This Creamy Southern Potato Salad is the one that you crave alongside those ribs and slices of brisket, or on the side of a juicy burger! This mayonnaise based, mustard potato salad, is beyond easy to make with the classic addition of hard boiled egg and dill pickle. Only a handful of ingredients are needed.
All about this Potato Salad…
- Simple Ingredients: No need to get fancy with this recipe. This is the classic recipe that you will find throughout the state of Texas served at the BBQ joints. Heavy on the hard boiled egg, dill pickle and ground black pepper.
- Great Make Ahead Side Dish: not only can you make this dish ahead of time if you have an event coming up, this particular recipe tastes better if made a day in advance!
- Quick and Easy: this recipe comes together with minimal steps. This is not a labor intensive dish.
Ingredients Needed:
Notes on some ingredients:
- Potatoes: Gold potatoes are a great option for potato salad due to them being a waxy potato. They have less starch and hold up their shape when boiled. Russet potatoes can be substituted, but they are more starchy and will break down more when boiled and mixed together which may be your preference.
- Mayonnaise: this is the base of the dressing. If you have dietary/allergy needs this can be swapped for plant based options or greek yogurt or sour cream. Keep in mind this will also alter the taste of the completed dish.
- Mustard: classic yellow mustard.
How to make (step-by-step):
- Step 1: Prepare Potatoes. peel and chop the potatoes to 1/2 inch cubes.
- Step 2: Boil potatoes. Add the potatoes to a large pot and cover the potatoes with water, bring this to a boil and let the potatoes cook to soften.
- Step 3 & 4: Prepare the dressing by combining the ingredients (mayo, mustard, relish, salt and pepper) together in a small bowl. Cover and let this sit in the refrigerator until needed.
- Step 5: After the potatoes have been boiled to fork tender and allowed to cool for 20 minutes, then add the dressing and hard boiled eggs.
- Step 6: Gently stir the ingredients together until combined. Cover and let this chill for at least 2 hours before serving.
Expert Tips:
- Dressing the Potatoes: Add the dressing while the potatoes are warm, this helps them to absorb the flavor better. Since this is a mayonnaise based dressing, don’t dress as soon as they finish cooking and are hot, let them sit and cool for 15-20 minutes first.
- Salt: Salt the potatoes while cooking once the water starts boiling. This add more flavor.
- Cold Water: Place the chopped potatoes in the pot and cover with cold water and bring this to a boil. Starting with cold water helps make sure the potatoes cook all the way through nicely without falling apart.
- Chill Time: This dish always tastes better the second day! So plan ahead and make this recipe the day before.
Potato Salad: FAQS
It is best to boil the potatoes cut when making potato salad. This gives a quicker boiling time and ensures that the potatoes cook at the same time giving you perfectly tender bites of potato throughout the dish. Cutting boiled potatoes can be challenging due to the texture and can cause your potatoes to break apart leaving you a mushier salad.
Cook the potatoes until fork tender. This can take 10-20 minutes depending on the size that your potatoes are cut to.
This depends on the texture you want and prefer for your salad. Waxy gold potatoes will hold their shape well after boiling and mixing. Russet potatoes will soften and become slightly mashed after mixing with the dressing.
More BBQ Side Dishes:
If you tried this recipe please leave a comment and a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below! Thank you so much!
Recipe first published May 22, 2020. Updated June 3, 2022 with new images and information. Recipe is unchanged.
Photography by the talented @KJandCompany.co
