Featuring the perfect texture, creaminess and balance of flavors, this classic potato salad recipe is simply the BEST! Whether you enjoy it at home or take it on a picnic or to a potluck, this is sure to be a hit!
How to Make The BEST Potato Salad
Potato salad is one of those dishes practically everyone claims they have the best recipe for. (I know, dangling participle. But the grammatically correct way just sounds so darned highfalutin!) But most potato salads are downright uninspiring. In my experience most of them are either too dry, too wet, too mushy, not salty enough, lack flavor, and are just overall bland. This creamy Classic Potato Salad features the perfect balance of textures and flavor and is a potato salad you can feel proud to show off at your next barbecue, picnic, potluck or family dinner!
Before we get to the recipe, let’s dispel a commonly held belief about potato salad and food poisoning, because the two get thrown together a lot. Myth-buster: Despite common belief that the mayonnaise is the culprit, the fact is that mayonnaise can actually help inhibit the growth of food-borne bacteria because of its high acidity level (vinegar, lemon juice, salt). Plus store-bought mayonnaise is highly pasteurized. So when you hear about potato salad having caused food poisoning, what actually caused it? Usually it’s the protein-based ingredients added to the salad like chicken, ham, tuna, eggs, or even the potatoes themselves. Cooked starchy vegetables like potatoes can be an incubator for bacteria if not stored properly. Another reason for bacteria growth has to do with the preparation of the potato salad – it involves a lot of hand contact with the ingredients (eg, chopping, dicing, slicing). So the takeaway here is to just wash your hands and the vegetables thoroughly, use a clean working surface, and store your potato salad properly and you can wave goodbye to food poisoning.
Classic Potato Salad Recipe
Let’s get started! Chop the onions, celery and pickles and place them in a large mixing bowl.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the sauce ingredients.
Add the potatoes and chopped eggs to the mixing bowl along with the mayonnaise mixture. Carefully stir the ingredients together until combined being as careful as you can not to break up the potatoes too much.
Let the salad refrigerate for at least a couple of hours before serving. This salad gets better and better the longer it sits and is fantastic the next day! Enjoy!
Be sure to try these other delicious salads:
Chicken Salad Coleslaw Macaroni Salad Thai Quinoa Salad Crunchy Broccoli Salad Freezer Slaw Pea Salad German Cucumber Salad Waldorf Salad Moroccan Chicken Salad Pepperoni Pizza Pasta Salad Sauerkraut Salad Coronation Chicken Broccoli Pasta Salad
Originally published on The Daring Gourmet on Jul 18, 2015 Read more about me…
title: “Classic Potato Salad” ShowToc: true date: “2024-09-15” author: “Mark Chaney”
We like to serve potato salad alongside Filthy Burgers or a Hot Dog Bar for a classic summer barbecue side dish. However, potato salad also makes regular appearances on our dinner table alongside Herb Rubbed Pork Roast, Southwest Chicken Legs, or Glazed Meatloaf.
Traditional potato salads are filled with plenty of hard-boiled eggs, tart pickles, and olives. I really like using dill pickle relish (vs chopped pickles) for potato salads. This allows the awesome dill flavor to mix beautifully throughout the salad. There are endless variations on potato salad dressings and I enjoy mayonnaise dressings best. While my family enjoys just a tiny bit of mustard in the mix (and often none at all) feel free to increase the mustard here to your liking. If you enjoy a dominant mustard flavor in your potato salad, you can increase the mustard up to ¼ cup without changing the salad too much.
Potato Salad Ingredients
We took a little inspiration from each of our favorite recipes to make the best potato salad of them all. Plenty of hard-boiled eggs, olives, pickles, and green onions add up to so much deliciousness. These are classic potato salad favorites and they work beautifully together. Tossed with a creamy, tangy dressing with plenty of spices for flavor, this salad pairs nicely with grilled chicken, steak, or ribs. For something a little different, serve a scoop of potato salad alongside New Orleans Style Gumbo. Our friend Michelle introduced my family to this combination when I was a little girl and it was incredible. Honestly, is there a single meal that isn’t made better with a scoop of potato salad on your plate?
Potato Salad Recipes
You can use any potato you like to make a potato salad. However, I love the thin-skinned Yukon Gold potatoes. There’s no need to peel gold potatoes and the texture stays nice for the salad. If you decide to use russet or red potatoes, you’ll want to peel the potatoes for the best results. There are endless delicious variations for homemade potato salad! Bright and fresh Lemony Dill Potato Salad, spicy Cholula Potato Salad, tangy hearty Antipasti Potato Salad, Mexican Street Corn Potato Salad, spicy Jalapeno Popper Potato Salad, and Deviled Egg Potato Salad are all popular potato salads. Savory chunks of chicken mingle with sweet grapes, crunchy walnuts, and crisp apples in this easy Chicken Waldorf Salad. This is a lunch you will put on repeat! Have you tried a roasted potato salad? You can serve roasted potato salad cold, warm, or room temperature, they’re delicious however you serve them.
Classic Potato Salad
