Is it even a backyard barbecue if there’s no potato salad? It’s the ultimate hot-weather side dish, hearty enough to be satisfying and versatile enough to go with all your summer favorites. Burgers? Absolutely. Fried chicken? You bet. Steaks and chops? A slam dunk.
Even better, this potato salad recipe is inexpensive and easy to make. All you need are potatoes, eggs and a few pantry staples; no exotic ingredients necessary. Everybody needs a recipe for potato salad in their repertoire, and this one is as classic as they come. Once you’ve learned how to make potato salad in a standard version like this one, you’ll be ready to improvise and find a variation you can call your own.
Potato Salad Ingredients
- Potatoes: Potatoes give this salad most of its bulk and provide a neutral palette for the flavoring ingredients. They also make the salad hearty and filling, a summer side dish that can fill you up without heating you up.
- Eggs: Boiled eggs bring a punch of protein to the salad, and a pleasing textural contrast. The yolks also thicken and color the dressing, and slices of extra boiled eggs are a classic garnish for potato salad.
- Onion: Onion adds a pungent savory flavor to the relatively low-key potatoes, and it complements the other flavoring ingredients in the salad as well.
- Mayonnaise: Mayo acts as a base for the dressing, adding richness and a mild tang. Physically it also helps moisten and lubricate the diced potatoes, making them easier to eat.
- Evaporated milk: Evaporated milk thins the mayonnaise and enhances its deceptively “creamy” flavor and texture (mayonnaise contains no dairy ingredients).
- White vinegar: The sharp tang of white vinegar cuts through the richness of the salad’s dressing, helping balance the flavors.
- Mustard: Like the vinegar, mustard adds a tang to the dressing, and like the onion, it packs an assertively savory flavor that makes the other ingredients sing.
- Sugar: Sugar helps balance the sharp tang of the vinegar and mustard, mellowing them and helping them meld smoothly with the salad’s other flavors.
- Paprika: Paprika isn’t a core ingredient in this recipe, and it can be omitted if you don’t have it (or if it’s old and stale), but it’s both an eye-pleasing garnish and an underrated flavoring ingredient in its own right.
Directions
Step 1: Prepare the potato salad ingredients
Simmer the potatoes in a large pot until they’re tender, then drain them and set them aside until they’re cool enough to handle. Peel the potatoes and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Halve the boiled eggs, and set the yolks aside. Dice the egg whites, and add them to the potatoes along with the chopped onion.
Editor’s Tip: Peeling the potatoes is optional, and it’s purely a cosmetic step, so leave the peels on if you like ’em that way. Boiling your potatoes in their skins, either whole or in the largest pieces possible, helps them retain their firm texture and avoids sogginess.
Step 2: Mix the dressing and finish the salad
Mash the reserved egg yolks in a small mixing bowl. Add the mayonnaise, milk, vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt and pepper. Whisk until the dressing ingredients are combined, then pour the mixture over the potatoes and toss well. Taste the salad and adjust the seasonings if needed, until the flavor is well balanced. Spoon the salad into a serving bowl and smooth its surface, then garnish it with additional slices of boiled egg and a generous sprinkling of paprika, if desired.
Editor’s Tip: The potatoes will absorb more flavor from the dressing if they’re still warm when you combine and toss them. Some recipes call for this explicitly, but even the ones that don’t will generally benefit from it.
Potato Salad Variations
- Sprinkle in some dill: Add a generous handful of chopped fresh dill to the dressing, and garnish the finished salad with additional fronds. When fresh dill is unavailable, use diced dill pickles and substitute the pickles’ brine for the white vinegar.
- Try it with bacon: Fry several strips of bacon until crisp, then crumble them and add them to the salad while you’re combining the potatoes and dressing. Making it a bacon potato salad adds a smoky, savory note that enhances the potatoes.
- Add apples: Stir peeled, diced apples into your potato salad along with the dressing. They add a fresh, bright flavor and a juicy crunch to the salad, and it’s a surprisingly successful combination.
Can you make potato salad ahead of time?
Unlike green salads, potato salad lends itself to advance preparation. Making it at least a day ahead gives the flavors time to develop and mature, and you can serve it up to four days after it’s made. The tang of the vinegar and mustard will mellow during that time, so you may want to stir in an extra teaspoon or two of vinegar, if you like that fresh acidity.
How should you store potato salad?
If you won’t be serving your potato salad immediately, you should refrigerate it for food safety reasons. Your best bet is to store it in an airtight container, then transfer it to a serving bowl and garnish it once your meal is ready. If the salad is fully assembled and garnished, you can refrigerate it, covered, in the serving bowl. It will keep for three to four days.
Potato Salad Tips
What kind of potatoes should I use for potato salad?
Potatoes come in “starchy” and “waxy” types. For potato salad, the waxy type is best, because they hold their texture when boiled and don’t absorb extra water. Red potatoes, fingerling potatoes and new baby potatoes are all excellent picks. Yukon Golds are midway between waxy and starchy, but they still make a good salad. Avoid russets, which become mushy when boiled (if russets are what you have, adding a splash of vinegar to their cooking water will help keep them firm).
How can I keep my potato salad from being watery?
Start by using the right kind of potatoes (see above). Cooking them in their skins, and not overcooking them (just until they’re tender when tested with a skewer or the tip of a knife) also helps, and so does keeping them whole or in the largest pieces possible. When you drain the potatoes, leave the pot uncovered and put it back on the burner at low heat for a minute or two so any excess moisture can steam away. Finally, if you opt to upgrade your salad with other ingredients, juicy add-ins like cucumbers or tomatoes should be avoided, or added at the last minute.
What other potato salad variations can I try?
The great thing about potato salad is that it’s a blank canvas for your creativity. You can opt for a vinaigrette-style dressing instead of the creamy one given in this recipe; swap the potatoes for sweet potatoes; or add spices and garnishes to give your salad a flavor profile that’s appropriate for your meal (corn, black beans and pickled jalapenos to go with a Southwest-themed meal, for example). Want more ideas? We’ve rounded up a list of potato salads from our recipe collection.
