Save This Recipe
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
This creamy, tangy Potato salad has a little brown sugar for a subtle sweetness that balances the mayonnaise, mustard, and relish. Green pepper and celery add fresh crunch, and the whole salad gets even better after chilling. It makes a big bowl that’s perfect for cookouts, potlucks, and leftovers.
Why You’ll Love It
- Feeds a crowd — five pounds of potatoes make a generous bowl for gatherings and leftovers.
- Creamy and tangy — mayonnaise, mustard, sweet pickle relish, and dark brown sugar create a balanced dressing.
- Fresh crunch — red onion, celery, and green pepper keep every bite from feeling too soft.
- Better after chilling — the potatoes soak up the dressing as the flavors settle together.
Ingredient Notes
Russet potatoes work well here. They’re fluffy enough to take in that dressing without turning into little waxy cubes, but you do need to keep an eye on them while they boil. One minute they’re just tender; the next minute they’re collapsing into potato soup.
Use red onion, not yellow, if you can. The color is pretty against all that creamy dressing, and it has a sharper flavor that holds up. Chop it fairly small to avoid large chunks of onion.
For mayonnaise, use one you actually enjoy. This is three cups of it, so it matters. Just use your household favorite.
The mustard is plain mustard. Nothing fancy required. And make sure the brown sugar is dark brown sugar, firmly packed. It has that deeper molasses flavor that makes this recipe taste a little different without announcing itself from the rooftop.
Ingredients
- 5 pounds Russet potatoes
- 8 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups chopped red onion
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
- 3 cups mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus salted water for boiling the potatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Put the unpeeled Russet potatoes in a very large pot and cover them with water. Add salt to the water until it tastes salty—but not wildly salty. You’re not making the ocean in there. Bring it to a boil and cook the potatoes until they’re just tender when pierced with a fork.
This takes about 15 minutes once things are properly boiling, give or take, depending on the size of your potatoes and whether your stove has decided to cooperate today. Start checking them before you think you need to. You want them tender enough to cut, not so tender they fall apart when you look at them cross-eyed.
Drain the potatoes and let them cool until you can handle them without doing that ridiculous hot-potato dance at the sink. Leave the skins on while boiling, then rub or peel them off once the potatoes have cooled a bit. The peel generally slips away easily. Generally. There will be a few bits that don’t, and leave them if they’re tiny.
Cut the peeled potatoes into chunks and place them in your biggest mixing bowl. Not your medium bowl, no matter how convinced you are that it will fit.
Add the chopped hard-boiled eggs, red onion, celery, and green pepper to the potatoes. Toss everything together gently. You don’t have to baby it, but don’t mash it around like you’re making mashed potatoes either.
Eight eggs may sound like a lot, but this is five pounds of potatoes. It all works out.
In a separate bowl, stir together the firmly packed dark brown sugar, sweet pickle relish, mayonnaise, and mustard. Take a minute to make sure the brown sugar is worked in well. You don’t want a little clump of it hiding in the dressing, though if you find one while tasting, I suppose you’ll survive.
Pour the dressing over the potato mixture and mix well, folding it through until everything is coated. It will look like a lot of dressing at first. It is a lot of dressing. That is part of what makes it good, so please don’t get nervous and hold some back. The potatoes will soak it up as the salad chills.
Add the 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, then taste and adjust if you feel it needs it. Cover the bowl and refrigerate. Let it chill for at least a little while before serving.
Variations
A version with extra green pepper adds more of that crisp, almost grassy bite. Chopping everything smaller makes the salad look a little neater and more deliberate. Extra mustard is fine if you like it tangier, but don’t change the basic balance too much the first time around.
A different kind of relish can add too much of a sour pickle edge and fight with the brown sugar instead of blending in.
You could leave out the green pepper if you truly cannot stand it, but the salad will miss the crunch. Same with celery. The salad will still be creamy and good, but those fresh vegetables keep it from feeling heavy. And it is heavy, let’s not kid ourselves. This is potato salad, not a wellness retreat.
Storage & Reheating
Keep the potato salad covered in the refrigerator. It is best cold, and please do not reheat it.
If it has been sitting outside for a meal, get it back into the refrigerator as soon as you can. Set out a smaller serving bowl and refill it from the cold bowl inside, especially when the humidity makes your hair look like a cautionary tale.
The leftovers keep well refrigerated, and the flavor is especially nice the next day. By the second day, the potatoes have really absorbed that mustardy, sweet-tangy dressing. Give it a gentle stir before serving again. If it looks a little thick after chilling, don’t panic. It’s supposed to be creamy and substantial. Not soup.
Final Notes
This potato salad has the right balance of creamy, tangy, sweet, and crunchy, with brown sugar adding something a little different without making it overly sweet.
Make the big bowl. Use the brown sugar.
Potato Salad Extraordinaire
Ingredients Â
- 5 pounds Russet potatoes unpeeled for boiling
- 8 hard-boiled eggs chopped
- 1 1/2 cups red onion chopped
- 1 cup celery chopped
- 1/2 cup green pepper chopped
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar firmly packed
- 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
- 3 cups mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt plus salted water for boiling the potatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
InstructionsÂ
- Put the unpeeled Russet potatoes in a very large pot, cover them with water, add salt to the water until it tastes salty but not overly salty, then bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are just tender when pierced with a fork, about 15 minutes once boiling.
- Drain the potatoes and let them cool until you can handle them, then rub or peel off the skins, leaving any tiny stubborn bits if needed.
- Cut the peeled potatoes into chunks and place them in your biggest mixing bowl.
- Add the chopped hard-boiled eggs, red onion, celery, and green pepper to the potatoes, then toss everything together gently without mashing the potatoes.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the firmly packed dark brown sugar, sweet pickle relish, mayonnaise, and mustard until the brown sugar is well worked into the dressing.
- Pour the dressing over the potato mixture and fold it through until everything is well coated, remembering that the potatoes will soak up the dressing as the salad chills.
- Add the salt and pepper, taste and adjust if needed, then cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least a little while before serving.