I worked at Hooters for a year and a half and I was there when they first introduced fried pickles. We had to upsell them to every customer. I hate pickles but they are soooo yummy. Well anyways.. I asked a cook how to prepare these pickles and there was nothing special to it. He said that you just take the wet bread and butter pickles and dip them in plain flour then you drop them in hot grease. They slice their own pickles daily so that may have something to do with it. As far as the Zesty Ranch dipping sauce goes... it is just hooters hot sauce and ranch dressing. I tried this recipe and it tasted similar, but not AS good. I don't think this guy would lie to me but it is hard to recreate everything.