This Southern Potato Salad recipe is a delicious side perfect for casual suppers and cookouts! Potato salad is an easy make ahead favorite!
This potato salad recipe is a simple, classic side dish that’s so easy to make. It is a favorite year round – from summer cookouts to potlucks to a southern Sunday meal. Potato Salad goes so well with everything from hamburgers and grilled chicken to other side dishes like fried okra and baked beans.
When I was a girl I loved being the taste tester when Mama made her potato salad. What a lucky job it was because her Southern Potato Salad is the best! She was asked to make it for every cookout or family reunion because everyone loved it. And my family requested it for so many suppers and family gatherings too. So I got to test it a lot.
Southern Potato Salad Recipe
This potato salad recipe has been in my family for so many years. My great grandmother made it by this recipe and passed it down through the generations. Mama taught my sister and me how to make it and it’s always been our go-to recipe.
Best Potatoes for Southern Potato Salad
You need to use starchy potatoes that get a little bit soft when you cook them. I prefer Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, but I most often use Russets. A waxy potato won’t do for this southern favorite, so get one that will get somewhat soft.
How to Make Potato Salad
To make this recipe you will need these ingredients.
Southern Potato Salad Ingredients
- Potatoes (Russets preferably)
- Eggs
- Onion
- Dill Pickles
- Yellow Mustard
- Mayonnaise (not the sweet dressing type)
- Salt
Cook potatoes. Start by scrubbing and peeling 3 pounds of potatoes. Cube them, add to cold water and boil until tender enough to pierce with a fork, but not until they are mushy. Drain well once they are done.
Boil eggs. At the same time, hard boil 6 eggs and then peel them once they’re done. Chop the eggs in preparation for the salad.
Dice onion and pickles. While the potatoes are boiling, dice your onion and dill pickles.
Combine. Stir together the drained potatoes, chopped eggs, diced onion, diced pickles and salt with the mayonnaise and mustard until creamy. Add more mustard, mayo and even pickles to taste.
Taste test. Make sure your tasting spoons are lined up and at the ready. You will want to have them for your own taste tests!
Once you’ve completed your potato salad, you can either serve right away or refrigerate to serve later.
Make Ahead Favorite
My family’s Southern Potato Salad recipe is one that is delicious made the day of serving, but is a great make-ahead dish as well. Just keep it tightly covered and refrigerated until ready to serve. It will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Perfect for Cookouts, Picnics and Suppers
You’ll find this dish served at most family get-togethers in my family – from holidays like Easter alongside my Cola-Glazed Ham to reunions to cookouts to Sunday suppers! It’s a great potluck dish anytime, too. Potato salad is delicious with chicken, beef, and pork and is a dish that everyone in my family loves!
More Delicious Side Dishes and Salads
Here are a few more scrumptious sides for summer cookouts, potlucks and family suppers to try! Many are make ahead too!
Here’s my family’s Potato Salad recipe. It’s a special favorite!
Southern Potato Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 pounds Russet potatoes, peeled, cubed and boiled until tender
- 6 boiled eggs, chopped
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 4 medium dill pickles, diced
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup yellow mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients together and mix until well-combined and creamy. Add more mayonnaise and mustard depending on tastes.
Notes
Store potato salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.Â
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
This is almost like my Mom’s & Grandma’s except we put in diced tomatoes; however this was a good mistake. When my Mom was visiting her Mom in West Virginia she was helping with the potato salad. When Mom put in the tomatoes, Grandma asked her what she was doing. Grandma said I don’t put tomatoes in mine & Mom of course started arguing with her. Grandma told her She always put PIMIENTOS in it!!! We love the tomato version.
Love your story! I just made today homemade mayonnaise and was looking for potato salad recipe! Thank you for share!
This is the same recipe that my mom and grandmother used to make; I can still see the big steel pot on the stove full of potatoes! Mine never turns out as well, so I have moved on to a yogurt/mayo mix with dill. But dang…this looks so good that I might just give it another try.
This is a keeper. Absolutely delicious!
North Dakota native and grandma came from Norway. We made potato salad almost the same way. Getting ready to make some now so it has time to sit until the party tomorrow night.
Wow, it’s great to see somebody else makes potato salad with dill pickles and mustard. I live in the south and everybody else, except my mother, uses sweet pickles & mayo only, no mustard. I love it this way.
What kind of Mayo did you use? Miracle whip or Mayo?
Very similar to the southern potato salad I grew up with. It had sweet pickles instead of dill, and also had celery. We used to whip our potatoes until they were like mashed potatoes (very smooth and creamy) and then add the other ingrediants. And you NEVER EVER ate potato salad hot! We always let it sit overnight so the flavors would blend. Delicious!!!
Dill pickles? Honest? I thought I was the only one warped enough to demand dill pickles in my potato salad. 😉 So much better than sweet! And the eggs, and the mustard…we must have been living parallel lives. Yum.
Oh my! I love the sight of that bright yellow potato salad!! After I left home for college, I thought my family was the only one in the world who made it with liberal amounts of yellow mustard and a sprinkling of paprika 😀 So glad to see others enjoy it this way as well. And I totally agree, you can’t call it potato salad unless it has that atomic yellow look and sour bite! This recipe made me think of my dear grandfather and how much he loved potato salad. It was a holiday staple for us.