Any dill pickle lover is going to fall head over heels for this Dill Pickle Cheese Ball! It’s the perfect appetizer recipe for any party and will remind guests of those yummy dill pickle ham rollups, but this is easier to make!
NOTE: This recipe was updated in 2020 to include new text and new images. The recipe was written with more clarity but it still has the same ingredients as before.
This past week has been beyond crazy! I ended up in the dentist’s office twice I think. My nine-year-old was playing king of the hill on an icy hill at the school. Apparently he was pushed off the hill and ended up breaking his front tooth in half. His permanent front tooth that he’s going to need for the rest of his life! Ya, that one!
Maybe I was most sad about it because he has the absolutely most adorable buck teeth in the world! After it happened, he even told me he just wanted his buck teeth back!
You know how doctors’ offices are right? They provide you an opportunity to look at every magazine you don’t subscribe to and scroll through all the social media channels you really don’t want to waste time on.
I must admit our dentist is awesome, but there is plenty of time to read magazines. The little wait turned out to be a good thing this time because that’s when I found a recipe for Dill Pickle Cheeseball! I knew I needed it in my life!
Tips for making the BEST Dill Pickle Cheese Ball.
TIP #1: The recipe I found at the dentist’s office had dill pickles listed in the ingredients, which totally makes sense since this is a dill pickle recipe! I knew I didn’t want to fuss with chopping pickles so this recipe uses a jar of pickle relish.
TIP #2: Pickle relish has extra liquid in it, so be sure to drain the liquid off. I put it in a colander and let it sit for a few minutes.
TIP #3: Be sure to use room temperature cream cheese. Want to know the best way to get the cream cheese to room temperature? Pull it out of the fridge about minutes before you want to use it. Or, it can be defrosted in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
How to make Dill Pickle Cheeseball.
It seriously takes about 5 minutes to throw this recipe together! And honestly, I think it took less time than that for our family to devour it!
Here are the steps.
- Mix cream cheese, dill pickle relish, onion powder, and Worcestershire together. You can stop right here and serve it just like it is as a dill pickle dip if you’d like! Yum!
- Wrap cream cheese mixture in a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a ball. This easiest way to shape cheese balls.
- Refrigerate for about 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from plastic wrap and sprinkle with chopped dill weed, or roll the cheeseball in dill weed.
- Set on a plate and serve, or cover with plastic wrap until you’re ready to serve it.
What to serve with a Dill Pickle Cheese Ball?
This recipe really is a winner whenever you’re asked to bring finger foods for a party. It’s fun because there are lots of options for serving with it.
- Butter crackers like Ritz, other crackers are good too
- Serve it with carrots or celery sticks if you want to keep it low carb, or gluten free
- Spread on a tortilla and wrapped up like those yummy dill pickle pinwheels or rollups from the fifties too!
- Soften it in the microwave and spread it on a hamburger bun
Although I wouldn’t freeze this recipe it keeps for over a week in the fridge.
Fun variations for dill pickle cream cheese appetizers.
There fun ways to switch this recipe up to customize the flavors.
- Cooked and crumbled bacon can be added
- Chipped beef can be added
- Chopped ham can be added
- Pepper Jack cheese makes it a bit spicy
- Use cheddar cheese for a classic flavor
- Monterey Jack cheese is yummy
- Add dill weed to amp up the pickle flavor
- Use chopped pickles for bigger chunks of pickle
Other cream cheese appetizers you will love!
- Jalapeno Popper Bites with Puff Pastry
- Poolside Dip
- 2 Ingredient Cream Cheese Salsa
- Broccoli Dip
- Veggie Pizza
- Jalapeno Popper Pinwheels
- Pimento Cheese Spread Recipe
Recipes with pickles
Grab the recipe!
My sister and I used to eat dill pickles every single day for lunch. So I guess you could say I’ve been a lover for a long time!
This cheese ball has always been a winning snack, appetizer, or party food with me! I’ve pretty much checked out all the dill pickle snack and recipe ideas and this one is at the top of my list! I just know you’re going to love it too!
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Dill Pickle Cheeseball (Easy Appetizer)
Ingredients
- 8 ounces Cream cheese Room Temperature
- 1 cup Dill pickle relish drained
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 1/2 tsp Onion powder
- 1 1/2 cup Grated Cheese I used colby jack
- 2 tsp Dill weed Fresh is best
Instructions
- Mix room all ingredients except grated cheese.
- Stir in grated cheese
- Form into a ball.
- Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle with chopped dill weed, or roll cheese ball in dill weed.
- Serve, or refrigerate until serving time. If you want the cheese ball to be firm refrigerate for an hour before serving.
Ouch! Your poor kiddo — hope everything turned out well! My family loves pickles, this dip sounds perfect. I need to start actually making the recipes I find in magazinges. 🙂
This cheese ball sounds fantastic! It will disappear quickly at any party!
We love appetizers around here, so I am always looking for new dips. We are bug pickle fans, so this is a winner!
I’m a HUGE dill pickle fan, and I’m definitely going to have to give this a try! Your poor son… that sounds like it hurt!
That is rough about the tooth. 🙁 We had a baby tooth incident that turned gray, but nothing with permanent teeth, thank goodness. I hope everything is all fixed up now.
This dill pickle cheeseball sounds delicious! I absolutely LOVE pickles.
Me too! Dill Pickles are one of my favorites and this happens to be an irresistible way to eat them!
Always looking for tasty and new ways to prepare appetizers. This dill pickle cheeseball looks so delicious!
Appetizers are my favorite! This one is a little different but it’s always a hit!
I’m pretty sure my husband would eat that whole cheeseball in one sitting!
Haha! He’s a man after my own heart!
Hi! Looks yummy and so simple! Can I just use chopped up sliced dill pickles or is that too strong? Should it be relish?
It’s a little more work to chop all those pickles but it should work just fine. Let me know how it goes!
Your poor kid! I totally thought of the ‘All I want for christmas is my two front teeth’ song when you mentioned the story! Hopefully it all went well! Thank you for sharing this recipe, it looks delicious! I can’t wait to try it at home.
He was a little sad for awhile but he’s crazy as ever now! I have to admit I was totally in love with his buck teeth though! I can’t wait for you to try this cheeseball either! It’s so yummy!
Love your recipes.
Thanks for stopping by Lois! You are welcome here anytime!
I got a good chuckle out of this. My daughter had me make a dill pickle cheese ball when she was 5 or 6 and she is now 20. It is a little wild but so yummy. Great Minds!!!
That’s so fun! I bet she still loves pickels as much now as she did then! Have a fantastic day!
What is the measurement on the grated cheese? You say 1 1/2 but is it cups? Just wondering. Looks delicious.
Thanks for pointing that out! Yes, it’s 1 1/2 cups grated cheese! Looking at this recipe makes me want to make it again!
Could’ve been better. Following this recipe, it was too runny. Probably could’ve used another 8pz of cream cheese.
I’m sorry to hear that. Mine has never turned out runny. Did you let it sit in the fridge to set?
What is a T? It should be more clear this could change the recipe exponentially. And I had to sift through all of the comments that weren’t even from people that ACTUALLY Made the recipe. That’s really annoying.
Hi Jen! Sorry for your frustration! T is a standard abbreviation for Tablespoon! Merry Christmas!
Hi Amy! I made this and it turned out perfectly! It is so good. It’s so refreshing to see you being so nice to people on here. It’s just my opinion that if you are going to be cooking anything, you should know that when you read a standard recipe, T is for tablespoon. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season!!!
Can’t go wrong with Dill Pickle anything right? I try and remember to be nice because that’s how I would like to be treated. Sometimes I wish other people would stop and think of a kind way to phrase their comment/question instead of spatting off. I think they would be happier in the end. It’s the kind comments and well wishes that make blogging so rewarding! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a kind words! Merry Christmas to you too!
I used real Claussen brand pickles that I diced up instead of disgusting relish and it turned out amazing.
Real pickles would taste fantastic! Glad it turned out so well for you! For those of us on a super tight schedule pickle relish is a great time saver! Either way this cheeseball is sure to make dill pickle lovers happy!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen dill pickle relish before, only the sweet stuff.
It’s usually by the pickles. I buy it for my hotdogs. It saves time over having to chop pickles, but you could if you needed to.
I love this cheeseball! So tasty and easy to put together. I have used this to spread on thin sliced ham and rolled up for an appetizer. Heavenly!
Have made this several times and people LOVED it !!!
Yay! I’m glad you love it, and so do your friends! It’s such a fun change of pace when it comes to appetizers! Dill pickle lovers unite!
My Friend at work made this recently for our monthly
Birthday Luncheon and it was AMAZING and I don’t even
like Cheese Ball’s due to the fact I don’t like cold cheese.
Will definitely try this for my Family! Thank You!!
How fun! Having a monthly birthday luncheon would be a blast! A Dill Pickle Cheeseballs would be such a fun recipe to share! I’m so happy you enjoyed it and can’t wait for you to make it for your family!
Tends to be a fairly salty dip. Perhaps using half the recommended amount of pickle relish at first then add more to taste.
Dill pickles and cheese are both salty foods and so this cheeseball is pretty salty. It’s also easy to confuse onion powder with onion salt and if that happened the cheeseball would be even saltier. If you’d like to decrease the salty flavor I’d suggest cutting back a bit on the dill pickle relish and adding a bit of dill weed so you still get that yummy dill flavor. You could also look for low sodium dill pickle relish.