This traditional coleslaw recipe is a quick and easy dish to make! A classic summer salad side or topping for your BBQ sandwiches!
Cole Slaw is an essential Summer Side Dish for your backyard barbecue! From this classic easy recipe to old fashioned Amish Vinegar Slaw to Copycat KFC versions, I’ve got plenty of slaws for you to choose from!
Sabrina’s Easy Cole Slaw Recipe
This Cole Slaw is a classic barbecue side dish. The cool, creaminess of dressing and crunch of the veggies go perfectly with smoky meat hot off the grill, or my Oven-Baked Pulled Chicken. And who can resist a saucy pulled pork sandwich piled high with fresh coleslaw?!
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 14 ounce coleslaw mix , with red cabbage and carrots*
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
Instructions
- Add the mayonnaise, sugar, lemon juice, white vinegar, salt, and pepper to a large mixing bowl and whisk together until fully combined.
- Add in the coleslaw mix and stir well to combine.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Table of contents
About this Recipe
This easy and delicious coleslaw comes together in just 5 minutes with the perfect homemade dressing. The hardest part is waiting for it to chill for a few hours before you can dive in for a crisp tangy bite! It is a great make-ahead dish because it gets even better the next day.
Chef’s Note: Playing with Flavor
The nice thing about a simple recipe like my slaw dressing is that it makes a great base to play with flavor using your spice cabinet. You can keep it simple with celery salt, white pepper or garlic powder. Or get bold and creative with curry powder, cumin, tarragon, or turmeric. I like to spoon a little dressing out into a small dish, add a tiny dash of spices, mix and taste. Once I have the flavors I’m looking for, I add the spices in ¼ or ½ teaspoon amounts to the actual dressing. This way I don’t risk wasting my whole dressing with the wrong seasoning combo.
Ingredients
- Cabbage: I used a pre-shredded cabbage mix since this is supposed to be an easy recipe! You can make your own using green cabbage, purple cabbage, and carrots. See below in Variations for my instructions on how to do this.
- Mayonnaise: This recipe calls for regular mayo for extra creaminess. You can use a lighter version or vegan mayo if you prefer.
- Vinegar: The tangy, strong white vinegar cuts through the rich mayo and helps soften the veggies as they sit overnight.
- Sugar: The sugar adds some balance and helps tone down the acidic flavors with the lemon and vinegar.
- Lemon Juice: Some fresh lemon juice also helps cut the richness of the mayo and adds a bold freshness to the dressing.
Can this be made ahead of time?
The beautiful thing with Cole Slaw is that you can make it in advance! While it is still really yummy as soon as it is mixed together, making it a day or two earlier and keeping it in the fridge will help bring all the flavors together and help them get into the cabbage mixture. Make sure it is sealed in an airtight container.
How to Store
- Serve: For best results, make sure to refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving, serve chilled, and don’t leave it out longer than 2 hours.
- Store: Cole Slaw can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week. If it starts to break down, add more coleslaw mix to keep it fresh longer.
- Freeze: Coleslaw doesn’t freeze well, so just throw it out and make a fresh batch when needed.
Frequent Questions
It is really up to you! I like to grab a pre-shredded bag for convenience, especially when it’s on sale. But chopping it up fresh isn’t that hard since it’s just cabbage and shredded carrots.
While this recipe takes only five minutes to put together, you want to let it chill so that the dressing can soften the crunch of the cabbage and the flavors can be absorbed. I recommend 2-4 hours.
Cole Slaw is a dish that comes from the Netherlands. Its first presentation showed up in a cookbook there in 1770.
Making coleslaw from scratch can be as easy as pouring and mixing! At the most, you may have to do some chopping if you don’t buy a bagged mix. All the ingredients are pantry staples which means you’ll likely have them already at home! If not, you can easily find the ingredients in your local grocery store.
Variations
- Homemade Shredded Cabbage Mixture: Cut up a full head of green cabbage into 4 large quarters using a sharp chef’s knife. Taking care, thinly slice each of the quartered cabbage pieces. Discard the thick root part. One head of cabbage should make about 8 cups of shredded cabbage. Next, shred enough red cabbage to make 1 cup, about a 1/4th of a cabbage head. You don’t want to use too much red cabbage or it will turn your slaw purple. Lastly, shred 4 carrots into short, thin strips. You can use a grater, the julienne setting on your kitchen mandolin or a food processor with a shredding blade.
- Fresh Herbs: Adding a few teaspoons of fresh dill, chives, or parsley will give your slaw a tasty herby kick! For a bold flavor, try finely diced green onion or grated white onion.
- Mustard: Adding a bit of mustard seeds or a tablespoon or two of Dijon mustard to the mix really adds a wonderful depth of flavor.
- Mayo vs Miracle Whip: Mayo is really creamy and rich while Miracle Whip is a bit sweeter in flavor. It really comes down to preference on this one!
- Vinegar: Try making your slaw apple cider vinegar or pickle juice instead of the white vinegar for a tangy flavor with a twist!
Related Recipes
More Delicious Homemade Coleslaw Recipes!
Photos used in a previous version of this post:
Loved this recipe. It was so delicious my family was in love with it.
Thanks for the 5 stars, Eileen.
I added a little onion and green pepper. It is our favorite cole slaw recipe so far.
Yum! Glad you liked and were able to make it like you like!
Wow I like it
Happy to hear that!
I haven’t had coleslaw long time.
This recipe is easy wonderful.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for the review!
Hi
The bacon corn looks very gd. I am not keen on BBQ sauce.what other sauce can i use instead pls.
Many thks
You can use whatever flavor sauce you’d like.
Tried it with eggless mayo and asked kids for review.. got 5 stars, Thank you Sabrina !
Yay!! Thanks for letting me know Suren.
Love this recipe! I doubled it and added some celery seeds, dry mustard, and onion powder as suggested in the comments. So good!
Fantastic! Thanks for the 5 stars.
Can you use miracle whip in place of mayo?
I’ve not tested it that way before but if you decide to try, I’d love to know how it turns out. Thanks!
What are the serving sizes for the Cole slaw recipes….1 cup, 1/2 cup etc.? I am doing WW and need to know serving size to determine points
Thank you
1/2 cup 🙂 Enjoy!
Simple. Tasty. Fast. Bada bing, bada boom!
It’s as easy as that!
How do you think it would come using avacodo mayo?
I’ve not tested it but I would think it would be fine. I hope you enjoy it!
Made this and WOW. So darn good. Now I keep bag slaw on hand and make this couple times a week. So very easy and tastes better the next day.
Thanks for dropping by to let me know! I’m so glad you enjoy it so much!
Great love this
How long does this last in the fridge please
About 3-5 days. 🙂 Enjoy!
Yum. Used a “southern style” slaw mix (onions, cabbage, finely chopped bell pepper) and used 2Tb of White Wine Vinegar (didn’t have a lemon or white vinegar) and it came out DELICIOUS!
Very nice recipe – thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it, Dom!
Whenever I’ve made coleslaw in the past, it’s sucked. I couldn’t figure out what was so hard and had pretty much given up making it. (Even though it seems rather simple?) I was always looking at some famous chef’s recipe, but it always tasted bleh… This slaw was delicious and EASY as promised. I made the dressing as written and sliced one head of cabbage thin. Maybe a hair too much dressing but not by much. May I never lose this recipe, and bless you!
Yay!! So glad you didn’t give up the search Marika.
Love love love the recipes, will be making them all!! Thank you
Yay!! Look forward to seeing you around the site.
This is an easy and very tasty recipe. The dressing is creamy and it holds up well over time. I reduced the white sugar to 1 tablespoon and found the taste to be very pleasant.
This coleslaw is perfect! Simple and so delicious!
So glad you enjoyed it, Kathryn!
Love all the cookin styles ?????
This is a very good coleslaw as is. For a little flavor boost, add some mini marshmallows, very delicious.
Excellent!!
I used apple cider vinegar instead of white and added about a tsp of Dijon mustard…yummy!
Thanks for the suggestions, Rhonda!
Delicious the best coleslaw recipe for my taste to date. I like miracle whip so I used 1/2 mayo 1/2 miracle whip we also like a little celery seed so added it as well. Lovely balance of sweet and tart!
Sounds delicious!
This is the best cole slaw recipe , by far. Easy ,fast, and delicious. Thank you
So glad you enjoyed it, Debbie!
AMAZING. Only change I made was to use cider vinegar, but I am sure white would have been just as good. Really a very simple and tasty recipe!
Quick and easy recipe. I left out the lemon juice because I didn’t have any and it was delicious!
So glad you enjoyed it, Nadine!
Why do I have to scroll through so much BS just to get to the recipe?
There’s a “jump to recipe” button at the top of the page if you want to get straight to it.
You obviously don’t go on many web sites. They are all like that.
Made this yesterday for ribs today. Tasted it while making it and was tastey. Ate it today and fabulous. Definitely gets better for the next day.
Hi!
Can you make the dressing the day before or is it best made on the day? Xx
You can make it ahead of time. Enjoy!
Looks great! I tried with my hamburger. Awesome
The best coleslaw, and so easy. She nailed this one. Make it, you won’t be disappointed.
Awww, thanks! So glad you loved it!
Love this! Did half the sugar and 1.5tbls cider vinager and added garlic and onion powder. BINGO! The perfect savory side to our fried fish dinner!
Thanks!
It’s such a easy recipe, I have two broken arms , and I was to make this easy cole slaw, tastes perfect.
Oh no, Deanna! I hope you have a quick recovery!
Simple yet excellent!
Thanks, Bob!
PERFECT! Thank you!
You’re welcome!
thank you for the recipe
This was such an easy recipe to make and it was delicious. This will be my go to recipe from now on. Thanks!
Thanks so much! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I like it simple and easy straight to the recipte. Thank u.
You’re welcome, Tiffany!
Amazing! Quick, easy and tasty!! Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it, Kathleen!
I love this recipe, reminds me of my moms coleslaw. I have been searching forever for a recipe like yours and i finally found it. Thank you for sharing.
I like using Miracle Whip for this recipe, gives it a great taste.
HELP – I’m wanting to make this today – can I use miracle whip in place of real mayo?
I’m so sorry I’m just now seeing this. 🙁
How did it turn out?
Miracle whip is mayo and will work fine with even better results.
Very good! Just made this and the dressing makes a good coleslaw.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Kim!
Quick and easy but ABSOLUTELY delicious! This slaw us a must have with any BBQ this summer.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
A summer side dish I could eat every day!
Great side dish to any BBQ this Summer!
Definitely!
I love cole slaw and this looks perfect!
Thanks Amanda!
What a great recipe! This needs to happen at my house very soon!!
I made this tonight and my wife told me it’s a keeper. Perfect salad to accompany my summer grilling.
So glad you all enjoyed it!
Love easy and delicious! Saving!
Thank you!
This recipe is almost like the one my mother always made and I still make (I’m 78): 2 T sugar, 3 T ACvinegar, 1 t celery seeds, 1/2 to 3/4 c mayo, S&P. We never heard of Tony Roma’s! Although I’ve been cooking a long time, I still enjoy your blog.
This is such a perfect side for so many meals! I can’t wait to make a big batch.
Definitely!!