Potato salad is the perfect side dish for a barbecue. If you’re looking for more ideas, check out our list of Easy Side Salad Recipes. There are recipes for pasta salad, lettuce salad, and more.

Classic Potato Salad Recipe

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Classic Potato Salad Ingredients:

You can get the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.

• Russet potatoes – Russet potatoes are a starchy potato, which makes for a creamier potato salad, so we only use these to make potato salad.
• Salt
• Eggs
• Mayonnaise – You can use either full fat or light mayonnaise. But don’t choose Miracle Whip. That adds too much sweetness.
• Whole milk – Whole milk gives a richer flavor than skim or low-fat milk.
• Yellow mustard – We prefer stone ground or Dijon mustard in life, but yellow mustard is classic for potato salad, so use yellow to keep this classic.
• Garlic powder

How To Make A Classic Potato Salad:

Bring a large pot of cold water, along with a tablespoon of salt, to a boil over high heat.

Don’t skip the salt. This is the only real way to impart any flavor into the potatoes. Without the salt, they’ll be plain, making your potato salad really plain.

While the water is coming to a boil, peel and chop the potatoes into evenly sized chunks.

Add the potatoes to the boiling water, and boil them for 15 minutes until you get fork-tender potatoes.

Drain the potatoes and add them to a large bowl.

While the potatoes are boiling, boil the eggs.

Small aside: You can boil your eggs however you want, but we have a post about how to make perfect hard-boiled eggs that you might want to check out.

Also, if you can time it right, you can actually boil the eggs in the same pot as the potatoes, saving you from cleaning a pot.

Peel the eggs and separate the yolk and the white.

Rough chop the egg whites and add them to bowl with the potatoes.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the egg yolk, milk, mustard, garlic powder, and the remaining salt until you create a creamy dressing.

Slowly mix until everything is coated. You want to do this with hot potatoes, rather than waiting for them to cool, because warm potatoes will help melt the dressing a little and easily coat the potatoes completely.

Wait until the potato salad has cooled to room temperature, then store the potato salad in the fridge until it’s time to serve.

Classic Potato Salad: Frequently Asked Questions

More Potato Salad Recipes:

This classic recipe isn’t the only easy potato salad recipe we have on Drugstore Divas. If you want a similar one with eggs and potatoes, but with a twist, try our Deviled Egg Potato Salad. The potato salad dressing in it is seasoned in the same way that deviled eggs are seasoned, giving it a really nice depth of flavor.

For something different, try our Loaded Potato Salad. It has crispy bacon, green onions, sour cream, and cheese — and that potato salad tastes just like a loaded potato. And then there’s our Avocado Potato Salad, which has no mayonnaise and is actually an accidentally vegan recipe.