It's true...macaroni salad is typically a summer salad. But, I'm here to tell you, this Amish Macaroni Salad is great all year long!!
My husband and I have completely different views on whether potato salads or macaroni salads make the best summer side salads. I will almost always gravitate to potato salad first. I've got lots of potato salad recipes on this blog; Creamy Dill and Cucumber Potato Salad, Turmeric Potato Salad, and Mom's Potato Salad just to name a few.
My husband, on the other hand, will always choose macaroni salad over potato salad when given a choice! This recipe for Amish Macaroni Salad is his very favorite. I've been able to perfect it over the years and this is the recipe I make whenever I serve macaroni salad.
This macaroni salad is all the things! It's creamy, tangy, sweet, and crunchy. It's the one macaroni salad recipe I will pass up potato salad for!
What makes this salad so good?
This recipe for Amish Macaroni Salad might be a tad different from other recipes you've seen. Sure, it has all the usual ingredients you'd find in Amish Macaroni Salad; celery salt, vinegar, mustard, and sugar.
However, this recipe is special because of the dressing. It uses the juice in the jar from Bread and Butter Pickle Chips in the dressing. Pickle juice from sweet and tangy Bread and Butter pickles gives the dressing delicious flavor and helps to loosen up the dressing so it coats every single piece of elbow macaroni!
Seriously, it's a game changer! You must give it a try.
Homemade Macaroni Salad vs. Store Bought Macaroni Salad
Yes, you can purchase premade Amish macaroni salad in your local deli. And I'm not saying it's bad, but this homemade macaroni salad is SO MUCH BETTER!
It's easy to make and it doesn't involve ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, sodium benzoate, or modified corn starch. That's right, all those processed Amish macaroni salad products contain ingredients that the Amish wouldn't think of using in their recipes!
This recipe does involve a bit of planning if you are adding hard boiled eggs. However, you can skip that step and make it without hard boiled eggs and it will still be delish! I've made it both with and without eggs and I like it both ways.
Can you freeze Macaroni Salad?
It's not recommended to freeze any sort of mayonnaise based pasta salads, such as this Amish macaroni salad.
Tips for making the best Macaroni Salad
- Follow the directions on the box of elbow macaroni to cook the pasta to al dente. Make sure you season the water well with salt. It's the only time you will have a chance to get salt into the pasta itself!
- Rinse the pasta well with cold water. This will not only cool the pasta off, but will also help keep the pasta from sticking together while you are whipping up the dressing.
- Do give the macaroni salad time to chill (at least 2 to 3 hours).
- Do stir the macaroni salad before serving to redistribute the dressing.
Yield: 20 servings
Amish Macaroni Salad
prep time: 15 Mcook time: 2 hourtotal time: 2 H & 15 M
A warm weather staple, this delicious Amish Macaroni Salad recipe will become your go to recipe for macaroni salad! Sweet and tangy, with just the right amount of crunch. It makes a great side dish to just about anything and it makes a wonderful pot luck dish too!
ingredients:
- 1 pound elbow macaroni, cooked al dente, according to package directions
- 2 1/2 cups mayonnaise
- 2 TBSP granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup liquid brine from the jar of bread and butter style pickles
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp. celery salt
- kosher salt, to taste
- fresh ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 TBSP yellow mustard
- 1 cup chopped bread and butter pickles
- 3 ribs of celery, thinly sliced (about a cup)
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 large raw carrot, peeled and grated
- 2 - 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
- 1/2 cup finely diced red bell pepper (optional)
instructions:
How to cook Amish Macaroni Salad
- Once cooked according to package directions, drain elbow macaroni and rinse with cold water to cool. Drain.
- In large bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, sugar, pickle brine, apple cider vinegar, celery salt, and yellow mustard until combined. Taste for salt and pepper, and season as desired. The dressing should be thin and pourable. You can adjust the thickness with a TBSP or so more of cider vinegar, if needed. it may seem like a lot of dressing, but the pasta does absorb some of it and you don't want dry macaroni salad. (At least I don't like dry macaroni salad!)
- Stir cooked macaroni, chopped pickles, celery, onion, carrot, hard boiled eggs, and red bell pepper (if using) into dressing.
- Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours, to let flavors blend. Stir before serving.
NOTES:
I like macaroni salad to have plenty of dressing. so this recipe provides enough for it to be absorbed into the pasta and still be a loose salad. Feel free to adjust the amounts of mayo, pickle juice, and vinegar to your liking.
Pickle juice is not a typical ingredient in macaroni salad, and I have no idea if traditional Amish use it, but I love adding it! It adds so much flavor and helps to loosen up the dressing quite well.
Pickle juice is not a typical ingredient in macaroni salad, and I have no idea if traditional Amish use it, but I love adding it! It adds so much flavor and helps to loosen up the dressing quite well.
Calories
321.42
321.42
Fat (grams)
26.79
26.79
Sat. Fat (grams)
6.13
6.13
Carbs (grams)
15.60
15.60
Fiber (grams)
1.08
1.08
Net carbs
14.52
14.52
Sugar (grams)
4.31
4.31
Protein (grams)
4.49
4.49
Sodium (milligrams)
410.13
410.13
Cholesterol (grams)
49.20
49.20
Nutritional Information is an estimate.
Copyright © 2019 Renee's Kitchen Adventures
More Macaroni Salads to love!
Pin Amish Macaroni Salad to your Pinterest Boards and share on social media!
>
What are bread and butter pickles?
ReplyDeleteThey are a sweeter type of pickle with very mild dill flavor.
DeleteHello. I don’t like sweet pickles. Would dill be ok?
ReplyDeleteYes you can use whatever pickles you have. It may change the flavor up a bit, but it will work fine. Hope this helps!
Delete