I liked pickles just fine and well before these came into my life several years ago, but I do have to confess to having constant, insatiable cravings for these quite often. That craving struck last week while I was scratching my noggin over what to make for our Super Bowl meal. But, I didn’t want to deal with running out there and, one down side to Silly’s fried pickles is that they tend to be extremely greasy and don’t reheat well in the oven. So, I kind of just pushed the craving to the side. Then, of course, I realized that I could just make my own at home.
So, that’s what I did, using a recipe from everyone’s favorite bar with boobies, Hooters.
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika**
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper**
- 1 11 ounce jar hamburger dill pickle slices (I used Vlasic and half of a jar of Trader Joes Kosher Sandwich slices).
- 2 cups buttermilk
Instructions
Preheat 8 cups of vegetable oil to 350 degrees in a large pot. Drain dill pickles in a colander and then place into a medium sized bowl with the 2 cups of buttermilk. Place all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Take about a handful of the pickles out of the buttermilk and dredge into the seasoned flour. Shake off excess flour, and place battered pickles into hot grease. Be careful not to place too many pickles into the hot grease or the pickles won’t fry up crisp. Fry pickle slices until golden brown. Continue cooking pickles until all are done. Now you can make appetizers just like Hooters with this fried pickle recipe.
**I actually used a couple of tablespoons of Crazy Dick’s Cajun Spice Seasoning, instead of just the paprika and cayenne. I would recommend using any hot spice blend that you have at home to flavor up the flour.
Now, Silly’s spicy dipping sauce is half of the appeal of ordering the fried pickles, so I–with a tip from The Missus’ coworker–tried a hand at making that, too. It was good, but I still think I could have added a bit more spice and because I don’t really measure, these are the estimates.
- 1/4 cup Mayonnaise
- Few dashes of Franks Red Hot
- 1 tablespoon of Captain Mowatt’s Shark Bite Mustard
It wasn’t exactly like Silly’s, but it more than did the trick.
Edible Obessions 
