The BEST Egg Salad Recipe: This classic egg salad uses simple ingredients such as mayo, relish, optional red onion, seasoned salt, and a little pepper!
Similar to our ham salad recipe, this egg salad sandwich is easy to make and is ready for a great lunch idea in just a few minutes.
We are REALLY into salad recipes around here, and can’t get enough of them. But all salads don’t have to be “lettuce” salads, right? It’s definitely one of my favorite savory salads, along with this chicken salad recipe!
Why You’ll Love This Egg Salad Recipe
- Affordable: This classic egg salad recipe uses only a few ingredients and affordable ingredients, at that!
- Meal Plan: Whether you want to make a batch to eat on for a quick lunch for the week, or to just keep a batch in the refrigerator for everyone to snack on, this recipe is perfect for that! I like to make a large batch of hard-boiled eggs in my Instant Pot, to snack on, and I usually use 6 of these eggs to make this egg salad!
- Protein: Eggs are a great source of protein! I love feeding this to my family so it holds them over for a while, between meals!
Ingredients
See the full ingredients amounts and directions toward the bottom of this post, in the recipe card! Here are a few notes about some of the key ingredients:
- Hard-Boiled Eggs – Tips below to cook them if you’re not using already cooked eggs
- Mayo – Hellman’s or Best Foods mayonnaise is recommended and I’ve found this gives this egg salad recipe the best flavor.
- Relish – Dill or sweet pickle relish can be used for this recipe.
- Red Onion – This is optional and gives the egg salad a little crunch. Chop the onion in to small pieces, so it doesn’t overpower the egg salad.
- Seasoned Salt – Regular salt can be used instead but seasoned salt takes the flavor to the next level.
How Do You Make Egg Salad?
I’ve always found everyone else’s opinions of how you make egg salad super interesting. But I consider this a classic egg salad recipe because it’s what my momma made and it’s the type of egg salad I’ve had from others, as well!
- Peel your hard boiled eggs. (If you need to cook your eggs first, see the different cooking methods below!)
- Discard the shells and chop up the eggs (egg whites and egg yolks) in to small pieces. (You can use a cheese grater if you like the pieces of the eggs smaller, but we prefer larger pieces.)
Tip: If you’re just now cooking your eggs, (meaning you’re not using eggs that have already been hard boiled ahead of time) we find that we prefer the egg fully cooled before making the egg salad.
- Place chopped hard-boiled eggs in a medium bowl.
- Next, add in mayo, relish, red onion, seasoned salt, and pepper.
- Stir until evenly combined, and it’s ready to eat!
What Kind of Bread for an Egg Salad Sandwich?
That’s up to you of course, but an at-home egg salad sandwich served on a croissant is my absolute favorite. It reminds me of a delicious sandwich I’d get at a cafe for lunch!
However, those aren’t always handy so regular sandwich bread, lightly toasted, is my next favorite!
Other bread like rye, wheat, or even on a pita, is super delicious too!
- If serving this egg salad recipe on bread, place a small amount (about a ¼ cup) on a sliced croissant (or other bread).
- Top with your favorite toppings (We used a lettuce and slices of bacon.)
How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs
There are different ways you can cook hard-boiled eggs, which is why I left that out of the recipe because it’s up to you how you decide to make them!
Tip: Fresh eggs tend to be harder to peel, so if you have eggs that are older than others (but still good!), it’s best to use those!
- Pressure Cook: Now although it doesn’t quite matter how clean the eggs peel, since you’re chopping the eggs up anyway, I have to say that cooking eggs in the pressure cooker, is my all-time favorite way. The peels practically SLIDE off, leaving the whites of the eggs beautiful!
- Stove Top: Place eggs in sauce pan, and cover with about 1 inch of cold water. Leave pot uncovered (no lid). Bring water to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer and let simmer for about 7 minutes. Prepare an ice bath and place eggs in ice bath to cool. When they’ve cooled, they are ready to peel.
- Air Fryer: Place eggs in air fryer and turn the temperature to 250 degrees. Cook for 16-17 minutes (air fryer temperatures can vary). Place eggs in ice bath. Peel when cooled.
More Ways to Use Hard Boiled Eggs
If you’re making hard boiled eggs for this egg salad recipe, then you might as well go ahead and make extra hard-boiled eggs to use for these other easy recipes, such as:
- The BEST Side Salad Recipe
- Cauliflower Potato Salad – Low Carb
- Tuna Salad Recipe
- Extra hard-boiled eggs for snacking
Variations
If you’re looking for different ways to enjoy this simple egg salad recipe, other than on bread, as a sandwich, here are some other great ideas:
- Do you have crackers in the pantry? Buttery crackers or herb-flavored crackers are delicious with this egg salad!
- Looking for low carb? Try using celery to dip in the egg salad for a quick snack!
Additional Ingredient Suggestions
Want to experiment with some extra flavors for your easy egg salad recipe?
Here are some ideas to get you started…
- avocado
- hot sauce
- pesto
- dill pickles
- cilantro
- basil
- other fresh herbs
- candied pecans
- celery
- lemon juice
- yellow mustard
- cumin
- green onions
- dijon mustard
Storage Instructions
If you happen to have leftover egg salad, place in an airtight container, in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
Related Recipes
If you love sandwich recipes like this one, then you’ll also love this curry chicken salad and this chicken grilled cheese sandwich!
Recipe
Egg Salad
Ingredients
- 6 hard boiled eggs
- ½ cup mayo
- ¼ cup relish dill or sweet
- ¼ cup chopped red onion
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Peel your hard boiled eggs. (If you need to cook your eggs first, see in the notes, below, the different cooking methods.)
- Discard the shells and chop up the eggs in to small pieces. (You can use a cheese grater if you like the pieces of the eggs smaller, but we prefer larger pieces.)
- Add mayo, relish, onion, seasoned salt and pepper into the eggs, stir then until combined!
- Serve about ¼ cup of egg salad on desired bread or dip with crackers!
Notes
- Pressure Cook: Now although it doesn’t quite matter how clean the eggs peel, since you’re chopping the eggs up anyway, I have to say that cooking eggs in the pressure cooker, is my all-time favorite way. The peels practically SLIDE off, leaving the whites of the eggs beautiful!
- Stove Top: Place eggs in sauce pan, and cover with about 1 inch of water. Leave pot uncovered (no lid). Bring water to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer and let simmer for about 7 minutes. Prepare an ice bath and place eggs in ice bath to cool. When they’ve cooled, they are ready to peel.
- Air Fryer: Place eggs in air fryer and turn the temperature to 250 degrees. Cook for 16-17 minutes (air fryer temperatures can vary). Place eggs in ice bath. Peel when cooled.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
katerina @ diethood.com says
Such a fabulous egg salad! I loved it!! Thanks for sharing!
Toni says
This is really one of the best egg salad recipes I’ve ever tried! It is so easy and uses simple ingredients! Amazing!
Allyssa says
The best indeed! This tasted so amazing! Thanks a lot for sharing this super easy to make recipe! Fam really loves it! Will surely have this again!
Sam says
This was so simple but so tasty, exactly what I wanted for lunch today. I chopped up some Bubbies pickles to use as the relish and it really made the flavor pop, thanks so much for sharing!
Jessica says
Yay! Thank you Sam, I’m so glad that you loved it!