The Best Store-Bought Potato Salad—It Tastes Homemade

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It can be hard to find a good potato salad. In fact, I unfortunately feel pretty confident in saying that I’ve had more bad potato salads than I’ve had good ones. Which is why I recently reached out to a few chef buddies to see how they make the American classic themselves and to help me understand what most people are doing wrong.

However, getting the inside scoop on making potato salad didn’t solve all my problems. While I love spending time in the kitchen, sometimes I just want to pick up whatever it is I’m craving.

When it comes to potato salad, I’m never sure what brand I can trust to deliver a creamy, well-balanced iteration with a little bite to it. I figured I’d return to the experts to uncover who makes the best store-bought version. Here’s what they had to say.

The Best Potato Salad to Buy

As it turns out, the place experts consistently turn to for their potato salad fix is my favorite grocery store: Trader Joe’s. I was overjoyed they suggested this version, as the store has locations nationwide, making it pretty accessible.

For Ellen Gray, food writer and author of No More Mr. Nice Pie, potato salad has always fallen under her “strictly from scratch” category, but on a recent visit to TJ’s, she tried a sample. “I was surprised to find its version pleasantly crunchy, with a well-balanced mayo dressing,” she says.

Gray spent many summers doing prep work at a high-volume New Jersey deli where there was a lot of potato salad. “I set the bar pretty high,” she adds. That’s major kudos to TJ’s if you ask me.

Gray and Toby Amidor, registered dietitian and author of 10 cookbooks, including Up Your Veggies, agree that they prefer Trader Joe’s version because it mimics a potato salad they would make themselves. “If you’re looking for a homestyle classic potato salad recipe, this is it,” claims Amidor.

With all the classic ingredients, including diced celery and onion, hard-boiled eggs, mayo, and mustard—plus a welcome kick of horseradish—its flavor is familiar. “It’s got all the textural elements one wants out of the go-to BBQ side,” explains Amidor, adding that it’s both crunchy and soft as well as tangy and creamy. “This is a good, classic potato salad that isn’t dripping in mayo sauce.”

One glance around Trader Joe’s proves the potato salad’s popularity, says Gray, indicating that she’s seen the prepared dish in other shoppers’ carts. “It’s an easy grab-n-go item that elevates a sad desk lunch to something special,” she says, noting that it can also streamline your barbecue prep. I know where I’m headed for my next summer bash.