Chocolate fried pickles

People love snacks that are sweet. And sour. And crunchy. And salty.

Chocolate-covered pickles! Hello?

The carnival midway at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is famous for introducing wonderfully bizarre "carny food" like fried Twinkies, fried Beer, fried Coke, fried butter and, well, fried anything.

The truth is, while fried this and fried that are good for laughs — whoa, almost forgot fried Snickers — dining along the carnival midway is awfully great for what it is. If you like turkey legs, the rodeo has the biggest, most delicious turkey legs. Corn dogs? The corniest. Hot dogs? Half-pounders that can't be beat.

But chocolate-covered pickles? That took some extra-hard thinking.

Unlike New York Stock Exchange burger chains, which spend years and millions of dollars creating, test-marketing and introducing a new "secret sauce," things move fast on the carnival midway.

Last month, Mike Ousie was preparing his Pennsylvania Dutch Funnel Cake booths for the rodeo. His funnel cakes are famous on the state fair circuit. You really have to eat them hot from his cast-iron frying pans with powdered sugar or chocolate frosting on top.

A few years ago, Ousie began selling chocolate-covered strawberries. And he's always sold big juicy pickles.

"My daughter Kate said, 'Why don't you make chocolate-covered pickles?' It sounded strange to me at first, too. But I thought, you know, she might be on to something," Ousie said.

"I wanted to add something different that would get us some attention. Chocolate-covered pickles would certainly do that. Once I started playing around with the concept, things moved pretty quick," Ousie said.

They're $4.75.

Ousie first tried traditional chocolate coating, like a chocolate-dipped cone at Dairy Queen. He didn't like the waxy texture. He also wanted a richer, "more chocolaty" flavor. So he went to Sam's Club and bought some Ghirardelli chocolate bark. He melted the chocolate in a double boiler and dipped a giant dill pickle. He waited to see if the chocolate hardened properly and stuck to the pickle.

It did, but Ousie didn't think the chocolate flavor was right — not "chocolaty enough." So he tossed a few handfuls of Nestlé Toll House chocolate chips into the double boiler with the Ghirardelli chocolate bark. Perfect.

Then came an unexpected problem. Ousie was having trouble finding the right size pickles, and enough of them, for the huge crowds expected at the rodeo. He eventually ordered a truckload of dill pickles from the Cajun Chef company in St. Martinville, La. They arrived just in time for the rodeo's opening day.

Ousie makes his chocolate-covered pickles fresh each morning. He starts with cold pickles, so the chocolate hardens fast. Ousie rolls each chocolate-covered pickle in candy sprinkles or adds a swirl of white chocolate on top.

The chocolate shell is crunchy and brittle, and it crumbles in your mouth when you bite into the pickle. Ask for an extra napkin — these pickles are juicy and squirty.

Chocolate-covered pickles have become a surprisingly good seller for Ousie. His best customers are women. "And not pregnant women, either."

"When people bite into one, they get a surprised look on their face. It's like, 'Wow! That wasn't what I expected!' I think I've got a nice little product on my hands," Ousie said.