Perfect Egg Salad

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Make your favorite deli-style egg salad at home with just a handful of ingredients. Deliciously creamy with the perfect balance of flavors and textures, this egg salad recipe is destined to become a favorite!

We raise chickens, guinea fowl and cotton patch geese on our homestead and so eggs are something that are always plentiful around here. I’m always looking for new yummy ways to use them – whether it’s in an Egg Curry, Spinach and Feta Frittata, Egg Foo Young or Scotch Eggs – but egg salad is classic for a reason, and it’s a regular favorite in our home!

If you’re looking for that classic deli-style egg salad that you can enjoy on a bed of lettuce or piled on a sandwich, look no further! This recipe uses just a handful of ingredients for perfect results, but I’m going share several optional add-ins with you for some extra pizzazz or if you just want to change things up.

What is Egg Salad?

Egg salad is a classic dish consisting of chopped hard-boiled eggs in a mayonnaise-based dressing and is commonly seasoned with mustard, salt and pepper with additions like celery and onions. Its very base origins can be traced to Great Britain but it gained massive popularity as a sandwich filling in the United States in the late 19th century and has remained an American classic since. One of the earliest printed recipes for egg salad can be found in the 1896 edition of Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking School Cook Book.

Egg Salad Ingredients & Substitutions

This recipe calls for just a handful of staple ingredients but if you’d like to change things up I provide a few optional add-ins below:

• Eggs: Use the best eggs you can find. This recipe calls for large eggs but you can use medium or extra-large and just visually adjust the mayonnaise amount accordingly.
• Mayonnaise: This forms the creamy base. Use homemade or choose a store-bought brand that you like (this can include variations like Japanese or German mayo which are slightly sweeter). I don’t like an overly wet egg salad but if you prefer you can add a little more mayonnaise.
• Mustard: Whether you use yellow or Dijon mustard is strictly a matter of personal preference. Yellow mustard will give you a brighter tang while Dijon will give you a more refined flavor profile. I tend to prefer Dijon for egg salad.
• Lemon Juice: A bit of acid is needed to add brightness, freshness and to cut through the heavy flavor of the mayonnaise. My preference is fresh lemon juice but you can substitute white wine vinegar or even pickle juice.
• Celery: This provides flavor, freshness and some welcome crunch texture contrast.
• Onion: You have a few choices here. You can use green onions/scallions, red onions, or chives. If I have chives on hand I like to include them in addition to either green or red onions.
• Herbs: Parsley makes the perfect choice because its bright, clean and mildly bitter flavor cuts through the heaviness of the mayonnaise and helps balance the flavors. Another great choice is fresh dill. You can use this instead of or in addition to the parsley (if I have dill on hand I’ll opt for using some of each).
• Seasonings: I use salt, pepper, paprika and just a pinch of garlic powder for that savory dose of umami.
• Optional Add-Ins: I like to keep my egg salad relatively simple and focus on the flavor of high quality free-ranged eggs, but for some added flavor you can experiment with these optional add-ins. In addition to or instead of the celery, you can add some finely chopped dill pickles, dill pickle relish, or sweet pickle relish. For some added brininess, you can add some rinsed and drained capers. For a nice punch of flavor, add 2-3 teaspoons of prepared horseradish. For some extra protein and flavor you can also add in some crumbled bacon or even some finely diced smoke ham or chicken.

Pro Tip for the Creamiest Egg Salad

A tip I learned from America’s Test Kitchen is to mash the egg yolks. Similar to making deviled eggs, mashing the yolks with the mayonnaise and mustard will avoid not only avoid a gritty texture, it will give you extra creamy results while the chopped egg whites and celery give you the chunkiness and crunch.

How to Make Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs

A key step to achieving the best egg salad is to cook the eggs correctly. Over-cooked eggs will give you rubbery egg whites and dry, chalky egg yolks, not to mention that unpleasant green rim around the yolks. Here’s how to make the perfect hard-boiled eggs:

• Place eggs in a saucepan and cover about an inch with cold water. Bring the water to a rolling boil, then place the lid on the saucepan, remove the saucepan from the heat, and let the eggs sit for 10-12 minutes.
• Now it’s time to shock the eggs, which means immediately transferring the eggs to an ice bath to cool. This will both prevent the eggs from continuing to cook and will also make them easier to peel.

Egg Salad Recipe

Alright, let’s make some egg salad! Here’s how to do it:

• Prepare the eggs: Place the eggs in a saucepan covered by an inch of water and bring it to a rolling boil. Cover the pan, remove it from the heat and let it sit for 10-12 minutes. Drain the water and place the eggs in an ice bath to cool. Peel and discard the shells. Cut the eggs in half, scoop out the yolks and set aside. Dice the egg whites.
• Prepare the dressing: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mash the egg yolks with the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, salt, pepper and paprika. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Gently stir in the egg whites, celery, green onions and parsley until everything is coated and equally distributed. If the mixture is too dry, add some more mayonnaise.
• Cover the bowl and let the egg salad chill in the fridge for at least 1-2 hours before serving to allow the flavors to meld.

Make-Ahead and Storage Tips

• Make-ahead: Hard boil the eggs and refrigerate up to 1 week ahead. Wait to peel them until you’re ready to make the egg salad.
• Storage: The egg salad can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 3-4 days (any longer and it will start to get watery). Do not freeze egg salad, since the texture will change and the dressing will get watery.

How to Serve Egg Salad

There are a number of ways you can serve egg salad. Here are a few ideas:

• Serve it on a bed of lettuce for a low-carb option.
• Use it as a filling for sandwiches with bread or croissants with some lettuce.
• Spoon it on top of English muffins or toast for a hearty breakfast option (e.g., Sourdough English Muffins).
• Use it as a filling for lettuce wraps, pita bread or tortilla shells.

What to Serve with Egg Salad

Egg salad can be served with favorite traditional accompaniments like potato chips and dill pickles (see my Refrigerator Pickles) or you can round the meal out further by serving it with a leafy green salad, fruit salad (e.g., Waldorf Salad), Oven Baked French Fries or Baked Potato Wedges, onion rings, a pasta salad like Macaroni Salad, Four Bean Salad, Coleslaw or Freezer Slaw.

Enjoy!

Be sure to also try my popular Chicken Salad and Moroccan Chicken Salad!