The best potato salad with bacon
- Preparation 20 min
- Cooking 15 min
- Servings 6
- Freezing I don't recommend it
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🥔 The potato salad I make every time the barbecue comes out
This is the one I’ve been making for years and it hasn’t changed. A potato salad with bacon built on baby potatoes left in their skin, four hard-boiled eggs chopped rough, thick smoked bacon, dill pickles, green onion and celery, all bound in a mayo and Dijon dressing. What makes it mine is the last two things that hit the bowl: smoked paprika and a splash of dark maple syrup. Up here maple syrup is a pantry staple, not a pancake garnish, and a tablespoon of it in a creamy dressing does something plain sugar can’t. It reads like your grandmother’s potato salad right up until the smoke shows up.
🍳 Two things decide whether it’s good
Do not overcook the potatoes. That’s the whole game. Push them past done and they collapse into grey mash the second the dressing hits, and no amount of bacon saves that. About 12 minutes, fork slides in with no resistance, potatoes still holding their shape. Then drain them hard and leave them in the colander a couple of minutes, because leftover cooking water thins the dressing and you end up with a soupy bowl.
The second one is timing. Dress the potatoes while they’re still warm, not hot, not cold. Warm potatoes drink the dressing, cold ones just wear it. Ten minutes on the counter after draining is the window.
🌞 The BBQ side dish, and a lunch on its own
It goes next to ribs, grilled steak, burgers, pulled pork, corn on the grill, plain sausages off the barbecue. Add shredded or grilled chicken and it stops being a side dish. And it is genuinely better on day two, once the flavors have had a night in the fridge to settle, which makes it the rare thing you can build the evening before a barbecue and forget about. Potlucks, coolers, picnics.
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🥔 Baby potatoes, skin on
Yellow baby potatoes are what I reach for. The skin does the work: it holds the halves together through the folding, it adds a bit of chew, and it saves you the peeling. Red ones are fine, and a yellow-red mix looks great in a bowl. Skip the purple ones, they turn a strange colour under mayo. If all you have are Yukon Gold or Russets, cut them into ¾-inch (2 cm) cubes so they cook evenly.
⏱️ Dress them warm, and drain them like you mean it
This is the one that separates an ordinary potato salad from the one people ask about. Mix the dressing in while the potatoes are still warm. Ten minutes of cooling after draining is the sweet spot. Warm starch pulls the dressing in instead of letting it sit on the outside, so every bite is seasoned all the way through. And really drain them, two or three minutes sitting in the colander, because whatever cooking water is left will thin your dressing into soup.
🥓 Thick-cut smoked bacon, oven at 400°F (200°C)
Thin generic bacon disappears into the salad. Thick-cut smoked bacon holds its bite. I bake it on a foil-lined sheet at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 25 minutes until it’s properly crisp. More even than a pan, far less mess, and it frees your hands for the rest. Crumble it once it’s cool, and hold back a quarter of it for the top.
🍳 Hard-boiled eggs that actually peel
My method, and it hasn’t failed me: sit the eggs in warm tap water for 5 minutes before they go into boiling water, so they don’t crack from the shock. 12 minutes at a gentle boil. Then rinse them under cold running water, and be generous about it. The cold shock lifts the membrane off the shell and they peel in seconds. Chop them coarse so you can still see egg in the finished salad.
🥒 Dill pickles, never sweet ones
I’m not a fan of sweet pickles, so I use small dill pickles, garlic dills if you can find them, chopped fine. The sharp acidity cuts the mayo. Sweet pickles would push the whole bowl over the edge, because there’s already maple syrup in the dressing.
🍯 Dark maple syrup and smoked paprika
Sugar just tastes sweet. Dark maple syrup brings a caramelized depth that changes the dressing completely, so go for amber or dark rather than the pale delicate stuff. And smoked paprika is in almost everything I cook. It puts a quiet grilled note behind the mayo that lines the salad up with whatever came off the barbecue. Regular paprika works, you just lose the smoke, which is most of the point.
🍗 Turn it into a meal
Shredded or grilled cubed chicken folded in makes it lunch instead of a side. Fresh dill or chives push the herb side further. Avocado cubes right before serving if you want it richer.
✅ What to serve with potato salad with bacon
This is a barbecue side dish first. It belongs beside my maple mustard pork ribs or my best beer pork ribs, with a grilled steak, pulled pork burgers, grilled corn with bacon and cheddar, or nothing fancier than sausages on the grate. Building a summer buffet? Put my creamy coleslaw with pancetta next to it. And if you make the dressing with my homemade mayonnaise, it’s another thing entirely.
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Salad
- 3 lb (1.5 kg) baby potatoes, halved
- 6 slices thick-cut smoked bacon, cooked crispy and crumbled
- 4 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped
- 4 green onions, thinly sliced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) small dill pickles, finely chopped
- ¼ cup (60 ml) fresh parsley, chopped
Creamy dressing
- 1 cup (250 ml) mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) dark maple syrup
- 1 tsp (5 ml) smoked paprika
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Preparation
- Put the baby potatoes in a large pot of cold salted water. Bring to a boil and cook about 12 minutes, until a fork slides in easily but the potatoes still hold their shape.
- Drain well and leave them in the colander 2 to 3 minutes, then let them sit 10 minutes. They should be warm, not hot and not cold, when the dressing goes on.
- Meanwhile, make the dressing: in a large bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, smoked paprika, salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Add the green onions, celery, dill pickles and parsley to the still-warm potatoes. Pour over the dressing and fold gently with a wooden spoon so everything is coated without crushing the potatoes.
- Fold in the chopped hard-boiled eggs and about ¾ of the crumbled bacon. Mix gently once more.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour so the flavors come together.
- To serve, taste and adjust the salt and pepper, transfer to a serving dish and top with the rest of the crumbled bacon and a little fresh parsley.
Waxy ones. Baby potatoes, red potatoes or Yukon Golds hold their shape after boiling and through the folding, which is the whole point. Russets are starchy and fall apart into mash the moment the dressing hits them. If Russets are all you’ve got, cut them into ¾-inch (2 cm) cubes and pull them off the heat early. Leave the skin on the baby potatoes, it holds the halves together and saves you a job.
About 12 minutes for halved baby potatoes, started in cold salted water and brought up to a boil. Cold start matters: dropping them into boiling water cooks the outside before the middle is done. You’re looking for a fork that slides in with no resistance while the potato still holds together. Bigger cubes run closer to 15 minutes. Overshooting by two minutes is the most common way this salad gets ruined.
All the time, and it’s the version I’ve always made. Bacon brings two things mayo can’t: salt and crunch. Use thick-cut smoked bacon baked crisp, fold in about three quarters of it, and scatter the rest on top right before serving so it stays crisp instead of softening in the dressing overnight.
Sit the eggs in warm tap water for 5 minutes before they go in, so they don’t crack from the temperature shock. 12 minutes at a gentle boil. Then rinse them under cold running water, generously. The cold shock lifts the membrane off the shell and they peel in seconds. Chop them coarse so you can still see egg in the bowl.
Almost always the draining. Potatoes hold cooking water in the cut faces, and if you dress them straight out of the pot that water thins the mayo into a puddle at the bottom of the bowl. Leave them in the colander 2 to 3 minutes, then let them sit 10 minutes before dressing. The other culprit is overcooking: blown-out potatoes shed starch and liquid as they sit. Wet celery and pickles are worth patting dry too.
3 to 4 days in an airtight container, and it’s better on day two once everything has settled. Take it out 5 to 10 minutes before serving, a mayo dressing loosens up at slightly above fridge temperature. Don’t freeze it. The mayo splits on thawing and the potatoes come back mealy. If you’re making it ahead for a crowd, make it the night before, not the week before.
Barbecue, mostly. My maple mustard pork ribs, my best beer pork ribs, a grilled steak, pulled pork burgers, grilled corn or plain sausages. For a full summer spread, add my creamy coleslaw with pancetta. Fold in shredded chicken and it becomes lunch on its own.
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