One day, as I finished off a jar of my favorite bread & butter pickles and was about to pour the leftover brine down the drain, it occurred to me that there must be something better I could do with those delicious liquids. It seemed such a shame to waste it like that! After a little searching, here is what I have found: there is a LOT you can do with leftover pickle brine!
- www.ilovepickles.org recommends: “Mix it with your favorite barbecue sauce to intensify the tangy flavor. Add 2 tablespoons per 1 cup of sauce and combine well. Spread over grilled chicken during the last few minutes of cooking on the grill.â€
- For a delicious potato salad, add 3 tablespoons juice to ¾ cup mayonnaise and mix with 3 pounds of cooked potatoes. For a classic macaroni salad, add 3 tablespoons to ½ cup mayonnaise and mix with 2 cups of cooked macaroni.
-
Easily mix marinades and salad dressings in this measure-mix-and-pour bottle. Available at Lehman’s in Kidron or online at Lehmans.com. Use as a marinade to soak your favorite veggies in while refrigerating.
- Combine ¼ cup pickle juice with one jar of barbecue sauce and one large bag of little beef sausages in a crock pot. Heat thoroughly and serve in crock pot to keep warm.
- Use to marinate chicken. Add 1 cup juice to ½ cup olive oil, 1 clove minced garlic, and ¼ cup fresh chopped cilantro in a zip-lock bag. Add one pound of chicken, roll it in the liquid and marinate for 1 hour before grilling.
- Put sliced cucumbers, onions, carrots and/or pieces of cauliflower in leftover pickle juice and in a couple of days they will be pickled.
-
Nutritious and delicious heat and serve chicken is ideal for quick meals, sandwiches and salads. Available at Lehmans.com or Lehman’s in Kidron, Ohio. Slip sliced onions into a jar of sweet-hot bread and butter pickle juice. The “pickled†onions liven up turkey, chicken or ham sandwiches, as well as hamburgers.
- Use leftover pickle juice to spice up deviled eggs, tuna salad and chicken salad.
- Being a strong acid, pickle juice can also be used as a weed killer!
- Drinking 1/4 c. of pickle juice has been found to help relieve muscle cramps.
- Some claim that drinking 1-2 ounces of pickle juice stops the hiccups.
- There are actually recipes out there which call for the use of pickle juice, such as this one for Pickle Soup, and even this one for Pickle Bread!
What about you, do you have any favorite uses for pickle juice?
I do it all the time with cukes and onions from my own garden…
We also use it as a marinade for pork chops :)
I marinate chicken breasts in straight pickle juice, it turns the chicken green and the kids think that is ‘awesome’. It tastes great, and my family so looks forward to this dish that they will eat pickles with the intent of finishing the jar so I can make the chicken.
I throw peeled, hard-boiled eggs in to marinate. I have some left over curried pickle brine that needs some.