Football Finger Food - Fried Pickles

Fried pickles are a fantastic football Sunday, Monday or Thursday finger food. Now before you turn up your nose and frown at the thought of such a thing hear me out! Don't get me wrong, when I first heard of the concept, I could not even fathom the thought of a pickle being deep fried and dunked in sauce. I literally shook at the thought of it. My first encounter was while visiting a friend of mine in Indianapolis. We went out to dinner at this famous restaurant in Carmel, IN. We sat down in the booth and looked at the menu for appetizer. She blurted out, "Mmmmm, fried pickles!". What was my response? "Friend pickles!!!???, HELL no!". Well after much convincing they got me to try a few and while hesitant to admit at first, I loved them! This experience happened in 2007 and when I moved to the Lehigh Valley, I was in search for a place that served fried pickles. While enjoying lunch one day with a coworker, I notice that "fried pickles' was staring back at me as an appetizer options and I had to get them! Since I am a food lover and experimenter, I thought to myself "I can make the same thing at home!" Doing a bit of research on my own I found a few recipes and doctored them to my liking. Remember, don't judge until you have tried them :0)

1 jar of Claussen's Dill Pickle Spears
2 large eggs
2 tbsp of worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp of hot sauce
1/2 tsp of black pepper
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
1 cup of  flour
 Canola oil (for frying pickles)

 Take the pickles from the jar and let them dry a bit on a paper towel or sheet of wax paper. Take your eggs, and beat them slightly. Add all of your ingredients EXCEPT the flour. Once you have all of your dry ingredients mixed in the egg, mixed well to even distribute spices. This will be your dipping batter. Take a ziploc bag and add the cup of flour to it. Give the bag a shake to ensure the flour is loose and not full of lumps. Take a pickle spear and dip into your egg batter. Place in the bag of flour and give a shake. Take the pickle spear out of the bag and shake the excess flour off. Repeat this process one more time. This will make your pickles nice and crunchy! Use this method for all of your spears. Once you are done, place the pickle spears in the canola oil and deep fry until golden brown. Add your ranch dipping sauce to the equation and you are ready to enjoy some great GB finger foolishness!