Easy Potato Salad
This classic potato salad recipe includes tips for adding perfectly boiled eggs and is so easy to make ahead of time! (Plus, it’s topped with bacon.)
Be sure to try The Pioneer Woman’s Twice Baked Potato Casserole next!
If potato salad isn’t the most classic summer recipe you can make, I don’t know what is.
This potato salad recipe is actually one of two recipes that will actually get me to eat mayo.
This is my mom’s original potato salad recipe, and I made sure to include some tips about how to boil potatoes and how long to boil eggs, as well as storage information and potion sizes.
These tips are pretty important when you want to make the best potato salad ever. (Which you do.)
How to Boil Potatoes:
Use potatoes of roughly the same size:
This allows them to cook at the same rate. If you’re unable to get your hands on same-sized potatoes, remove the smaller ones from the heat sooner and allow the larger ones to continue cooking.
Leave the skins on:
This helps prevent the potatoes from getting mushy. The potato skins are also very easy to peel off after they’ve been cooked (and allowed to cool for a moment).
Use Waxy potatoes:
Waxy potatoes such as red potatoes or Yukon golds hold their shape best after boiling and have a creamier consistency.
Start with cold water in the pot:
Add the potatoes to cold water, and then bring it to a boil. It helps for more even cooking.
Stir the salt into the water:
Stirring in the salt as opposed to just dropping it into the water allows it to properly dissolve.
Leave the cover off:
Otherwise they could get mushy.
What to Do After Boiling:
Add white vinegar to the potatoes while they’re still warm:
This will enhance the flavor and slow down discoloration.
Mayo-based dressings should be added once the potatoes have cooled:
This will prevent the potatoes from getting oily.
How Long to Boil Eggs:
- Submerge the eggs in 2 inches of cool water in a pot on the stove-top.
- Gradually bring them to a boil.
- Once the boil is reached, cover the pot and remove them from the heat.
- Let them sit for 12 minutes.
How Much Potato Salad Per Person
- 1/2 cup of potato salad per person is a good amount to plan on when making this recipe for groups and BBQ’s.
- The top left of the recipe card indicates the number of servings for this recipe, six.
- Adjusting the number of servings for this recipe can be adjusted if you click on the number of servings on the recipe card and move the slider up or down. The ingredients amounts will automatically update.
Storing Potato Salad
- Leftover potato salad that is refrigerated shortly after eating it can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
- According to this resource, if the potato salad has been left out at temperatures over 41° for longer than 2 hours, it should be discarded.
Can you Freeze Potato Salad?
- The creamy mayo base used for potato salad doesn’t freeze well, and neither do hard boiled eggs or celery.
- If you find yourself with an overabundance of potatoes, you can freeze cooked potatoes to use for future potato salads, twice baked potato casserole, or hash brown casserole.
Try These Next!
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This classic potato salad recipe includes tips for adding perfectly boiled eggs and is so easy to make ahead of time! (Plus, it's topped with bacon.)
- 8 medium Yukon gold potatoes of roughly the same size
- Salt/pepper to taste
- 2 Tablespoons distilled white vinegar
- 2 celery stalks diced
- ¼ cup yellow onion finely diced
- 5 hard-boiled eggs sliced
- 5 bacon strips cooked and crumbled
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 Tablespoon yellow mustard
- 1 Tablespoon sweet relish
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt
- ½ teaspoon dried dill weed
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 3 green onions diced
- Fill a large pot with cold water, enough to cover the potatoes by 1-2 inches. Clean the potatoes, add them to the pot, and stir in a teaspoon of salt.
- Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook the potatoes, uncovered.
- As the water boils, mix the potato salad dressing ingredients and set aside (mayo, mustard, relish, garlic salt.)
- Start checking the potatoes after 10 minutes, and every 3-4 minutes thereafter. Once you can pierce them fairly easily with a fork, they’re done. (Cooking them too long will create mushy potatoes.)
- Drain the potatoes. Once cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and dice them into large cubes. Add the potatoes to a large mixing bowl and sprinkle with desired amounts of salt and pepper. While the potatoes are still warm, add the white vinegar, onions, celery, hard-boiled eggs, and crumbled bacon, stirring gently with a rubber spatula.
- Once the potatoes have fully cooled, gently stir in the potato dressing mixture until well-combined.
- Garnish with dill weed, paprika, and green onions (I like to set aside some bacon and sliced hard boiled eggs for the top as well).
- Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours, covered.
I like to set aside some of the crumbled bacon and hard-boiled eggs to garnish on the top!
Tip/substitute: add 1-2 T sweet pickle juice to the mayo dressing + about 8 finely chopped sweet pickles, 1/2 t sugar and 1/4 t celery salt instead of relish. 🙌🏻