This Classic Potato Salad is super creamy, crunchy and absolutely delicious. It’s the perfect side dish for your summer BBQs or any protein packed entree, super easy to make and ready in just 30 minutes.
We probably all have our favorite potato salad that we grew up with and I’m sure there are numerous versions out there, with mustard, without mustard, with cucumbers, with pickles, no celery, with olives, the list goes on. This one I’m sharing with you today is packed with pickles and crunchy celery.
Of course, the classic potato salad is really about potatoes and so there are lots of potatoes here. My favorite to use are Yukon gold potatoes, just because I love their yellow color. In reality this salad can be made with any kind of potatoes, even red skinned ones.
Potato Salad
- Short 15 min prep time
- Easy recipe done in 30 min
- 3 Step fast prep and cook
- Crowd Pleaser
This side dish originated in Germany and I’m ever so thankful that it’s become such a world wide renowned side dish! It’s a great blank canvas for tons of flavor so feel free to have fun with this side dish, I promise you’ll love whatever you come up with!
Ingredient Notes
- Potatoes – I used Yukon gold as they’re perfect for this recipe. Avoid using starchier potatoes like Russets, since they’ll get too mushy in this type of salad.
- Eggs – I use hard-boiled eggs for texture and extra creaminess.
- Celery – I love adding celery to my potato salad for a little added crunch.
- Onion – I used a red onion for a punchy acidic kick and some color.
- Pickles – I chopped up 3 medium sized pickles for lots of tang and crunch.
- Mayonnaise – I love using a good organic mayonnaise. If you’d like to make your own here’s my recipe!
- Mustard – This adds an extra kick of flavor as well as a bit of color. I usually use Dijon mustard in this classic recipe.
- Spices – Paprika and salt and pepper. I love to use a bit of paprika but it’s totally optional.
- Lemon juice – Freshly squeezed is always best!
- Herbs – Freshly chopped chives for adding to the salad and also for garnish.
How To Make Potato Salad
- Prepare the potatoes: Add the cubed potatoes to a large pot and cover with water. Season with the tsp of salt. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until they are fork tender, should take about 15 minutes. Drain and let the potatoes cool.
- Make the potato salad: In a large bowl, add the mayonnaise, dijon mustard, red onion, lemon juice, pickles and paprika and stir until well combined. Stir in the chives, celery, hard boiled eggs and season with salt and pepper. Add the potatoes and toss them until well combined. Alternatively, you can add all the ingredients to the bowl and gently toss until well incorporated.
- Chill and serve: Refrigerate until ready to serve.
How To Boil The Perfect Eggs
- Place eggs in a sauce pan and cover with at least 2 inches of cold water. Bring the water to a boil over medium heat and let the eggs cook for 10 to 12 minutes, depending on the size. If using very fresh eggs, add 1 teaspoon of salt to the water to help the eggs peel easier.
- Once ready, drain the hot water and run cold water over the eggs until the shells are cold. They’re ready to peel!
- You can add vinegar to the water before the eggs go into boil, it will prevent the shells from cracking!
FAQ’s and Expert Tips
FAQ’s
A watery potato salad can be caused by mixing the potatoes while they are too hot or the ingredients used in your potato salad (for example too much vinegar or other liquid). Make sure to drain potatoes well and allow them to cool to room temperature before mixing.
Yes you can. Drain the potatoes and rinse them under cool water. Transfer to a large bowl. it will help the potatoes to not get too mushy.
You can add lots of other ingredients to this salad, it’s really versatile. Some options are cooked chicken, dill, parsley, peas, corn, bell peppers, cayenne pepper, capers, to name a few.
Tips
- Use the right potato! Be sure to use a waxier potato to ensure it soaks up all that dressing, other potato varieties can leak water and result in a runny dressing. Yukon golds are best, avoid starchier potatoes like Russets.
- Salt your water while the potatoes boil. Just like pasta, potatoes soak up the salt and add some flavor to our dish.
- Chill the potato salad to give it time to meld the flavors. As the salad sits the flavors will develop, resulting in a much tastier potato salad.
How To Serve
This versatile little potato salad has been a long time world wide favorite for good reason. I love to pair this with any and all things BBQ, big meat dishes, and just about anything that feels or tastes summery!
- Instant Pot BBQ Pork Ribs
- Beer And Honey BBQ Chicken Skewers
- Instant Pot BBQ Pulled Pork
- Pork Loin Roast
Leftovers
You can store potato salad in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 – 4 days. This salad does not freeze well so I don’t recommend storing it that way as the eggs and the mayo based sauce will separate when thawed.
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Classic Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 3 pound potatoes peeled and cut into cubes (I used Yukon Gold potatoes)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 small red onion finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 3 medium dill pickles chopped
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ¼ cup chives chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 6 hard boiled eggs peeled and chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the potatoes: Add the cubed potatoes to a large pot and cover with water. Season with the tsp of salt. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until they are fork tender, should take about 15 minutes. Drain and let the potatoes cool.
- Make the potato salad: In a large bowl, add the mayonnaise, dijon mustard, red onion, lemon juice, pickles and paprika and stir until well combined. Stir in the chives, celery, hard boiled eggs and season with salt and pepper. Add the potatoes and toss them until well combined. Alternatively, you can add all the ingredients to the bowl and gently toss until well incorporated.
- Chill and serve: Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Video
Recipe Notes
- To get perfect hard boiled eggs all the time, add your eggs eggs to a saucepan, cover with at least 2 inches of cold water. Bring the water to a full boiling, you should see big boiling bubbles, turn off the heat and cover the pot. Keep the saucepan on the burner for about 10 to 12 minutes. At this point I like to run cold water over the eggs and peel them under the tap, this way it’s easy to peel the eggs and you get perfectly peeled eggs every single time.
- Use the right potato! Be sure to use a waxier potato to ensure it soaks up all that dressing, other potato varieties can leak water and result in a runny dressing. Yukon golds are best, avoid starchier potatoes like Russets.
- Salt your water while the potatoes boil. Just like pasta, potatoes soak up the salt and add some flavor to our dish.
- Chill the potato salad to give it time to meld the flavors. As the salad sits the flavors will develop, resulting in a much tastier potato salad.
- You can store potato salad in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 – 4 days. This salad does not freeze well so I don’t recommend storing it that way as the eggs and the mayo based sauce will separate when thawed.
I have made this three times and we love it. There is only one thing that I don’t understand. The difference between the look of yours vs mine. Yours looks like a creamy yellow and mine looks pink! Is it the difference in your paprika and mine. Would love to hear back. Great recipe!
It’s definitely the paprika!
This turned out tasting great and everyone loved it. The 30 minute timeframe was no where near accurate for me. I’m definitely not a professional cook so I followed the instructions as close as possible. It ended up taking about 2 hours. Maybe if I had completely cooked potatoes and hard boiled eggs on hand it would have taken 30 minutes.
Pickles – Sweet or Dill? You did not specify.
Dill pickles!
Looking forward to take camping (we have a fridge)
Do you use dill or sweet pickles? Can I use pickle relish?
Dill pickles! Sure!
PS. Re: hardboiled eggs. My friend has an InstaPot and does a dozen eggs at a time and says she’s never had better results. EVER. Just perfect eggs, no hint of that annoying greyish tinge around the egg yolk. Just a tip for everyone!
They are great! We have some step-by-step instructions here for IP hardboiled eggs 🙂
Hi Jo,
How did I never know to add a bit of fresh lemon juice to potato salad?!? This is an eye opener, and I’m excited to see how it freshens the potato salad up. Thanks for another amazing recipe. 🙂
We swear lemon juice makes everything better. Enjoy!
I love your recipes! This Potato Salad sounds divine, thanks for sharing! Just double checking on the Pickles, did you use Dill Pickles?
Yes! Let me know how you like it!
Having made this recipe several times in the past, I’ve made a few adjustments to suit our family and would like to share them with you.
The proportion of eggs and celery to potato is perfect, but I add a half cup of chopped radish for extra crunch. We also like lots of dill pickles so make sure there is at least 1 cup of chopped pickles. Growing up in farm country my family used half sour cream and half mayonnaise for dressing a potato salad, and always added a few spoons of vinegar and 1 heaping tablespoon of sugar to it. In this era of reducing added sugar I still miss that touch of sweetness, so add a tablespoon of Stevia and it works wonderfully. To balance the sweet I squeeze a half lemon so this gives 2 to 3 tablespoons of juice, an increase from the 1 in the original recipe.
One of the joys of following Jo Cooks recipes is that they are all lovely as written, but it’s also so easy to put my own stamp on them or to just experiment a bit.
Thank you Jo!
I decided to actually use a recipe for potato salad for a change. This was a huge hit. Thanks, Jo!
My pleasure, glad you enjoyed it!
I am always ready for reinventing the recipes. So this will be my BBQ side for dinner tomorrow. Canada is 150 and a change up won’t hurt one bit.
Here in this part of Canada, we use 1 cup mayo, 1/ 2 cup sour cream, and 2 tbsp. Dijon mustard and use those ratios if we make a smaller or larger potato salad. Also, celery, green onions and no pickles. Maybe sliced radishes. Oh, and no paprika. Interesting how potato salad differs from region to region. I know some people add pickle juice, which would give it a nice tang. I love potato salad and look forward to trying your version.
I made the Classic Potato Salad last week, sans the HB eggs (personal taste). Hubby loved it, and being British, he is definitely NOT a potato salad fan. I served it as part of a quasi-traditional US Memorial Day BBQ meal for friends, and they also liked it. Potato salad here in the UK is so different – this recipe is superb!
Wow this looks amazing!
Such a sweet doggie.