This easy Dill Pickle Salad was made for anybody who loves pasta salad and dill pickles. It's a combination of tender rotini pasta with crispy bacon pieces, onions, cheese cubes, crunchy Dill pickles, pickle juice, and a homemade creamy dressing.
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Easy cold pasta salads like this Dill Pickle Salad, are great to make for parties, bbq's, picnics, and any other time you need a fun side dish. Potlucks are another wonderful time to bring other pasta salads, like my Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad or my Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad.
Why this perfect side dish works
If you enjoy pickles and love pickle-flavored things, this is for you. With the diced pickle, the pickle juice, and the fresh dill, the dill pickle flavor really shines through.
Using a homemade salad dressing means you know exactly what the dressing ingredients are.
Ingredients Needed
- Pasta: Or any other small tender pasta will work.
- Bacon: I like to use a thick cut smoky bacon.
- Pickles: I use chopped baby dill pickles and juice.
- Cheese: Sharp cheddar cheese cut into small cubes.
- Onion: Diced red onion and can be swapped for white onion.
- Mayonnaise: Use the real stuff.
- Sour cream: Regular or fat-free will work.
- Herbs and spices: Fresh dill, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
How to make dill pickle salad
- Step 1: Add diced bacon to your large skillet.
- Step 2: Cook until crispy. Remove and place on paper towels to drain.
- Step 3: Using the directions on the back of the pasta package, cook until al dente. Drain and rinse pasta. Place in a large bowl and toss with dill pickle juice.
- Step 4: Add cheese cubes, chopped dill pickles, diced red onions, and cooked bacon. Stir.
- Step 5: In a small bowl, add the ingredients for the dressing and stir.
- Step 6: Pour creamy dill pickle dressing over the pasta salad and toss to coat well. Refrigerate before serving.
Delicious Pasta Salad Recipe Tips
- Try adding insome diced red bell pepper, celery seed, green onions, other fresh shredded cheese like mozzarella, pepper Jack, Colby Jack cheese, or feta cheese.
- I recommend refrigerating for a bit before serving, but this salad has even more delicious flavor the next day! Just give it a good stir before serving.
- Make sure you store this creamy dill pickle pasta salad in the fridge when you aren't actively serving it because you don't want it to spoil or start going bad. You can cover with plastic wrap and store it appropriately.
- Sour cream or mayo can be swapped for greek yogurt. This will change the flavor a bit, but will still be delish!
- Adding shredded chicken is a great way to turn this Dill Pickle Pasta Salad recipe into more of a main course, rather than a side dish.
Recipe Faq's
For this dill pickle salad, you should use dill pickles! If you like other pickle varieties, you can try them and see what other creations you can make. This is the perfect way to use up any extra pickles you have in the cupboards.
Absolutely. You can swap the rotini out for any other short pasta shape. Bow tie pasta or macaroni would also work nicely, but you can use any other favorite shape from any of the best pasta salads
out there.
Yes, this is a great make-ahead recipe. I suggest adding half of the dressing when making ahead. Then add the other half right before serving.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. Overtime the dressing will break down the pasta and may change the texture. If you need to loosen it up, add a few tablespoons of mayo and stir. I wouldn't recommend trying to freeze this. The texture will change when thawing and may alter the flavor.
More Pasta Salads
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Dill Pickle Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 16 ounce box short pasta Rotini, elbows, shells
- 6 slices thick cut bacon
- 1/3 cup dill pickle juice
- 2 cups chopped dill pickles
- 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese cut into small cubes
- 1 cup red onion diced
Dill Dressing
- 1 ½ cups Mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup dill pickle juice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Heat a large pot of water and boil the pasta to al dente according to the pkg directions. Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.
- Heat a large skillet on medium high heat and add the diced bacon, cook until crispy and remove to a paper towel.
- Add the cooked pasta to a large bowl with the pickle juice and toss.
- Mix in the chopped dill pickles, cheese, red onions and cooked bacon and mix.
- In a small bowl mix the dressing ingredients until combined.
- Pour the dressing into the pasta and mix until well coated.
- Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Fantastic Cindy so happy you love it!
Love this recipe. The dill adds great flavor. Thank you.
Fantastic so happy you loved it Jake 🙂
My wife and I love everything dill... So when we saw your recipe we couldn't way to try it! Made dill pickle pasta salad last night following your tips and it came out amazing. So glad we have leftovers for lunch. Thanks so much!
Glad you enjoyed it Saska 🙂
I had a bunch of fresh dills to use up and found this recipe while searching Pinterest. I liked the simple ingredient list and already had all of the stuff I needed to make it. Turned out great! Def will make again.