Ahh, the mighty egg salad, how we love thee! A great egg salad recipe comes down to one decision made well: how finely to chop the eggs and how much mayonnaise binds them, since everything else is seasoning. Chop by hand instead of pulsing in a food processor, and some yolk stays crumbly while some white stays in distinct pieces, instead of one uniform paste. Once that base holds, egg salad goes anywhere: pressed into a grilled cheese, brightened with dill and lemon, or set aside for deviled eggs and potato salads that use hard-boiled eggs as one ingredient among many. Master the classic first, because everything else is a variation that you can experiment with and find your own favorites.
Jump to: The Classic · Egg Salad Variations & Global Twists
The Classic
1 · Old Fashion Egg Salad
Hand-chopped eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, and a little sweet pickle relish make up the whole ingredient list, and the hand-chopping is what keeps the texture from turning into paste. Master this version before any twist on the list, since every variation below is really just this base with one thing swapped out.
Get the recipe: Old Fashion Egg Salad ->
Egg Salad Variations & Global Twists
2 · Egg Salad Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Classic egg salad gets pressed between buttered bread with a layer of sharp cheese, and the grilled crust holds everything together better than plain bread ever could on its own. This is the lunch to make when regular egg salad on toast has started to feel like something you’re settling for.
Get the recipe: Egg Salad Grilled Cheese Sandwich ->
3 · Easter – Lemon Mustard Dill Egg Salad
Fresh dill and lemon juice replace the usual sweet relish, pushing the flavor toward bright and herbal instead of tangy-sweet. It’s the version to make in spring when everything else on the table already leans rich, since the acid here actually cuts through instead of adding to it.
Get the recipe: Easter – Lemon Mustard Dill Egg Salad ->
4 · Deviled Eggs: Egg Salad in Its Own Shell
The yolks get scooped out, mashed with mayonnaise and mustard, then piped back into the whites, which is really just egg salad wearing its own shell as the serving dish. Piping instead of spooning is what makes these look like party food instead of a lunch you’re eating standing at the counter.
Get the recipe: Perfect Deviled Eggs ->
5 · Croque Madame: The Fried-Egg Answer to Egg Salad
A fried egg sits whole on top of ham and melted Gruyere here instead of getting chopped into a salad, which is what separates a croque madame from its cousin the croque monsieur. Order this over egg salad on a lazy weekend morning when a runny yolk sounds better than a mayonnaise binder.
Get the recipe: Croque Madame – French Ham, Cheese and Egg Sandwich ->
6 · Pickled Egg and Kale Salad
Hard-boiled eggs get a real vinegar pickle before they’re sliced over kale, adding a sharp tang the tough greens genuinely need to stand up against. It’s a smarter way to use egg salad’s usual ingredients than mixing them into mayonnaise, since the pickle brine does the work a dressing normally would.
Get the recipe: Pickled Egg and Kale Salad ->
7 · Huzarensalade: The Dutch Egg and Potato Salad
This Dutch potato salad folds chopped egg in as one ingredient among potatoes, apple, and pickles, closer kin to a Russian Olivier salad than a sandwich filling. The apple is the detail worth not skipping, since its crunch and sweetness against the tang of the pickles is what makes this more than a potato salad with egg in it.
Get the recipe: Huzarensalade: Dutch Potato Salad ->
8 · Cucumber Boats: A Low-Carb Vessel for Egg Salad
Cucumber halves get hollowed out and filled with a lightened egg salad, turning the vegetable itself into the serving vessel instead of bread or a cracker. These are the low-carb answer to an egg salad craving, and the cucumber’s crunch does more work than most people expect from a garnish vegetable.
Get the recipe: Cucumber Boats ->
9 · Panko Fried Scotch Eggs: The Hard-Boiled Egg’s Other Life
A whole hard-boiled egg gets wrapped in seasoned sausage meat, coated in panko, and fried, putting the egg at the center of the dish instead of mixed through it. Cutting one open at the table is the whole point, since that reveal of a clean yolk ring is what makes people ask how it’s done.
Get the recipe: How to Make Panko Fried Scotch Eggs ->
10 · Maple and Mustard Potato Salad with Soft Boiled Eggs
Soft-boiled eggs, still runny at the center, get halved over a maple-mustard potato salad so the yolk breaks and runs into the dressing right at the table. Timing that boil to a precise soft yolk is the whole skill here, since a fully hard egg turns this back into an ordinary potato salad.
Get the recipe: Maple and Mustard Potato Salad with Soft Boiled Eggs ->
11 · Open-Faced Fried Egg Sandwich: For When Egg Salad Isn’t the Answer
A fried egg tops goat cheese and peppery arugula on open-faced bread here, using the egg as a finishing element rather than a filling mixed into mayonnaise. It’s the version for someone who loves eggs on a sandwich but has never liked the texture of egg salad itself, runny yolk instead of chopped whites.
Get the recipe: Open Faced Sandwiches with Goat Cheese, Arugula, and a Fried Egg ->
Great roundup. Making the grilled cheese one for lunch, thanks!