Pickle roll ups are most perfect appetizer for any type of gathering! Only 3 ingredients, 10 minutes of prep time and guests will be raving! These pop in your mouth so easily and will be gone in no time.

Why This Recipe Works
During my first year in college, my roomie and I had a few foods that we ate all the time. Vanilla ice cream with a heaping pile of gummy bears on top and grilled cheese sandwiches made with Texas toast were at the top of the list. Another favorite were these totally delicious Pickle Roll Ups.
We’d load up on ingredients at Hy-Vee and go back to our dorm room and eat roll up after roll up until all of the ingredients were gone. This is the simplest little appetizer recipe and I have been in love with them since those college days.
I learned post-college that Pickle Rollups are an ideal party food because they are a super easy appetizer and guests will rave every single time. They are also a definite Midwest thing!
The salty-sweet combination is so simple yet so tasty. Pickle Roll ups are easy, guest-pleasing appetizers that are great for parties or football games or any type of gathering. Or for dorm-room snacking.
50+ Make-Ahead Recipes For Your Holiday Table
Do you feel overwhelmed just thinking about planning a holiday menu? Then you anticipate the exhaustion that comes after the meal has been eaten?
Within each recipe in this ebook are tips for making the recipe ahead of time to open up space for the people you’re excited to spend the holiday with. Sample menus included, along with mouth-watering photos and tried-and-tested recipes!
Recipe Ingredients
Corned beef – Use thinly sliced lunch meat for this recipe. Thinly sliced deli ham slices can be used in place of corned beef to create a ham roll up.
Cream cheese – Use full fat spread cream cheese or room temperature brick cream cheese (or soften a brick in the microwave before spreading).
Dill pickles – Either use small or medium whole pickles or large dill pickle spears.
How To Make Pickle Rollups
Lay four stacks of corned beef slices (2 per stack) on a flat work surface. Top each slice with a thick layer of cream cheese mixture (it does not have to be pretty) and a medium-sized dill pickle.

Roll the corned beef slices around the pickles, wrapping as tightly as possible. The cream cheese will act as the delicious glue that holds everything together.

Cut each pickle cream cheese roll into four equal slices and place on a serving plate.
Recipe Notes
- This is a great gluten-free appetizer to serve at parties.
- It helps to pat the pickle dry with a paper towel before rolling.
- Allow cream cheese to sit out prior to preparing your roll-ups up to an hour ahead so it’s ready to spread.
- Once you have sliced your pickles into roll-ups, place them back in the fridge so the cream cheese firms up on your bite size pieces.
- Wrap leftovers in plastic wrap and snack on them the following day!
Pickle Recipes
- Combine cream cheese, sour cream, fresh dill weed and chopped pickles to create a delicious pickle dip. Serve with veggies and crackers or spread onto flour tortillas to create a savory tortilla roll (aka pinwheels).
- Pickle pizza
- Save time by making quick sweet refrigerator pickles!
- Pickle relish
- Dill pickle pasta salad
How Long Can Pickles Last Unrefrigerated
If you have a jar of pickles staring at you and you are wondering whether to toss or eat, read this post about how long pickles can be left out of the fridge. You will learn everything you need to know about diving into a batch of pickled cucumbers safely.
FAQ About Pickles
Pickles can be considered both a fruit and a vegetable. Since they are made by bathing cucumbers in a brine liquid, they are a vegetable. However, technically speaking cucumbers are considered to be a fruit because of their seeds.
Pickles are made from cucumbers after soaking in a vinegar-seasoning mixture that well-preserves them.
Pickles are very low in calories, making them a healthy snack. Since the only ingredients are cucumbers, salt and vinegar, one medium pickle contains a mere 7 calories.
Pickles are keto-friendly when they don’t contain added sugar. Generally speaking, if following a keto diet, opt for dill or sour varieties and avoid sweet and bread and butter varieties.
Pickles are made when fresh cucumbers are fully immersed in an acidic pickling solution (a salty brine) until they are fermented.
Easy Appetizer Recipes
These Pickle Roll Ups are one of my favorite party foods ever, but if you need other ideas check out these yummy party food ideas:
- Air Fryer Fries with Seasoned Sour Cream
- Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches served with Homemade Pickle Relish
- Veggie Cheese Stromboli
- Easy Peanut Butter Cookies
- Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese
- Best Ever Chili
Will you help add value to Pip and Ebby?
If you make this recipe and love it, stop back and give it a 5-star rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a comment. THANK YOU!

Pickle Roll Ups Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 slices corned beef lunch meat
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 4 dill pickles small to medium in size
Instructions
- Lay corned beef in stacks of two on a hard surface.
- Spread 1 ounce of cream cheese onto each stack. Place a pickle directly in the center of each. Roll corned beef around the pickles and cut each roll into four equal parts.
Notes
- Allow cream cheese to sit out prior to preparing your roll-ups up to an hour ahead so it’s ready to spread.
- Corned Beef lunch meat can be substituted for ham or turkey.
- Once you have sliced your pickles into roll-ups, place them back in the fridge so the cream cheese firms up on your bite size pieces.
Are these Roll-Ups low-carb?
Yes, they are! Enjoy!
To kick these up, add horseradish to the cream cheese. Also use 2 buddig rounds ‘glued with a smear of cream cheese. Ice the pickle first with a fork then place on one end of beef and roll.
Great suggestions Carolyn! Thank you!
Love the idea but I have never seen round corned beef lunch meat and have looked all over my area!
Interesting! Well, it’s great with corned beef but you can also enjoy it on turkey or ham or roast beef.
Looks like the Budig corned beef in the little packages
You can use whatever kind of deli meat you prefer!
Generally, how many carbs are in these?
This is definitely a low carb recipe! I don’t have calorie information on my site but I know there are several free websites that calculate that easily based on the quantity, size and brand of food you use. I linked one below as a suggestion.
https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
What could u use besides corned beef
Ham, turkey or any lunch style thin sliced meat works deliciously!
I love it when my aunt makes these for thanksgiving. I was wondering if I could use this for an event? Whats the cost?
The cost for making pickle rollups? If you’re going to make a lot of them, I would recommend buying a large container of pickles at Costco or Sams club or any place that sells in bulk as well as your meat and cream cheese. The price will vary depending on where you buy your ingredients and how much you purchase. Good luck!
Thank you for sharing! I can’t wait to try some.
Yay! Let me know how you enjoy them!
My bosses wife used to make these for parties back in the 70s and when I told people outside work about they would say yuck. I loved them.
Me too. More for you!
Thanks!
These look so easy to make and my kids will love them. I shared it on my blog along with 6 other dill pickle recipes. Hope you’ll get a chance to hope on over and check them out!
http://www.diyhsh.com/2018/02/7-craving-busting-dill-pickle-recipes.html
That’s great – thank you for the link up! I saw some delicious recipes.
Megan
I’m curious to try with Corned Beef, my family always made them with sliced pastrami meat. The peppery meat gives it all a little kick.
I’m partial to corned beef. You’re gonna love it!
Megan
My family usually does ham, cream cheese, and green onion. I love pickles and never thought to try any other way.
Hi Tracey! I’ve never tried them with ham and green onion. It’s on my list now! Thanks for the inspiration!
Megan
We love these with sandwich ham and pickels Spears
I’ve never tried these with ham, Lynn. I’ll have to give it a try!!
Megan
My old college roommate used to make these for us, too! And like you, she used corned beef as well – they were sooo good! I haven’t had these in years. Thanks for jogging my memory; I will be making these very soon! I bet my 3 year old will love them, too!
Hi Liz! How funny that your college roommate made them, too! They are sooo good. Thanks for the comment!
Megan
So simple and so delicious! Thank you for posting this brilliant snack idea! I used sliced ham instead of corned beef and sprinkled my cream cheese with some fresh chopped dill. They were a huge hit this Christmas 🙂
Awesome snack! I add horseradish to it! Yummy!
I have been making these for years, thanks to my sister-in-law giving me the recipe..the only differences in her recipe is she uses dill pickle spears and herb cream cheese and she uses the dried beef that comes in a jar and is sold on the grocery shelf…I just can not stop eating these…delish………….
Love these!!! We call them redneck sushi and served them at my daughter's duck dynasty birthday party! We used dill pickles and pickled okra!
I have been making this forever, it's not a holiday/party without them. I add a tbsp horseradish & a couple dashes of whorsteshire (sp) sauce to the cream cheese……..yum!
To cut carbs even further, try cutting your pickles into spears (into fourths lengthwise) before wrapping them in the lunch meat. Nothing says you have to use a whole pickle!
My mom taught me about these 30 years ago. NOT a new recipe. The only problem is your version is not the proper recipe. If you want to make these correctly, do it this way.
Use same amounts of ingredients, just use these specific things:
Clausen Kosher Dill pickles – better crunch and flavor
Boars Head Tavern Ham – Most flavorful ham they make
Philadelphia plain original cream cheese.
I promice that if you use these three things, this will be the hit of your get together
Dcook: I Have NO IDEA how I have never noticed that mistake! Thank you for pointing it out. YES, I meant 4 pickles and definitely not 14! 🙂 Thanks!!
Megan