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Best Ever Potato Salad Recipe
This BEST EVER Potato Salad recipe from grandma is easy, creamy, loaded with bacon, and a secret ingredient in the dressing puts it over the top! It converted me from being a potato salad hater to a potato salad lover! Please don’t go through the entire summer without making this at least once!
Potato salad falls into the same camp for me as egg salad. It’s a mayonnaise-based salad that I long disliked because of how over the top mayonnaise-y it typically is. Until this recipe. It was a life changing experience and I neeeeeed to share it with you.
This recipe comes from a friend’s grandmother and on the recipe card she gave me it is titled “Best Ever Potato Salad”. A bold statement and one that always gives me pause, but it is absolutely, 100% warranted in this case. First of all, I tend to trust old-school family recipes over others; second, the grandma was confident enough to call it the best, and lastly, it has a secret ingredient that takes it over the top. So I am totally comfortable in telling you that it is, indeed, the best ever.
What Makes This Potato Salad the Best?
The secret ingredient…
Bacon drippings. Ahhhhhh.
Along with all of the great ingredients that give this salad a great depth of flavor and lots of texture, the dressing on this potato salad is what makes it insanely special.
After frying up the bacon, you save a couple tablespoons of the bacon drippings and whisk in a modest amount of mayonnaise, some Dijon mustard, a bit of sugar and smidge of salt. It is ah-mazing. The flavor is robust, not terribly mayonnaise-y (huge bonus in my book), and a perfect accent to all of the flavors and textures in the salad.
How to Make Potato Salad Ahead of Time
I totally get it… you’re hosting a picnic, or you’ve been invited to a bbq and you don’t want to be throwing the potato salad together last minute, plus we all know that given some time to sit in the refrigerator only makes it exponentially better.
You can safely (and easily) make this potato salad up to 1 day in advance and keep it covered in the refrigerator before serving.
I have served this to people who, like me, claim to hate potato salad because of how gloppy it can get with mayonnaise. I have also served it to people who claim that they only like their mom’s/grandma’s/aunt’s recipe and no others.
All of these people? They have tripped over themselves raving about this recipe, declaring it the best they’ve ever had.
So there you have it. The best potato salad, ever. You’ll want to keep this recipe stashed away for all of your summer parties and picnics! Be prepared for lots of recipe requests!
If You Like This Potato Salad Recipe, Try These Summery Salads:
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Seven years ago: Colossal Reese’s Pieces Chocolate Chip Cookies
Watch How to Make the Best Ever Potato Salad
Did you make this recipe?
The BEST EVER Potato Salad recipe from a friend's grandmother, with a special secret ingredient in the dressing! It converted me from being a potato salad hater to a potato salad lover!
Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender. (If you're not sure how to boil the potatoes,
this is a good resource.) Drain the potatoes and set aside.
Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a skillet over medium-low heat until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon drippings in the skillet and remove the pan from heat.
Add the mayonnaise, mustard, sugar and salt to the reserved bacon drippings in the skillet and whisk to combine.
In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, celery, onion and green pepper. Pour the dressing over the ingredients and gently stir to evenly coat. Stir in the bacon.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. Leftovers can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutritional values are based on one serving
Calories: 574kcal
Fat: 47g
Saturated fat: 11g
Cholesterol: 173mg
Sodium: 1032mg
Potassium: 714mg
Carbohydrates: 22g
Fiber: 2g
Sugar: 4g
Protein: 14g
Vitamin A: 250%
Vitamin C: 19.1%
Calcium: 37%
Iron: 1.6%
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
Update Notes: This recipe was originally published in April 2011, updated with new photos in June 2016, and refreshed again with updated photos, a video, and extra recipe success tips.
[photos by Ari of Well Seasoned]
Every time I need to bring a dish now, this is what they ask for.
Awesome! I made it for Christmas and I’ve made it several times since. Thank you!
I have made this over and over!! The ONLY exception I did was not to use potatoes…I used chopped raw cauliflower instead as most of my family is keto!! They love this recipe!!! So thank you!!!!
This is basically our secret family recipe, minus the Dijon, and it’s the best ever. I always take to to parties and people rave about it. I have never liked regular potato salad—once you have the best it’s hard to like others.
I made this yesterday, and hands down, it really is the BEST potato salad I ever had!! What sets it apart from the normal potato salad, for me, is the amount of bacon and the bacon drippings in the dressing. I’ve already passed it on to my daughters! Thanks for a fantastic recipe!
Just made this today and had it with shrimp burgers from cook’s illustrated site. OMG!!! So delicious. I have always thought of potato salad as “ho hum”…always about the same. This totally blows me out of the water. This will be our “go to” recipe from now on!!!!! Thanks for sharing.
Hi there! While taking a look at your web site, your Best Ever Potato Salad caught my eye. I had a bag of baby Yukon gold potatoes on hand, so used those instead of red potatoes, and I used Maui onion instead of yellow onion, plus a red pepper I had on hand, as well as the rest of your suggested ingredients. My mom always swore by using bacon grease for all kinds of things. I hadn’t thought of using it in the dressing, but it was delicious. I did make the potato salad a day ahead of needing it for shared pot luck weekly dinner down by the ocean. I have to admit, I forgot to take a picture and before I knew it, the bowl of potato salad was almost empty!! Needless to say, everyone loved it. Thanks so much for sharing your recipes. I’ll be back to try some of the others.
It never occurred to me to add bacon to my potato salad. I like the idea of adding bacon drippings to the mayonnaise.
Kind of fun to see all of the different add-ins and twists that people have. We are sort of boring. I guess you could call it classic,or traditionalists..but we do the mayo mustard hard boiled eggs, a little bit of onion and a bit of sweet pickle relish. Bit I’m going to be adventurous and make a German potato salad for my Dad. He asked for it. So I really am needing to venture out of the same old..living on the edge😋 hope u had a good mothers day. We had a lovely family time weekend. Very blessed low key time..just perfect really.
I always steam my potatoes inside of boil them. They hold up better in a salad.
Steaming the potatoes – that’s interesting to me. How do you do it, and how long does it take to steam potatoes? Do you use red skinned or russet? I like the idea that they hold up better when steamed.
I’m not a mustard fan. I make it without and thought it was delicious.
Made this for an office potluck and it was a hit! Thanks for sharing!
Going to try itangie
I made this and it was not false advertising at all! This is so far, the best potato salad I have never hated. I am not a big potato salad person but this, i ate. And ate. And ate. I served it our chairman’s luncheon meeting and the boss gave it a thumbs up. I did not change a thing. it is awesome. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Very similar to my recipe which was my mother’s recipe that was her grandmother’s recipe. Only difference is the added sugar and mustard – we don’t use those ingredients. I can add a tip on the potatoes here so that you’ll never have a mushy potato salad. When your potatoes come out of the hot water line them up on tinfoil and let them cool that way side-by-side. It removes any excess water and excess starch and it comes out perfect and never mushy.
Making your own potato salad seems so intimidating sometimes! I feel like I’m just getting the hang of it!…
Thank you for sharing your recipe. It was super easy to follow and taste so delicious. I added one green apple 🍏 diced finely and half a red onion. I will be garnishing with garlicscapes.
Absolutely the best tasting potatoe salad i have ever tasted. So yummy! I could eat the whole bowl myself. Thanks grandma so tasty, only way i will be doing it from now on. 😁
Best potato salad ever!!! I doubled the potatoes as i had 14 guests. It was enough to serve them all and it all went in one go! Thank you for sharing.
I hate it when people comment that they altered a recipe but i have been trying to make a southwestern potato salad (with cubed chedder, red pepper) and could not find anything, then I tried your tip with the bacon fat and mustard and omg omg thank you thank you heaven….(: