This post contains affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
My Best Easy Potato Salad is one of those nostalgic recipes everyone loves for cookouts and BBQs – it is easy and delicious, simple to make, and without fussy ingredients. The potato salad can be served warm or cold, we love it warm when I make it fresh and cold when we eat it leftover.
I use classic ingredients for this flavor packed salad like apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, mayonnaise, celery, and seasonings for a classic cool and creamy American flavor everyone loves.
Don’t want all the extras in a recipe post? We provide a skip to recipe button in the top left corner, as well as a clickable table of contents, just below, to help make this page easier to navigate.
At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. My goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
Table of Contents
Classic American Potato Salad
Potato Salad is an American classic that I love to serve at our July 4th party and other summer occasions. It’s super easy to make and easy to double and triple if you are feeding a crowd.
How to Make Potato Salad
- Russet potatoes – we’re using russet potatoes for their rich, starchy, potato flavor. Russet potatoes do get mushy when boiling, so don’t skip boiling them with vinegar, and boil from cold water, to help keep a wedge shape.
- Apple cider vinegar – apple cider vinegar is used in this recipe to both keep the shape of potatoes as they boil, and also give a bit of sweet, tangy, acidic flavor to cut through the cool, creamy, rich mayonnaise in this potato salad.
- Mayonnaise – mayonnaise acts as a binder, a rich fat, and cool and creamy texture bas for this potato salad. We add a lot of mayo for this recipe, so be sure to grab a brand you love.
- Scallions – scallions add a slight heat, vegetal, and pungent lighter than onion flavor and a bright green pop of color to potato salad.
- Celery – celery adds a salty, earthy, vegetal flavor and provides a nice crisp crunch to potato salad.
- Dijon Mustard – dijon mustard provides a bit of a spicy kick to cut through the rich mayonnaise. You can also opt for a stoneground or other mustard you love.
- Sugar – we skip sugar, but traditionally, many people add a tablespoon white sugar to potato salad. This is a personal preference.
- Salt and Pepper – always season well with fresh cracked pepper and high quality celtic sea salt.
Steps to Make Potato Salad
Once you have assembled the ingredients, use this method.
Prep
Prep the potatoes by peeling them (optional) and cubing them.
Boil
Bring water with some vinegar and salt in to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook till fork tender.
Why add Vinegar and Salt?
Boiling potatoes in water with a bit of vinegar and salt helps potatoes to hold their shape and keeps them from becoming a mushy mess. We prefer the bit of sweetness from apple cider vinegar.
Combine Dressing
While potatoes boil and soften, in a small bowl, combine mayonaise, scallions, celery, mustard, additional vinegar, sugar, and salt.
Combine and Serve
When potatoes have drained, toss in dressing. Combine well and serve warm or cold!
Tips and Tricks to Perfect Potato Salad
Boil potatoes in vinegar. Adding vinegar to the water you boil potatoes in help potatoes keep their shape, so your potato salad doesn’t turn to mush.
Use waxy or russet potatoes. Waxy potatoes retain their starch and keep their shape when cooking, so they are better for potato salad – but russet potatoes have a classic “potato” flavor people love.
Boil potatoes in cold water. Bringing cold water to a boil with your potatoes will help your potatoes not release all their starch at once and turn to mush, so you have the perfect texture for potato salad.
Season boiling water. Adding salt to your boiling water helps potatoes cook evenly, brings the water to a boil more rapidly, and adds flavor to potatoes as they cook.
Let potatoes cool before dressing. If you go to immediately dress warm potatoes with mayonnaise dressing, it will melt and run off. Let potatoes cool so the mayonnaise doesn’t melt. Potatoes can be slightly warm – but should not be hot.
More BBQ Favorites
Potato salad is delicious alongside pork tenderloin, smoked brisket, smoked ribs, bacon-wrapped hotdogs, BBQ chicken drumsticks, crispy pulled pork, and more of our favorite BBQ Recipes!
This potato salad is fantastic with easy coleslaw – its also great alongside baked pork tenderloin, ribeye roast and air fryer chicken drumsticks
Find more of our favorite BBQ Recipes :
Check out my web story about this simple but delicious potato salad!
If you love this easy recipe please click the stars below to give it a five star rating and leave a comment! Please also help me share on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!
Share on Facebook
SharePin this now to find it later
Pin ItFollow on Instagram
Only have 30 minutes to get dinner on the table? Sign up for my 30 minute dinner plans direct to your inbox!
Find and shop my favorite products in my Amazon storefront here!
Best Easy Potato Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 pounds russet potatoes
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, divided
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt, divided
- 2 cups mayonnaise
- 2 chopped green onions
- 1 celery stalk, diced
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon sugar, optional
Instructions
- Peel and dice potatoes to 1" chunks.
- Fill a large stock pot with cold water. Add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and potatoes to water and bring to a boil.
- Boil until soft, when a fork easily pierces potato.
- Drain well and let cool.
- In a small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, mayonnaise, green onions celery, mustard, sugar, and stir to combine well.
- When potatoes are cool, mix with dressing and toss well.
- Serve immediately, or chill in the refrigerator.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Potato Salad FAQs
Boil potatoes in water from cold, and add vinegar to water as it boils to hold potatoes shape as it boils.
We like russet potatoes for potato salad – but waxy potatoes, like yukon gold potatoes, work well.
While it isn’t strictly necessary, we find it best to dd vinegar to help hold the potato wedge shape and help keep your potatoes from turning into mashed potatoes.
When you dress a potato salad is critically important – for oil-based potato salads, it is important to dress potatoes right away so they soak up some of the oil in the dressing. In this mayonnaise-based dressing, the potato salad needs to cool, so it does not all melt off when mixed with hot potatoes.
You can serve potato salad chilled, or slightly warm right after mixing.
Potato salad can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days.
Yum
Creamy yum