Mashed Potato Salad
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What do you get when you combine potatoes with sweet pickles, mustard, mayo, and boiled eggs? This deliciously creamy and unique mashed potato salad that will have you coming back for more.
So many of our beloved foods and recipes are loved for the memories attached to them, just as much as the taste. For me, this mashed potato salad is no different. It’s a Thomas Pit BBQ copycat recipe and is without a doubt the best potato salad I have ever tasted in my life.
Thomas Pit BBQ was a Madison County icon. People would line up and sit in their cars for 45+ minutes to get their juicy smoked chicken, pulled pork, white sauce, and mashed potato salad. Everything on their menu was amazing. What was even more amazing is that if you ordered a plate in that window in 1980 and then in 2014, you likely had the same people preparing that food and handing that plate to you. They were friends and family and we expected to see them when we went to Thomas’s. But some time ago, Thomas’s was bought out by a local chain.
There isn’t a lot anyone can do now so I set about trying to recreate the two recipes that I went there for. I came awfully close with my Dutch Oven Smokehouse Chicken and of course, we all have the classic Alabama White BBQ Sauce recipe. Several years ago I figured out how to best duplicate slow-smoked pulled pork by using my slow cooker. Today, though, I’m bringing you the mashed potato salad recipe that had emails pouring into me after Thomas’s closed.
So here it is, my best rendition of Thomas BBQ mashed potato salad. It’s so easy to make and the ingredients include potatoes, mayo, mustard, boiled eggs, onion, and sweet pickles. Can you taste it already? It’s creamy with a subtle tang and I cannot get enough!
Recipe Ingredients
- Mayonnaise (I typically use Duke’s)
- Yellow mustard
- Cubed Southern-style hash browns
- Sweet pickles in a jar (not relish)
- Boiled eggs
- Yellow onion
- Salt and pepper
How to Make Mashed Potato Salad
Place your potatoes (hash browns) in a large pot and add enough water to cover them.
Bring this to a boil over medium-high heat.
Once boiling, allow to cook for about ten minutes or until tender, then drain.
Place potatoes in a bowl.
Now here is the thing… you need to dice, by hand, 1/2 cup of sweet pickles and 1/2 cup of onion. Once they are diced you want 1/2 a cup.
Now, take that half a cup of each (I just put them all together) and run it through a blender, chopper, little smoothie mixer, or something like that because we want it really, really fine.
We don’t want it to be a puree but we want it minced like this. This will help the flavors spread throughout every bite of potato salad and is really one of the keys to why this is so good.
Use a hand potato masher or a long-tined fork and mash up the potatoes a little bit.
You still want them to be lumpy but just a good bit of mashed in there with the lumps.
Add all other ingredients except for the eggs. So you’re adding in your mayo, mustard, minced pickles and onions, salt, pepper, and pickle juice.
The pickle juice just comes straight from the jar of sweet pickles. That’s why I didn’t want you to get sweet pickle relish because there isn’t enough juice in there.
Stir that up really well.
Then chop your eggs and add them in.
Once eggs are stirred in, cover and refrigerate for several hours or until chilled.
Enjoy the best potato salad I have ever put in my mouth!
Storage
Store leftover potato salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Recipe Notes
- I’m just using hashbrowns to make life easier, but you can use regular potatoes instead. Just chop them into small cubes before following the instructions. I recommend Yukon Gold potatoes.
- Many mashed potato salad recipes include 1/2 cup of diced celery, so feel free to chop that up when you finely dice the onion and sweet pickles.
- This is a great recipe to use if you have leftover roast potatoes or leftover mashed potatoes.
- Feel free to swap the yellow onion for sweet onion, red onion, or green onion.
- Other substitutions you can make? Swap yellow mustard for Dijon mustard, add a tablespoon of vinegar for extra tang, and swap half of the mayonnaise for 1/2 cup of sour cream or Greek yogurt instead.
Recipe FAQs
Do you have to put eggs in a potato salad?
The short answer is no. I don’t believe Thomas’ mashed potato salad had eggs in it but personally, I just love boiled eggs in potato salad. If you love them, be sure to add them in. If you don’t, feel free to leave them out. For me, they just make it extra special.
Can I use dill pickles instead of sweet pickles?
So, since posting this recipe, I’ve heard from A LOT of people that… a) feel confident Thomas’s used dill pickle instead of sweet pickle or b) can’t bear the thought of sweet pickle in a potato salad and prefer dill. So I just wanted to pop in and reiterate that this is my version of the recipe and as a person who really, really loves sweet pickles, that is what I naturally used. You, of course, are welcome to substitute dill if that is what you prefer. There is a good chance that is what Thomas’s used since they served dill pickle spears with some of their entrees. Just go with whatever cranks yer tractor.
What do you serve with mashed potato salad?
This is a great side dish to pair with so many different main meals. Here are some recommendations:
- Butter Roasted Chicken
- North Alabama-Style Pulled Chicken
- French Dip Sandwiches Recipe (With a Twist)
- Baked Ham With Easy Brown Sugar Glaze
- Slow-Roasted Beef Brisket in the Oven
How do you make Amish potato salad?
Add diced celery and 1/4 cup of granulated sugar to this recipe and you have Amish potato salad.
Here are more pleasing potato recipes:
Cheesy Garlic Mashed Potatoes With Mozzarella
Ingredients
- 1 32-ounce package cubed frozen hash browns
- 4 boiled eggs, chopped
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 1/2 cup chopped sweet pickles
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup sweet pickle juice
- 1 heaping teaspoon yellow mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Place hash browns in a large pot and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, allow to cook for ten minutes or until tender.1 32-ounce package cubed frozen hash browns
- Drain potatoes and place them in a large bowl. Mash all of this up a bit with a potato masher, but leave them lumpy.
- Place chopped sweet pickles and chopped onion into a blender, chopper, or small smoothie blender and pulse a few times until very fine, almost like a relish.1/2 cup diced onion, 1/2 cup chopped sweet pickles
- Place mayonnaise, pickle juice, mustard, finely minced pickles and onions, salt, and pepper in the bowl with the potatoes. Stir until well mixed, then stir in the chopped eggs just until incorporated.4 boiled eggs, chopped, 1 cup mayonnaise, 1/3 cup sweet pickle juice, 1 heaping teaspoon yellow mustard, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- Cover and refrigerate for several hours or until cold. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Well done is better than well said.
~Benjamin Franklin
i’m just making my grocery list out so i can make this for this week…can’t wait to try it. In Chicago area we do not get dukes mayo but Hellmans…Someone had told me they were the same one for part of the country and one for the other….hope its true…love Hellmans
I am sad to say, it isn’t the same Dawn. BUT, Hellmans will work! I have used Hellman’s in a pinch when I was out of Duke’s and couldn’t run get some.
Positively NOT the same my friend. (For Me) I am a South Carolina girl, and DUKES is all our family ever used. I have tried others in a pinch or at someone else’s house…NO comparison. OF Course, we all have our favorites brands of many products, and We Love What We LOVE!.
That is Our God Given Right!!! And Sweet pickles is a must for out Potato Salad.
And our slaw! Now I am getting hungry….So bye bye
Something I really appreciate about Southern Plate is that I can trust the recipes. When you say something is the best, I can take that to the bank. So, I made this potato salad recipe for company on Memorial Day. We all absolutely loved it! The only problem was that there wasn’t enough to continue gorging ourselves. It’s that good and the recipe is wonderfully easy! Next time, I’ll be sure to double, triple, or goodness, even quadruple the ingredients. Another Christy Jordan and Southern Plate success!
Oh my goodness, thank you Sweet Caroline!!! I am so glad you liked it!!!
Gosh, I never would have thought of using hash browns for potato salad – I’ll certainly try this recipe for a summer cookout.
Can’t help feeling awfully sorry for those folks who were given less than a day’s notice. That just doesn’t seem right…why would the owners do that? 🙁
I hope you enjoy the potato salad Quinn!!!
Hello! I’m Patricia from Port Moody, BC. I heard about your blog from a friend. I love your wit and your biftueaul portraits of daily life. Our children are around the same age and I share a lot of the same questions that you write about. Thanks for all the work!
In addition to the hard boiled eggs I always chop up and crisply fry bacon to put in my potato salad. My family loves it.
Yum!!!
Yes, must have Duke’s mayo. I will have to try using your potato short cut with the frozen cubed hash browns although I will probably have to use several bags as I always make 5 lb potato salad when I make it. Family loves potato salad with dill pickles, eggs, celery, radishes, mustard and of course Duke’s mayo. When I am looking for a specific recipe I start with your website first.
Thanks so much for this recipe. It’s very close to my mother’s method. She also insisted on dicing the sweet pickles and adding a little bit of the pickle “juice” instead of using pickle relish. My potato salad cheat for when I don’t have time to peel and dice is to use canned diced potatoes. I rinse and drain the potatoes then drop them into boiling water until they get a little mushy. This gets rid of the canned taste and nobody has caught on yet. My mother always said you had to add the rest of the ingredients while the potatoes were still hot. She’d mix with a fork, mashing up some of the potatoes as she went so she’d have that lumpy mix of pieces and mashed.
My grandmother used to make a no mayonnaise potato salad which I sometimes make to keep the recipe going. I’m wondering if anyone is familiar with anything like this since she’s the only person I’ve known to make it. She would mash the potatoes completely until smooth and add salt, pepper, finely diced onion and apple cider vinegar. I always add the vinegar to taste since it’s a grandmother recipe with no measurements. You should be aware of the vinegar, but it shouldn’t be tart. She’d spread the mixture out in a glass baking dish so it would be a couple of inches deep. Then she’d top the salad with bell pepper rings with a slice of hard boiled egg inside each pepper ring. It looked so pretty and the pepper ring defined a serving. She served it room temperature, and it was great with fried chicken and green beans.
Thank you again for your blog. It’s like going home!
What a great idea on using the canned potatoes!!!
Hi, Christy, I’ll try to keep this short but no promises! First off, I’m a Christian, or at least I try to live a Christian life. I can’t handle parts of the Bible because it’s like reading a horror story. It gives me nightmares for weeks. That said, I really enjoy your blog! I’ve tried a lot of your recipes since signing up and they have all been worth doing again! Here in NC we like Eastern Carolina BBQ. The sauce is vinegar -based and vinegar is good for anything that ails you! As for the pickles in the potato salad, my sister puts sweet bread-&-butter pickles in her traditional potato salad. Our mother used only Russet potatoes, Miracle Whip, green peppers, salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder and celery seed (the secret ingredient.) That’s still my favorite, but I haven’t tried your take on Thomas’s. I will soon! Thanks for bringing some good old Southern recipes to life again. (I lived in Leeds and Birmingham on and off for 13 years when much younger.) I really enjoy your posts!
Christy, how many servings for this recipe, please?
I’m afraid that is really going to depend on how much you eat. Some people might get twenty servings, some people, five or six. I would estimate that it makes about six cups 🙂
Thx! Going out on pontoon boat Sunday to celebrate stepson grad med school. Making this for 10-12. Thought would add pimento for color. Have a wonderful blessed Memorial Day weekend!