Dill Pickle Potato Salad with Bacon

Boring old potato salad gets an upgrade with dill pickles, shallots, bacon, and smoked paprika in this recipe for creamy Dill Pickle Potato Salad.

Dill Pickel Potato Salad is tangy and delicious. It's definitely a popular BBQ side dish at all of our summertime parties.

I also like to keep it on hand in the fridge to serve as a quick family side during busy work weeks.

**Please Note - The printable recipe card with detailed instructions, complete ingredient measurements, and nutritional information for making Homemade Dill Pickle Potato Salad is available at the end of this post. Or click on the "jump to recipe" button (found above) to be taken directly to the recipe.

The ingredient list:

• small red potatoes or small gold potatoes
• dill pickles
• bacon
• celery
• shallots
• mayonnaise
• milk
• mustard
• smoked paprika
• garlic powder
• dill weed
• hard-boiled eggs
• salt and pepper

Check out my latest and greatest Kudos Kitchen tasty BBQ side dishes recipe roundup.

Why this pickle potato salad recipe works:

Potato salad is one of my favorite go-to items in a buffet line or at a casual get-together.

For me, the creamier, the better, and the more flavor you can pack into a single forkful means that you'll feel satisfied sooner with less on your plate.

Which, in turn, will make room for all those other must-haves from around that tempting buffet table.

See? I've got your back! LOL

What are the best potatoes for making potato salad, and why?

The key to making a potato salad that doesn't turn into a mashed potato after stirring in all the ingredients is to use a low starch, waxy potato like a red potato (called for in this recipe), or even a Yukon gold.

The reason being waxy potatoes have a more cohesive cell structure which helps them hold their shape far better than a high starch potato, such as a russet which absorbs too much water while cooking and will, therefore, become too soft and mushy.

The #1 tip for making the BEST creamy homemade potato salad:

The best tip I can give for making the very best potato salad is to dress the potatoes shortly after boiling and draining them, and while they're still hot.

This way the potatoes themselves will soak in the dressing (in this case, the mayonnaise, mustard, and smoked paprika dressing), and the dressing will impart much more flavor into the potatoes themselves, as opposed to being smothered in the dressing.

For tons more additional BBQ side dishes I know you'll also enjoy, please check out this popular BBQ Side Dish Recipe Roundup.

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How to make dill pickle potato salad:

• Prepare 3 pounds of red potatoes by washing and chopping them into approximate 1½" pieces.
• Add the potatoes to a large stock pot, cover with water, and 1½ tablespoons of kosher salt.
• Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, hard boil the eggs, dice the celery, mince the shallots, crumble the cooked bacon, and dice the dill pickles.

• Drain the potatoes when tender and add them back into the warm pot.
• Add the celery, shallots, bacon and dill pickles to the warm potatoes.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, milk, yellow mustard, smoked paprika, garlic powder, and salt and pepper.

• Pour the mayonnaise and smoked paprika dressing onto the potatoes in the pot and gently stir to thoroughly combine all the ingredients.
• Spoon the potato salad into a large serving bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• To serve, garnish with sliced hard-boiled eggs, and sprinkle with dried dill weed.

Below is the printable recipe card along with the nutritional information for today’s creamy and delicious potato salad recipe. 

When you make this recipe, and I hope you do, I'd appreciate it if you'd take a moment to leave a star rating on the recipe card and briefly comment on why you rated it as you did. FYI - Google appreciates recipe ratings and, in turn, will share my recipes with more people. Thank you so much!!

Printable Recipe Card

I sincerely hope you've enjoyed today's recipe for creamy dill pickle potato salad with bacon as much as I've enjoyed bringing it to you.