These refrigerator pickles are easy and so, so tasty. If you’re not careful you might just eat the entire bucket!

This easy refrigerator pickle recipe, aka Bucket Pickles or Ice Cream Pickles is probably the quickest, fastest way to make super delicious pickles. The only hard thing about making these mouthwatering pickles is having to wait 3 days for them to process in the fridge! Store-bought pickles don’t even come close to the amazing flavor of these homemade pickles. They they are by far my favorite garden food of the season!

I love the days when we can make an entire lunch out of sweet corn, refrigerator pickles, and a sliced tomato! Whether you have an abundance of cucumbers, or need to run to the grocery store to buy them, this easy recipe is a must make!

These are also great for those summer picnics that sneak up on you. Realize you were asked to bring a dish to pass and all you have to do is grab this bucket from the fridge, a pair of tongs and away you go!

Why You’ll Love Making These Quick Refrigerator Pickles

• They are quick to make, give you an entire bucket worth of pickles, and they are consistent! They will turn out perfect every single time!

• Have a summer picnic to head to? Just bring along a jar of these pickles and share them as your contribution! They are also a huge hit at our fantasy football parties! What’s better than being able to bring your own pickles!

• Everything you need to make these pickles can be grown right at home and you can enjoy the great flavors including fresh dill and fresh cucumbers.

• The first thing you need to do is demolish that bucket of ice cream in your freezer. Our cows will thank you and you’ll never be sorry!

Ingredients you’ll need to make Bucket Pickles

• A clean, empty ice cream bucket with a lid
• A kettle for cooking the brine

• 1 Ice Cream Bucket full of Sliced Cucumbers. (if you are buying them from the store, Kirby cucumbers are the best kind of cucumbers to get as they are known to be great for pickling)
• Chopped Onions (1 for the bottom of the bucket & 1 for the top of the bucket)
• 6 Heads Dill (green seeded) (3 for the bottom of the bucket & 3 for the top of the bucket)
• 1.5 tsp. Garlic Powder (3/4 tsp for the bottom of the bucket & 3/4 tsp for the top of the bucket). Make your own Garlic Powder and you’ll never want to go back to the store bought stuff!

Pickling Brine

1. 6 cups Water
2. 3 cups White Vinegar (you can also use apple cider vinegar)
3. 1/3 cup Canning Sea Salt
4. 3/4 cup Sugar

Mix and match ingredients

There are a handful of ingredients you can add to this recipe!

• Mustard seeds
• Red pepper flakes
• ​Red onions
• Whole black peppercorns 
• Garlic cloves (as opposed to garlic powder)

Steps to make Homemade Refrigerator Pickles

1. Combine the brine ingredients (water, vinegar, sea salt, and sugar) into a large kettle and boil for 5 minutes
2. Let brine cool down (you do not want to put them in hot brine!). Slice up cucumbers and onion in the meantime. We cut the cucumbers into pickle spears but if you prefer smaller pieces or the “pickle chips” look known to butter pickles or sweet pickles, simply chop up to cucumber into rounds as if you were to snack on them
3. Add 3/4 tsp of garlic powder, 3 heads of green seeded dill, and 1 chopped onion to your ice cream bucket
4. Add in all of the sliced cucumbers to ice cream bucket
5. Add another 3/4 tsp of garlic powder, 3 heads of green seeded dill, and 1 chopped onion to your ice cream bucket
6. Pour cooled brine over entire bucket. This will be brimming but try your best not to overfill
7. Cover the ice cream bucket and place in the refrigerator for 3 days
8. Enjoy! Keep pickles stored in the brine in the refrigerator.

Making Easy Refrigerator Pickles: The Video!

Tips about making these pickles

• Make sure to allow the brine to cool before adding it to the pickles

• Do wait the entire 3 days in the refrigerator as recommended. I know, I know it’s super hard to wait those 3 days but this will give you the best results for these crunchy delightful pickles – I promise it’ll be worth wait!

• To get crisp pickles and to make them crunchy as possible, after you have washed and sliced them, let the slices sit in a cold water/ice water bath for 15-20 minutes

• If you are gifting these pickles or bringing them to an event, place the cucumbers in a mason jar, quart jar, or any other canning jars and pour some pickling liquid on top – you can bring these jars of pickles anywhere! 

Questions People are asking about these Refrigerator Pickles

Refrigerator Pickle Printable Recipe Card

Pin for later!

Other uses for this Homemade Pickle Recipe:

Use these pickles as a condiment to our other delicious recipes:

Homemade Sloppy Joes

Marinated Ham 

Other Hearty Sol Recipes you might like:

Sourdough Starter