This easy Egg Salad Recipe is perfect with crackers, lettuce wraps, or straight from the bowl, and makes the best egg salad sandwiches! Made with hard-boiled eggs and a few other simple ingredients, it’s the perfect quick and easy, protein-packed recipe.

The Best Egg Salad Recipe

Inexpensive, easy to make, super delicious, and high in protein, egg salad has the talent of being incredibly basic or extremely complex. Created sometime after the introduction of mayonnaise in the early 1800s, it remains more than two centuries later, a favorite for both sandwiches and salads all across Europe and America.

That said, no two egg salad recipes are completely alike.

Some salads come bare and drowning in mayonnaise. Others prefer a little added crunch from veggies like red onion, celery, bell pepper, or even jicama. In this version, you’ll find hard-boiled eggs mixed with mayonnaise, red onion, chives, dijon mustard, sweet paprika, salt, pepper, and pickle juice!

Everyone has their own favorite version of the “egg salad.” This one is mine.

Making Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs for Egg Salad

Having perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs is the most important part of achieving the perfect egg salad. You don’t want eggs that are rubbery and overcooked, have a grey/green ring around the yolk, or are too soft and runny.

Most people have their own favorite way to make hard-boiled eggs. If that’s not you, learn how to make perfect boiled eggs on the stovetop, using 12-minute eggs for egg salad. Or, learn how to cook Instant Pot hard-boiled eggs (my preferred method for cooking hard-boiled eggs).

Overhead image of egg salad made with hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise, parsley, chives, red onion.

How to Make Egg Salad

The process varies depending on how you like your salad.

Somewhat Chunky: Transfer the peeled and chopped eggs (an egg slicer is great for this) to a medium mixing bowl. Add the mayonnaise, pickle juice (optional), red onion, mustard (Dijon or yellow), chives, sweet paprika, salt, and black pepper. Mix until the desired texture and consistency are reached.
Smooth and Creamy: This method has an extra step. In my opinion, it tastes the same, but some people may disagree. Divide the egg yolks from the egg whites. Add the yolks to a large mixing bowl with the mayonnaise, pickle juice, mustard, paprika, and salt and pepper. Mix well until fully combined and smooth. Finally, add the egg white and the diced red onion to the yolk and mayo mixture. Gently mix to combine.

Once your egg salad is all mixed together, season with additional salt, black pepper, or mustard to taste.

Bowl filled with peeled and halved hard boiled eggs.

Egg Salad Variations and Additions

Mayo Substitutions – Greek yogurt, hummus, tahini.
Crunchy Veggies – celery, jicama, green onion, sweet bell pepper, spicy jalapeño.
More Protein – garbanzo beans, small cooked shrimp, diced chicken, or bacon.
Fresh Herbs – fresh parsley, fresh dill, fresh basil, rosemary.
AVOCADO
Things that are salty – diced pickles or relish, olives, chopped (well-drained) artichoke hearts, or capers.

Things that I do not recommend adding (unless you plan to enjoy the entire batch of egg salad right away) are things with a lot of water or liquid. For example, tomatoes and cucumber. You’re better off topping your sandwich, salad, or bowl with these veggies.

How to Serve

Make an Egg salad sandwich: Keep it simple with just the egg salad sandwiched between two pieces of bread, or make it fancy and serve it on a buttery croissant with all of your favorite toppings like,
- Lettuce, sprouts, microgreens
- Sliced tomatoes
- Bacon
- Avocado
- Pickled onions
Scoop it on a salad: This is my second favorite way to eat egg salad. Low carb and totally delicious, adding a scoop or two of egg salad to a green salad is an easy way to turn a side dish into a complete meal. Perfect for make-ahead lunches or last-minute dinners.
Serve it as a dip: Why not? Let guests scoop it onto buttery crackers. I’m fairly certain they’ll take the bowl with them.
Scoop into lettuce cups: Butter lettuce and Romaine work best.

Bowl filled with hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise, parsley, diced red onion, salt, pepper, and paprika.

How Long is Egg Salad Good For?

Egg salad is best enjoyed within 3-4 days when stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. With that said, if it smells off, looks dull, or has turned watery, it’s probably a good time to toss it in the trash.

How to meal prep egg salad for the week? Hard-boil a large batch of eggs – hard-boiled eggs stay fresh, unpeeled, in the refrigerator for one week. This allows you to make a new batch of egg salad whenever the previous/old batch is gone.

Can I Freeze Egg Salad?

Freezing is not recommended as both eggs and mayonnaise do not taste good once thawed from frozen.

More Salad Recipes

Did you try making this Egg Salad Recipe? Please leave me a comment and let me know! I always love to hear your thoughts.

Close up image of mixed together egg salad.

RECIPE CARD

Egg Salad Recipe

4.85 from 132 votes

Jessica Randhawa

This easy Egg Salad Recipe is perfect with crackers, lettuce wraps, or straight from the bowl, and makes the best egg salad sandwiches! Made with hard-boiled eggs and a few other simple ingredients, it's the perfect quick and easy, protein-packed recipe.

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 12

Total Time 22

Course Lunch, Salad, Snack

Cuisine American

Servings servings

Calories 294 kcal

Ingredients

▢ 8 large eggs - hard-boiled and cooled
▢ ⅓ cup mayonnaise - plus more as needed
▢ 2 teaspoon pickle juice - (optional)
▢ ¼ red onion - minced
▢ 1 teaspoon mustard - yellow or dijon
▢ ¼ cup chives - chopped
▢ ¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
▢ salt and pepper - to taste

Instructions

Hard boil the eggs (stovetop) – Add eggs to a large saucepan and cover with 1-2 inches of water. Bring to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover and let eggs rest in the hot water for 10-12 minutes before transferring to an ice bath to cool. Remove eggs from the ice bath, peel, and chop.
Hard boil the eggs (pressure cooker) – Add 1 cup water to the inner pot of your Instant Pot and insert egg or steam rack. Place eggs on the rack and securely fasten the lid. Set the cooking time for 5 minutes on high pressure. Allow pressure to release naturally for 5 minutes before doing a quick release. Transfer eggs to an ice water bath to stop cooling. Once cool, remove eggs from the ice bath and carefully peel and chop.
Mix – Transfer peeled and chopped eggs to a medium mixing bowl. Add the mayonnaise, pickle juice (optional), red onion, mustard (Dijon or yellow), chives, sweet paprika, salt, and pepper. Mix well to combine.
Season to taste – Season with additional salt, pepper, or mustard, to taste.
Serve – Serve on your favorite bread, crackers, or on your favorite salad, if desired. Enjoy!

Jessica’s Notes

Ingredient Notes:

Mayonnaise: Classic egg salad calls for mayonnaise. Whether you add homemade mayonnaise, full-fat or low-fat, that’s completely up to you, but you will need some sort of creamy base. A healthy alternative is Greek yogurt, or simply cutting back on the total amount used.
Pickle Juice: Pickle juice is a fabulous way to add some salty, vinegary flavor. If you’re worried that your egg salad will taste like pickles, don’t…because it won’t. However, feel free to leave it out if it’s not your thing.
Mustard: This recipe is great with yellow, whole grain, or dijon mustard.
Fresh Chives: Chives are there to add a little fresh bite to the egg salad and help bring out different flavors. Some thinly sliced green onion would also work well.
Paprika: Paprika is more for color and decoration than it is for taste. Add it in, leave it out, completely up to you.

As written, this recipe is gluten-free, vegetarian, and low-carb.

Nutritional Information

(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and specific brands of ingredients used.)

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