The secret to great egg salad is to ensure it’s great. I promise this one is. By crumbling the eggs rather than mashing them into paste, this salad has texture. The flavor is robust, similar to top-notch deviled eggs (thus the name), but stirring together a salad is less fussy since we don’t have to worry whether the hard-cooked eggs will peel cleanly with no torn or ragged whites. That being said, I describe my method for cooking the eggs below.
Be sure to taste the salad both when you stir it together and after it chills to ensure it’s bold and balanced. No egg salad, especially one called deviled, can get away with being bland.
I like to serve egg salad on good toast or with crisp crackers, but it’s also good spooned onto lettuce leaves or tucked inside avocado halves or a hollowed ripe tomato.
Makes about 3 cups
Whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, dill, lemon juice and zest, seasoned salt, sugar, pepper, hot sauce and paprika in a medium bowl. Coarsely crumble the eggs into the mayonnaise mixture. Fold gently with a spatula to coat. The salad should be chunky.
Fold in the celery and scallions. Check the seasoning. Chilling dulls the flavors a bit so don’t hold back. It should be bold but balanced.
Cover tightly and refrigerate until chilled, preferably overnight. Stir and check the seasoning again before serving. Store refrigerated for up to 3 days.
RECIPE NOTEKnowing how to perfectly hard-cook eggs will come in handy for all sorts of recipes or a quick snack. The goal is to cook the eggs only long enough for the yolks to turn firm and powdery. Undercooked yolks are too runny or gummy for salad and overcooked yolks turn green. (Of course, if you’re cooking the eggs to eat, you can reduce the cooking time to leave the yolks as soft as you like.) There are many ways to go about it, but this is the method I use because I find it the most reliable. We commonly use the term hard-boiled eggs, but hard-cooked is more accurate because they should never boil vigorously. Most recipes tell us to start the eggs in cold water, but our stoves bring the water to a boil at different rates, which introduces variables in the cooking time. Lowering the eggs into water that’s already boiling yields more predictable results. Fill a large saucepan with enough water so that the eggs can float freely, about 3 quarts. (Yes, that’s a lot of water. It helps.) Bring the water to a boil. Lower the eggs into the boiling water. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 12 minutes. (The water should gently bubble, but if you can hear the eggs crashing around, the heat is too high.) Immediately transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water and let cool for 15 minutes before peeling. (If you are cooking the eggs to eat warm rather than make salad, remove them from the water as soon as they are cool enough to handle.) |
Sheri Castle whips up a delicious deviled egg salad recipe that is sure to impress.
Sheri Castle, award-winning food writer and cooking teacher, is known for melding culinary expertise, storytelling and humor, so she can tell a tale while making a memorable meal. Her creative, well-crafted recipes and practical advice inspire people to cook with confidence and enthusiasm. She's written a tall stack of cookbooks and her work appears in dozens of magazines. In 2019, the Southern Foodways Alliance named Sheri among Twenty Living Legends of Southern Food, calling her The Storyteller.
Sheri says that she's fueled by great ingredients and the endless pursuit of intriguing stories, usually about the role that food plays in our lives, families, communities and culture.
When she steps away from the kitchen or a local farm, Sheri enjoys spending quiet time at her home near Chapel Hill. She hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
In each episode of "The Key Ingredient," Sheri Castle features one local ingredient, tracing its journey from source to kitchen. The renowned food writer and cooking teacher will introduce us to local farmers, growers, fisherman and chefs and share approachable home cooking recipes and tips. Join Sheri & friends to learn the stories behind some of North Carolina's most beloved ingredients.