Classic Egg Salad

4 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Refrigerate 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes

Classic Egg Salad is the perfect lunch, made with classic pantry ingredients, plus it’s easy to make! Try making it at home today!

If you love quick and easy Lunch Recipes, you’re going like my Classic Tuna Salad too!

Mixed salad piled high in shallow bowl with chives

Sabrina’s Classic Egg Salad Recipe

This classic recipe for Egg Salad is PERFECT for a quick lunch or as a side dish at a picnic. You can make it ahead of time and eat all week, or serve over leafy greens for dinner. If I serve this over salad, I usually top with extra green onions or chives for presentation. This dish takes a total of 25 minutes to make, but I like to cool it in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving. You can also serve it as a sandwich using my classic White Bread.

How Much Should I Make For Each Person?

If you’re serving this to guests for lunch, I like to make at least ½ cup of salad (or about 2 eggs) per person. If you’re serving this as sandwiches, I’d also add tomato slices and lettuce to make it heartier. Make sure you toast the bread and assemble the sandwiches just before serving, so the bread doesn’t get soggy. You can also just serve this on a tray with veggies like celery, cucumbers, carrots, and lettuce as a lower-carb option to sandwiches that is still filling.

Topping Ideas

  • Pickles or relish
  • Diced tomato
  • Avocado
  • Bacon
  • Olives

How to Thicken

If your egg salad turns out too runny, you can add more chopped hard boiled eggs to the mix. You can also put it back into the refrigerator as the cold can help firm up the mayonnaise.

Close up of mixed salad in bowl with chives

Getting the Best Hard Boiled Eggs

  • Peel the eggs right after they come out of the ice bath, otherwise it might be difficult to get the shell off.
  • Salt the water when you’re boiling the eggs, which helps them peel easily when they’re done.

How long will it last?

Egg salad will last in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, stored in an airtight container. Assemble sandwiches just before serving, instead of storing fully made, or the bread may fall apart.

Recipe Tips and Tricks

  • Lighten up the calories in this recipe by using light mayonnaise and egg whites. You can also sub the mayonnaise for plain Greek yogurt.
  • If you’re adding pickles or relish add them just before serving, and drain completely before adding to avoid making the dressing watery.
  • Add a dash of cayenne pepper, curry powder, dill, or paprika to add some spice and flavor. I also like to use Dijon mustard instead of yellow mustard because it adds a deeper flavor.
  • Use leftover deviled eggs using slightly less mayo to compensate for what’s already in the deviled eggs.
  • Serve as a sandwich, over slices of tomato, on salad greens, or in a wrap. Or just eat it by itself!
Bowl of finished salad with chopped chive garnish.

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Classic Egg Salad

Classic Egg Salad is the perfect lunch made with classic pantry ingredients, plus it's easy to make! Try making it at home today!
Yield 4 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 8 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon mustard
  • 2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup celery , minced
  • 1/4 cup red onion , minced
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons tarragon , minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

  • Place the eggs in a large pot with cold water covering them by 1 inch and bring the water to a simmer.
  • Cover with a lid, turn off the heat and let sit for 8 minutes before removing the eggs and placing in ice water then peeling.
  • Chop the eggs then add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well, refrigerating for at least 1 hour before serving.

Notes

Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.

Nutrition

Calories: 328kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 29g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 339mg | Sodium: 642mg | Potassium: 182mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 565IU | Vitamin C: 2.2mg | Calcium: 63mg | Iron: 2mg
Collage of bowls of salad piled high with chives.

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I’m so glad I found this! Made it when my husband was away thinking I’d surprise him when he returned. Nope. We ate it all. 🙂 Making it again today to send with him this time! Thank you!!! (Didn’t use the red onion – still perfect)

    1. Haha, that’s happened too many times to count around here. I usually have to make a double batch to make sure everyone gets some 😉

  2. I’ve learned the best way to contact hard boiled eggs! You bring water to a boil first, then lower the egg into the pot, cook for 12 minutes on low heat. You don’t need to add anything to the water or so anything special to prep the eggs, by putting them straight into boiling water, you don’t give the inner membrane time to bond with the Shell during the heat up period. The peel comes right off! Make sure they are completely submerged in the water and use the lid. If you don’t need to make many, I’ve started using an old fashioned steamer basket which holds about 5 eggs at a time, just lower the basket in and no issues with cracking etc. Perfect!

  3. It’s hard to beat the classic recipe, isn’t it? I know there are many different ways to vary it up, but I always find myself going back to the original egg salad recipe. I love it.

  4. I’m DREAMING of picnic weather on this cold, soon-to-be snowy day, so I’m thinking this dish will be perfect to help me pretend. A girl can dream!

  5. Egg salad is one of my favorite lunches. I like it on sandwiches and also on top of greens. This recipe looks spot on!

  6. Egg Salad sandwiches are always a hit with my family. The key is to use a good quality mayo, none of that ‘salad dressing’ stuff for us. I like a small squirt of lemon juice, but I never add vinegar. I will, however, try adding tarragon the next time I make it….sounds interesting. Sometimes I substitute celery salt for regular salt. It adds incredible flavor! Also, a sprinkle or two of dried parsley flakes adds color & more flavor. We like our Egg Salad sandwiches on lightly toasted whole grain bread with Bibb (Boston) lettuce.
    (Egg Salad, Tuna Salad, Shrimp or Lobster Salad….my family LOVES these delicious cold sandwiches on a hot & busy summer day).