Dill Pickle Egg Salad is a creamy, flavorful egg salad loaded with crunchy dill pickle pieces and a bright hit of fresh dill. For extra pickle intensity, you can pickle peeled hard‑boiled eggs in saved pickle brine for several hours or overnight, but the recipe also works perfectly with freshly cooked hard‑boiled eggs.
I’ve loved dill pickles my whole life, though egg salad wasn’t always my favorite. That changed when my mother‑in‑law served me an egg and olive sandwich during my first pregnancy. One bite led to another, and soon I’d eaten two sandwiches and kept returning for more. That sandwich taught me how much a briny element—like an olive or pickle—lifts creamy egg salad.
Over time I swapped olives for my beloved dill pickles and experimented until I found a version I now call the best Dill Pickle Egg Salad. A few choices make this version special:
- Use dill dip instead of plain mayonnaise for the binder. Dill dip provides the same creaminess as mayo but adds herbaceous depth and concentrated dill flavor.
- Quick‑pickle your hard‑boiled eggs in pickle brine for extra tang. Submerge peeled eggs in pickle juice for at least 8 hours for noticeable flavor; you can leave them up to two weeks. Pickled eggs are also great sliced into salads or served as a snack.
This egg salad is wonderful piled onto soft pretzel rolls, but it’s equally good on toasted wheat bread or wrapped in lettuce leaves for a low‑carb option. It also pairs nicely with the kinds of summer salads fans of potato and pasta salads enjoy.
Dill Pickle Egg Salad
My preferred binder is dill dip because it brings creaminess plus extra dill flavor. If you don’t have dill dip, substitute mayonnaise in an equal amount, add a little minced onion, and increase the fresh dill to keep the pickle‑forward taste.
With the flavor from the pickles and dill dip, you’ll likely only need a touch of black pepper; additional salt is usually unnecessary, especially if the pickles and brine are salty.
Quick‑pickling the eggs in pickle brine produces a stronger dill note, but plain freshly cooked hard‑boiled eggs work well too if you’re short on time.
Choose pickles (and brine) you enjoy eating on their own. I prefer refrigerated, crunchy dill pickles such as Claussen‑style pickles or similar store and small‑batch brands. Avoid pickle relish here — the salad benefits from larger, recognizable chunks of pickle rather than a finely dispersed relish.
Do you love Dill Pickle Egg Salad? Try these other recipes
- Dolores’s Egg and Olive Sandwiches
- Perfect Soft Pretzel Rolls
- Dill Pickle Dip
- Blackened Salmon Caesar Salad
- Portuguese Style Baked Eggs
- Easy Bacon Pea Pasta Salad
- Pickle Pizza
Tools to make Dill Pickle Egg Salad easily
- Instant Pot or preferred method for hard‑boiling eggs
- Mixing bowl
- Sturdy fork for mashing and mixing
- Chef’s knife for chopping pickles
- Cutting board
Dill Pickle Egg Salad
Rebecca Lindamood
10
Ingredients
- 8 hard boiled eggsfor added flavor, peel freshly cooked eggs and submerge in pickle brine for at least 8 hours or up to a week before using
- 1/2 cup dill dipor mayonnaise (see notes)
- 1/3 cup chopped dill picklesabout 3–4 pickle halves, patted dry before chopping
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh dill
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
-
Roughly chop the hard‑boiled eggs and place them in a mixing bowl. Use a fork or vigorous stirring to combine the eggs with the dill dip until evenly coated.
Fold in the chopped dill pickles, minced dill, and black pepper. Adjust seasoning if needed and serve on bread, rolls, or lettuce leaves.
Nutrition
Carbohydrates: 3g
Protein: 13g
Fat: 14g
Nutritional information is an estimate. Calculate values using the exact ingredients you use.
