Bacon Potato Salad — 🥓🥔🎉 This no mayo potato salad is studded with crispy bacon pieces and coated in a tangy vinegar dressing. It’s ready in just 30 minutes and the whole family will love it! Perfect for picnics, potlucks, casual entertaining, and the perfect EASY side dish!
Table of Contents
This isn’t your grandma’s potato salad. You know, the one that’s loaded with gloppy mayo, mushy potatoes, and hard-boiled eggs? Not even close.
First, there’s bacon, which makes it an instant crowd pleaser.
Second, there’s no mayo so it feels lighter, and as a bonus you don’t have to worry about it as much at warm outdoor potlucks, picnics, and events.
To keep it fresher and to boost the flavor profile while incorporating texture and crunch, there’s fresh sweet corn, spinach, parsley, red onion, and a touch of garlic. I love seeing the green because it feels healthy, and I remember my mom making spinach salads with warm bacon dressing — it’s a natural pairing!
Bacon Potato Salad Ingredients
This potato salad recipe with bacon is my go-to in the warmer months when I need a quick and easy side for a potluck or party. Gather the following basic ingredients:
- Baby potatoes
- Bacon
- Red onion
- Garlic
- Sweet corn
- Spinach
- Fresh parsley
- Olive oil
- Red wine vinegar
- Dijon mustard
- Granulated sugar
- Salt and pepper
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Potato Salad with Bacon
This is an easy potato salad to make, and you can serve it warm or chill it. Either way it’s a great side and will be sure to disappear whenever you make it!
Let’s quickly review how the no-mayo potato salad comes together:
- Boil the potatoes until fork tender — be careful not to overcook them! Drain and rinse the potatoes with cold water to prevent them from cooking further.
- While the potatoes are cooking, make the bacon. You can make the bacon as crisp as you’d like. When the bacon is cooked to your liking, transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate and crumble it once it’s cool enough to handle.
- In that same skillet you cooked the bacon in, sauté the onion and garlic until tender.
- Then, whisk together the potato salad dressing in a small bowl.
- Dice the cooked potatoes and add to a large bowl along with the remaining potato salad ingredients.
- Toss gently to combine and add more salt and pepper as needed.
FAQs
For this easy potato salad recipe, I used baby gold potatoes. They required around 15 minutes to boil until fork tender. Your cook time may vary slightly depending on how large your potatoes are and which variety your purchase.
If this is your first time making potato salad with bacon, I recommend checking the potatoes every 3 minutes after they’ve been boiling for 10 minutes. This way you won’t accidentally overcook them!
This is a super versatile recipe! You could swap frozen corn for fresh, arugula for spinach, cilantro for parsley, green onion for red, and so forth. It’s a flexible recipe based on what flavors you enjoy most.
Yes! If you want to quickly toss this dish together in the morning for a lunchtime gathering (or simply are short on time most days!), you’re welcome to boil the potatoes and chill them in the fridge until ready to use.
For this bacon potato salad recipe, I recommend using baby gold potatoes (aka Yukon Gold potatoes). Generally speaking, you want a small potato with a thin skin.
There’s no need to so long as you use baby gold or Yukon Gold potatoes. The skin is thin enough to eat, plus it adds a subtle texture and nutrients.
Storage and Make-Ahead Instructions
Storage: Potato salad will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Make ahead: You can make this bacon potato salad up to 4 days before serving it. If you do make this ahead of time, be sure to give it a good toss before serving to help redistribute all of that yummy dressing!
What to Serve with Bacon Potato Salad
Recipe Video
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Potato Salad with Bacon
Ingredients
Bacon Potato Salad
- 2 pounds baby gold potatoes
- 2 teaspoons salt, for the boiling water
- 1 pound bacon
- one small/medium red onion, diced small
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced or pressed
- 1 medium/large ear fresh sweet corn with kernels cut off, 3/4 cup frozen corn may be substituted
- 1 to 2 cups fresh baby spinach, loosely measured
- ½ cup fresh parsley, regular or Italian flat-leaf, finely chopped
Dressing
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper, or to taste
Instructions
- To a large pot, add the potatoes, cover with water, add 2 teaspoons salt, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and allow potatoes to simmer for about 15 minutes, or until done and fork-tender. Drain and rinse potatoes under cold water to stop the cooking process; set aside. While potatoes cook, make the bacon.
- To a large skillet, add the bacon and cook over medium heat until done and as crisp as desired, about 10 minutes, flip intermittently. Transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate and when it’s cool enough, crumble it; set aside.
- To the skillet with the bacon fat, add the onion and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes or until tender, stir intermittently.
- In the last minute of cooking, add the garlic, stir, and cook for about 1 minute, or until fragrant. Take skillet off the heat and set aside.
- To a very large bowl, add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, mustard, sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, pepper, and whisk to combine; set aside.
- Halve or quarter the potatoes depending on their size and add to the large bowl. Add the crumbled bacon, red onion and garlic (use a slotted spoon to remove because there will be excess bacon fat in the skillet; discard oil in a small container – don’t pour it down the drain), corn, spinach, parsley, and toss well to combine.
- Taste potato salad and make any necessary adjustments, i.e. more salt, pepper, sugar, dash of extra mustard or vinegar, etc.
- Serve immediately if desired or cover and refrigerate until chilled. Potato salad will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Video
Notes
- Recipe adapted from Woman’s Day
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Potluck Salad Recipes:
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Originally posted June 13, 2016 and reposted May 31, 2021 and August 16, 2024 with updated text.
Averie, this is the potatoe salad dear grandmother made
She NEVER used mayo
When I was in Berlin in ’19 the Gemäldegalerie Museum featured this on lunch plate I ordered.
I need to bookmark this and make it
Also going to pass along to my sister, who will remember
too.
Thank you for making it possible for me to enjoy it AGAIN
I am so happy for you that this recipe jogged your memory and gave you a way for you to recreate something from your special grandma memories!
I also have this one, which is calle ‘German Potato Salad’. Also mayo-less. So maybe this too will be useful. https://www.averiecooks.com/german-potato-salad/ I suggest serving it warm but you can of course also serve it chilled.
Do you not cook the fresh corn before putting it in the salad?
I like the kernels of freshly shaved corn off the cobs so juicy and sweet and don’t cook it (and also, it’s not a huge quantity of corn relative to the rest of the ingredients) but of course, cook it if you prefer.
I do cook them for a bit because they taste a bit too starchy to me uncooked, but it’s just your preference. Either way if you put the corn in when the salad is hot, it will just as delicious I’m sure! This potato salad recipe is awesome by the way…made a similar before, this is better with the spinach and garlic for sure!
This recipe looks and sounds absolutely delicious! I make a hot German potato salad similar to this. However, I have read and reread (and reread) the recipe and don’t see where you cook the sweet corn. I would think you’d want to at least blanch it while on the cob.
12/08/2022 made this tonight at first when I tasted the dressing I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it but when I mixed it in with the potato salad OMG it all came together and it was absolutely delicious.. my son also enjoyed it and it is now going to be used instead of store bought dressings .. Thank you for sharing your recipe 😊😊
12/08/2022 made this tonight at first when I tasted the dressing I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it but when I mixed it in with the potato salad OMG it all came together and it was absolutely delicious.. my son also enjoyed it and it is now going to be used instead of store bought dressings .. Thank you for sharing your recipe 😊😊
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad it was absolutely delicious for you and your son!
great
This potato salad is delicious…I plan to make it for a party in 2 weeks. I enjoyed the flavor more when it was still warm vs. cold. If I want to make it in advance and reheat, do you have a suggestion for how to reheat ?
This potato salad is delicious…I plan to make it for a party in 2 weeks. I enjoyed the flavor more when it was still warm vs. cold. If I want to make it in advance and reheat, do you have a suggestion for how to reheat ?
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad it was delicious!
In terms of reheating, I would say let it sit at room temp for a bit to warm up naturally. I would serve it room temp not actually warm or hot but that’s my personal preference. If you do warm it up, briefly in the microwave would be my suggestion.
For a warm potato salad I also have this one https://www.averiecooks.com/german-potato-salad/