This is simply The Best Homemade Potato Salad Recipe EVER!! No really… it is. I have people begging for this potato salad! It’s quick and easy to make and makes a nice addition to picnics, potlucks and family get together!
The basic recipe is in volume 1 of our Dining On A Dime Cookbook but I normally add an additional tablespoon or two of bacon grease along with the bacon and people beg me to make more and more of it!
This is the very best homemade potato salad recipe! It is my all-time favorite! I have people begging for this potato salad, so you definitely need to try it! I almost always have all of the ingredients on hand, so it’s easy to make any time.
When I need to take a potato salad to a potluck or get together, this is the potato salad I take. It’s also great for Memorial day, picnics at the lake or barbecues with hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken. It is super popular with everyone who eats it because it is so delicious and there are never any leftovers to take home!
For my secret ingredient, I normally add an additional tablespoon or two of bacon grease along with the bacon and people beg me to make more and more of it! The bacon grease gives it a richer flavor you have to try to believe!
You don’t have to use the bacon… If you don’t have the bacon, or if you don’t eat bacon, this potato salad still tastes great without it (just not as “over the top” great as with the bacon ;-).
If I have baked potatoes or if I’m making mashed potatoes the night before, I cook extra and pull out a few of the potatoes before I mash them. This way I can use the extra potatoes for the potato salad that I know I will be making the next day.
The Best Homemade Potato Salad Recipe
- Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp. garlic powder (or more to taste)
1 tsp. onion powder or 1/2 onion, finely chopped (more to taste)
1 small dill pickle, diced into small pieces
3 eggs, hard-boiled and chopped
6 potatoes, peeled, cubed into small pieces and boiled
2 slices bacon, fried and crumbled or 1 Tbsp. bacon grease (optional)
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
salt
Instructions
- Mix the mayonnaise, garlic powder, onion powder, and pickle in a large bowl.
- Add the eggs, warm potatoes, carrots and bacon or bacon grease, if desired.
- Mix well.
- Add salt, to taste.
- Mix well.
- Chill 1-2 hours before serving. If the potato salad seems dry, add a couple tablespoons of milk. Serves 10.
Notes
When making potato salad, add the dressing to warm potatoes for the best taste! Warm potatoes will absorb the flavor from the dressing while cool ones will not.
This Best Homemade Potato Salad Recipe is from Volume 1 of our cookbook:
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Recipes That Go Great With This Homemade Potato Salad:
The BEST Cole Slaw Recipe Ever!
10 Ways To Serve Hamburgers And Hot Dogs
Garlic Salad Recipe – Creamy And Delicious Coleslaw Like Recipe!
The One Income Dollar
If you don’t have any pickles on hand a tablespoon or two of green relish works nicely too.
JAMES R.
OMG!!!!!!!!!
You just outdid yourself Ma’am!
This is so DELICIOUS!!! and it is one of my favourite foods!!!
TY for sharing . 8 )
Diva
Sounds great! I like to use a mixture of mayo and sour cream, and add some catsup as well, to add a bit of flavor and a pretty pink tint, along with onion powder, salt and pepper. I use plenty of eggs and sweet pickles or sweet relish, and NEVER NEVER NEVER add onions (except the powder) to it – I literally gag on the taste and texture of onions, ugh! A trick to add great flavor and moistness, requiring less dressing, is to add a good splash of vinegar or pickle juice to the hot potatoes and let them absorb it before adding the dressing. If I have them on hand, some sliced black olives are a nice addition, too. I absolutely love potato salad, but always have to make it myself, since almost everyone puts onions in theirs, sigh… :)
Jill
A woman after my own heart Diva. I gag on onions too and like you love potato salad but usually have to make my own because you are right most do add onions to it. Have never heard of adding catsup but I bet it would add a nice bit of flavor.
Diva
I’ve sometimes heard it called Pink Lady potato salad when you add the catsup. Glad to meet a fellow onion hater who understands my violent reaction to them. I love when people say “oh, there’s just a little bit in the dish, you won’t even notice it”… Yeah, right LOL! Once in grade school, for science I think, our homework assignment was an experiment on the effect of smell on the sense of taste. Our parent was to blindfold us, put a clothespin on our nose and then randomly feed us a chunk of raw apple and a chunk of raw onion, which have similar textures, to see if we could tell the difference in the absence of smell. One guess how that one turned out! *shudder* :) Whenever my dear Mom made potato salad or stuffing, she always set me aside a portion before adding onions to the rest.
Joanne
For tanginess I add either Henri’s Tastee dressing or homemade boiled dressing along with the mayo. I add a small amount of diced celery to the potato salad. And I really, really like potato salad. I could eat just potato salad for my meal and skip everything else. This recipe looks very good.
CJ
For tanginess, I use my grandmother’s dressing recipe that she got from her mother-in-law.
Beat 2 eggs in a pan
add 1 c. white sugar
1 scant cup white vinegar
celery seed
salt and pepper
pinch of mustard
Bring just to a boil, stirring often (it scorches easily because of the sugar). Remove from heat and allow to cool (it thickens as it cools). Can be stored covered in the fridge for several weeks, an old jar works well for this.
To make potato salad, I mix it 1/2 and 1/2 with commercial real mayo (not “salad dressing”). It’s also really good on coleslaw, fish, on sandwiches, etc.
Shirl
I have always put diced celery in my potato salad, and I always have several celery sticks left over, so I slice and freeze for numerous recipes. Sounds really good!
Cheryl
This is my kind of potato salad. Minus the bacon (I’m vegetarian). Almost like how mom used to make, right down to the pickle. In fact today I bought potatoes, eggs, and pickles. Guess what I’m planning to make! I also squirt a little mustard in. And substitute celery for the carrots. That’s kind of the good thing with potato salad. Aside from the main ingredient, you can use up what’s in the fridge. I saw a recipe online the other day that had tomatoes in the potato salad. And they were eating it for breakfast. Hmmm…
Jill
That is a new one on me too Cheryl. I have never had tomatoes in potato salad but it might be good.
Olivia C Dugas
I love the potato salad and I love watching you have fun making it on my Living On A Dime!
Beverly Steindler
I just made this for dinner tonight and girl I am here to tell you this is the absolute BEST potato salad I have eaten since my mother passed away 15 years ago. I’m an old southern lady and I do love food that calls for bacon grease. Why I never thought of that I will never know. I cant wait to try your other recipes. The pecan cheesecake looks like it will soon be first on the list. Where have you been for the last 15 years? Lol. Thanks for sharing such a great memory food.
Jill
Thank you Beverly. If the pecan cheesecake sounds good you might like to try our pecan pie – I love pecan pie and have tasted so many in my “ancient” live :) but this one is the best. The browned butter is what sets it apart. Pecan Pie
Faye
Got your cookbook (on sale 😊) and absolutely love it! Worth every penny!
I’m an old Southern girl who loves to cook and have really enjoyed your recipes!
Jill
Oh thank you Faye. Coming from a Southern lady who are usually such good cooks is a high compliment. : )
Z.
You might want to get a generator to run the freezer in the back of a pick up.
Brenda Thompson
I’ve never seen such a small amount of dressing (mayo) in a recipe for potato salad. Does it seem dry? I know you said you can add milk but why not use more mayo to begin with. Im just curious but why doesn’t the picture have carrots or bacon bits In the potato salad? The recipe calls for them. I’m really confused. I make mine similar but have never tried onion or garlic powder Before and I too use celery instead of carrots . I also bacon in mine as well.
Jill
Brenda the pictures aren’t always the same because most of our recipes you can adjust or make to your own taste. For example sometimes I put radishes in mine or leave out the bacon if I don’t have any on hand. Part of the reason for adding the milk is that it is less expensive and doesn’t change the taste at all. Plus it seems to make it more moist than just adding all mayo. Actually people love this recipe I think because it isn’t dry at all but at the same time is not floating in mayo which can sometimes over power the flavor of the other ingredients in the recipe.
BrendaD
I made this to use over the Memorial Day weekend. We always work cattle over this weekend, so I made it Friday afternoon so I didn’t have to fuss with making it when I knew I’d be busy with cattle on Saturday and Monday. This went fabulous with our ham and turkey sandwiches and chips. I didn’t realize I was out of dill pickles, so I used 3 of the baby gherkin style sweet pickles. I also added a couple of slices bacon (that I crumbled) left from breakfast and about a teaspoon of the bacon drippings. I had a 1/2 of a red onion left-over in the fridge, so I used that instead of the onion powder. My crew really liked it. My youngest son commented that it had carrots in it instead of pimentos and he really liked it that way. I bet you could use this dressing on macaroni to make a quick and easy macaroni salad.
deb
I use FINELY DICED RED CAPSICUM I [ think you call them red bell peppers- really large, non hot] instead of carrot in the recipe and dill pickles aren’t as common or popular in australia, so we use FINELY sliced spring onions [only using the green stem, not the onion]…australian subscriber
Pat Williams
Red Peppers are sweeter than green and are wonderful roasted with other vegetables.
Jessica
Great! We have many potatoes in our house and I don’t know how to make use of them. This is very helpful. Thanks for the recipe.
#Filipino Women
Dianne
This is similar to my mom’s potato salad, except that she used mashed potatoes. Mash them with milk and butter as usual, then make the salad. Wonderful hot or cold.
Rosa Gerken
That is so interesting. I’ve never heard of “mashed” potato salad. Do people ask what it is? Or is it common in your area?