I love this potato salad recipe so much. We shared this many years ago, and I haven’t found anything that beats how creamy and flavorful it is yet. This recipe is EASY. I’m sharing how to cook the potatoes, my favorite potato salad ingredients, and our family’s favorite creamy dressing, which is so good you’ll be licking the bowl clean (we love it so much that we also use it when making our red potato salad).
Key Ingredients
Potatoes: Small, waxy, thin-skinned potatoes are best for potato salad. (I especially love small Yukon Gold potatoes, which are pictured.) They cook quickly, and since they are small, we cook them whole, which means less prep time! Russets or baking potatoes work, but the texture is a bit different. You will also need to cut them before cooking. Celery and pickles: Both add a fresh crunch. Our family LOVES dill pickles, so we always add them, but you can leave them out or use sweet pickles instead. Red onion: I love a little onion in my salad and like to “deflame” the onions before adding them to my salad. It’s easy. Soak chopped onions in cold water for 10 minutes, and then drain. The time in the water takes the raw edge off the onion. Hard-boiled eggs: Eggs are a must for me in potato salad, but you can leave them out if you aren’t a fan. Hard-boiled eggs add texture and extra creaminess. Fresh Herbs: I love dill and parsley in this salad!
How to Make the Best Potato Salad
When making potato salad, I cook whole, small potatoes. I find potatoes cooked whole retain flavor and have a better texture than when cooked chopped. I simmer the whole potatoes in salted water until I can push a fork through the center. Small to medium potatoes (like the ones pictured) take 15 to 20 minutes. While I love using skin-on potatoes for mashed potatoes, I remove the skins for potato salad. Instead of peeling before cooking, I do it after (it’s actually easier this way!). I cook my potatoes with the peel on, let them cool, and then peel. Since the potatoes are cooked, the peel comes off easily (you can see how quickly the peel comes away from the potatoes in our video). I chop the peeled potatoes into smaller chunks and sprinkle apple cider vinegar over them. This is one of my secrets for the best potato salad we learned from Alton Brown years ago! Vinegar makes the flavor of our potatoes pop and adds a little bite, which is amazing when mixed with the creamy dressing. Other vinegars or even pickle brine are good substitutes. From here, we need to combine the potatoes with the other potato salad ingredients and our creamy dressing.
The Easiest Potato Salad Dressing
I love how simple our favorite potato salad dressing is to make. It only has 3 ingredients and tastes so good that I end up licking the bowl. We use the same dressing when making this creamy herb potato salad and turn it into a sauce for roasted fingerling potatoes.
Mayonnaise and sour cream make our dressing extra creamy. I love the combination and find a dressing made with only mayo too heavy. Plain yogurt will work in a pinch if you don’t have sour cream. Homemade mayonnaise makes this extra special. Yellow mustard adds some kick and color. I usually use Dijon mustard in our recipes, but regular yellow mustard wins in this potato salad.
If you’d prefer to use a vinaigrette-style dressing, see our herb potato salad made without mayo.
What to Serve with Potato Salad
We often serve this salad during the summer. I love it with burgers and grilled steak. It’s perfect with pulled pork and these fall off the bone ribs. And it’s just amazing with veggie burgers or these simple black bean burgers. Potato salad is also excellent when served next to other sides, such as our pasta salad, this amazing corn salad, easy bean salad, and my favorite cucumber salad. 1 tablespoon apple cider, wine, or rice wine vinegar 1/2 cup sour cream 1/4 cup mayonnaise, try homemade mayonnaise 1 tablespoon yellow mustard, substitute Dijon or whole grain mustard 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped, about 1/2 cup 3 celery stalks, finely chopped, about 1/2 cup 1 medium dill pickle, finely chopped, about 1/3 cup, try homemade pickles 2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped, optional 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs like parsley, dill, chives, tarragon, or cilantro Salt and fresh ground black pepper 2Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer (boiling the potatoes can cause them to hit one another and break apart)—Cook 15 to 20 minutes or until easily pierced with a fork. 3Meanwhile, set up an ice bath. Add cold water to a medium bowl filled with ice. Drain the potatoes and then place them into the ice bath. When cool, peel the potatoes by gently pinching the skin and pulling it away. 4Chop the peeled potatoes into bite-size chunks, then add to a large bowl. Scatter the vinegar over potatoes and lightly season with salt. 2Add the sour cream mixture, de-flamed onions, celery, pickles, eggs, and herbs to the potatoes. Gently stir to combine, being careful not to mash the potatoes too much. 3Season with salt and pepper to taste. If you have the time, refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.
