Texas Christmas Pickles Recipe

This famous Texas Christmas Pickles Recipe is a sweet and spicy holiday tradition, which uses a massive amount of sugar and hot sauce to transform ordinary dill pickles into candied, crispy gems. It’s a unique holiday gift, ready after curing on the counter for 1 week.

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Texas Christmas Pickles Ingredients

1 gallon Dill Pickles, drained: The sour base is essential. Do not use sweet pickles; you need the vinegar and salt of the dills to balance the sugar.
1 (5 ounce) bottle Hot Pepper Sauce (such as Tabasco): Provides the signature kick. The vinegar in the hot sauce also helps preservation.
5 cloves Garlic, chopped: Adds a savory, aromatic punch that cuts through the intense sweetness.
1 (5 pound) bag of White Sugar: It seems like a lot, but this heavy saturation is necessary to draw moisture out of the pickles (osmosis) and candy them, making them dark and incredibly crisp.

How To Make Texas Christmas Pickles

Prep the Pickles: Drain the brine from the gallon jar of pickles (discard the brine or save for other uses). Slice the whole pickles lengthwise into spears or thick chunks, then return them to the original gallon jar.
Add Heat and Aromatics: Pour the entire bottle of hot pepper sauce and the chopped garlic over the sliced pickles in the jar.
The First Sugar Feed: Pour in about 1/3 of the 5-pound bag of sugar. It will look like it won’t fit or dissolve, but it will.
Agitate: Close the lid tightly. Gently tip the jar back and forth and rotate it several times to help the sugar distribute and mix with the pickles and hot sauce.
The Curing Process: Leave the jar on the counter at room temperature for about 1 week. Do not refrigerate yet.
Daily Feeding: As the sugar in the jar dissolves into a syrup and the pickles shrink, add more sugar from the bag. Do this throughout the week, gently tipping the jar daily to mix, until all 5 pounds of sugar have been added and fully absorbed.
The Result: By the end of the week, the pickles will have transformed into a dark green color and will be significantly crispier/crunchier than when you started.
Pack and Seal: Just before the pickles are ready, inspect four 1-quart jars. Immerse them in simmering water for 5 minutes to sterilize. Transfer the finished pickles and the thick syrup into these jars. Seal with lids and rings.

Recipe Tips

The Science of Crispness: You might wonder how adding sugar makes them crispy. The high concentration of sugar creates a hypertonic environment, drawing water out of the pickle cells, which shrinks them and creates that signature “snap.”
Don’t Rush It: If you dump all 5 pounds of sugar in at once, it will form a hard rock at the bottom. Adding it in thirds allows the liquid drawn from the pickles to dissolve the sugar gradually into a syrup.
Why “Christmas” Pickles? Aside from being a popular homemade gift in Texas during the holidays, the red Tabasco sauce and dark green pickles give them a festive color palette.
Variations: As the recipe tip suggests, you can do this with jalapeños (omitting the hot sauce) to make “Cowboy Candy.”

What To Serve With Texas Christmas Pickles

Cream Cheese and Crackers: Pour the syrup over a block of cream cheese and serve with crackers for a classic Southern appetizer.
Holiday Ham: The sweet heat cuts through salty holiday meats perfectly.
Charcuterie Boards: A unique, spicy addition to cheese boards.
Potato Salad: Chop them up to add a sweet-hot kick to potato salad.

How To Store Texas Christmas Pickles

Refrigeration: Once the week-long curing process is complete and they are transferred to smaller jars, store them in the refrigerator. They will keep for up to 1 month (often longer due to the high sugar and vinegar content).
Not for Canning: This is a “refrigerator pickle” method. Do not attempt to pressure can or water-bath process these for shelf storage, as the heat will destroy the crispy texture you worked all week to achieve.

Texas Christmas Pickles Nutrition Facts

Calories: 65 kcal
Carbohydrates: 17g
Fat: 0g
Protein: 0g
Sugar: 16g

Nutrition information is estimated per pickle spear and includes the syrup.

FAQs

Can I use pickle chips instead of whole pickles?

Yes, you can use a gallon of hamburger dill chips. They will cure faster and absorb the sugar more quickly, so you might be done in 4-5 days instead of a full week.

Do I really leave them out at room temperature?

Yes. The extremely high sugar concentration and the vinegar/salt from the original pickles and hot sauce create an environment that inhibits bacterial growth during the curing week. Once fully cured, move to the fridge.

Why did my pickles shrivel?

Shriveling is normal! That is the water leaving the cucumber cell structure. It concentrates the flavor and ensures they are crunchy rather than soggy.