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Our Cheddar Bacon Egg Salad Sandwich recipe is the ultimate, creamy egg salad experience mixed with salty pops of crisp bacon and bits of shredded cheddar. This makes a great sandwich on your favorite bread or serve it with crackers as a protein packed dip!
The humble egg salad sandwich isn’t something that I think about often…until I’m travelling and I see those prepared sandwiches in little plastic containers and for some unholy reason, the egg salad always calls my name.
I have literally never purchased or eaten gas station egg salad sandwiches and I promise you I never will. But as soon as I’m home from my trip, you better believe we’re making our best egg salad recipe, the one with bits of crispy fried bacon and creamy shredded cheddar cheese.
This egg salad is perfect for a quick lunch. Pop it on your favorite bread – we’re going for a seedy sandwich bread more often than not these days.
We just love easy sandwiches for lunch, like our chicken salad with grapes or our loose meat sandwiches. The whole family loves them.
Not into sandwiches? Grab your favorite crackers and turn our egg salad recipe into dip. It’s creamy, flavorful, and packed with protein.
♥ What We Love About This Recipe:
- Easy: Our egg salad recipe is mixed together quickly without a lot of prep, especially if you keep boiled eggs on hand or you buy them already cooked at the store. Costco sells large packs of boiled eggs and we always have them on hand!
- Protein Packed: Between the eggs, bacon, and cheese, this egg salad recipe has 19 grams of protein, not including any protein from the bread. This will keep you feeling full and satisfied.
- Make Ahead: This is great for prepping lunches in advance. Keep your egg salad tightly covered in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Ingredient Notes:
Eggs – We start with large eggs and boil them (on the stove or using the Instant Pot 5-5-5 method, notes below!) or you can keep it simple and use store bought hard boiled eggs. I’ve even heard from a reader that they used our pickled eggs to make this egg salad recipe!
Bacon – Fry this up nice and crispy using your favorite method – the stove, oven, or microwave work great, or try air fryer bacon!
Cheddar – We prefer a nice sharp cheddar and we like to shred it ourselves so it’s extra creamy.
Dressing – You’ll need mayo, mustard, vinegar, dill, salt, and pepper to mix up the simple dressing.
Variations:
Swap the bacon for turkey bacon to cut down on the fat content.
Use any variety of shredded cheese that you prefer. Pepper jack adds a little touch of heat.
Add in fresh herbs, like chives, basil, or parsley for a touch of brightness.
Swap the vinegar for dill pickle juice.
Make your egg salad recipe as chunky as you like. Chop coarsely with a knife for bigger bits of egg or mash it all with a fork or potato masher for a finer texture.
Skip the sandwich bread and serve this with crackers as a dip, spread on a toasty bagel for brunch, or in a hollowed out tomato like we did with this Greek yogurt chicken salad.
Step By Step Instructions:
Step 1 – Boil the eggs using your chosen method (the stove, the oven, or the Instant Pot. You can even make boiled eggs in the air fryer!) Once cooked, pop them in an ice bath to cool them down.
Step 2 – While your eggs are cooling down, fry your bacon. We like to chop the bacon into small pieces and cook it on the stove. You can also microwave, bake, or air fry your bacon.
Step 3 – Once the eggs have cooled, chop them with a knife or mash them with a fork to the size you like. Stir in the mayo, mustard, and seasonings to coat.
Step 4 – Add your fried bacon and shredded cheddar to the egg salad and give it a big stir to combine. Serve immediately or store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Vegetable Chopper
This little veggie chopper makes dinner prep so simple! Use it to evenly dice your veggies or even chop boiled eggs for egg salad!
How To Boil Eggs:
Stove Top: Add your eggs to a sauce pan, cover with 1 inch of cool water, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once the water is boiling, remove from the heat, cover the pan with a lid, and let sit for 15 minutes. Cool in an ice bath before peeling and using.
Instant Pot – Add your eggs to the bottom of your pressure cooker liner. Add 1 cup of water. Cover, set the vent to sealing, and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. Let the pressure naturally release for 5 minutes, and then do a quick release. Transfer to an ice bath for 5 minutes. This is the 5-5-5 method and it makes peeling eggs an absolute dream. Couldn’t be easier.
Oven Method – Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the eggs in a muffin tin to keep them from rolling around. Bake for 30 minutes and then place in an ice bath to cool.
Recipe FAQs:
If your egg salad tastes bland, it’s likely missing salt or acid. Give it a taste and add a splash more of vinegar or an extra squirt of mustard to make the flavors pop. An extra sprinkle of salt will always bring out the flavors as well.
The choice is entirely yours, depending on the texture you prefer. If you like a hearty, chunky texture, use a knife to roughly chop your eggs. If you prefer a more uniform, fine texture, mash the eggs with a fork or potato masher.
The most likely answer is that your eggs weren’t quite cool enough and there was condensation after adding them to the fridge. We always cool freshly boiled eggs thoroughly in an ice bath before making egg salad to prevent this.
While it is safe to freeze egg salad so long as you’re following proper food handling guidelines, the texture of the egg salad will suffer. We recommend only making enough egg salad to eat within 4 days and to store than in the fridge for the best quality.
More Favorite Lunch Recipes!
Cheddar Bacon Egg Salad
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
- 4 slices bacon
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried dill
- 1/2 teaspoon salt more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper more to taste
- 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
- 6 slices sandwich bread
Instructions
- Add the eggs to a medium sized pot and fill with water to 1 inch above the eggs. Bring the water to a boil over medium heat. Remove from the heat, cover with a lid, and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Place the eggs in a bowl of ice water and let sit for 10 minutes or until cold.
- While the eggs are cooling, chop the bacon into bite sized pieces and fry until crisp over medium heat. Drain the fat and set aside the bacon.
- Peel the eggs and mash them finely with a fork or chop them coarsely with a knife, depending on your preferences. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, parsley, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.
- Stir in the bacon and cheddar.
- Spread the egg salad between the slices of bread to make sandwiches. Alternately, serve with crackers as a dip.
Barbara says
I just made this and used Chipotle Mayo instead of regular and didn’t add the mustard and vinegar. It turned out great! Just another twist to the recipe! Used it on crackers and lettuce leaves and it was wonderful!
Jennifer McClean says
I used a potatoe ricer to make my eggs extra fine, the equivalent bacon using ready-baked crumbled bacon from Costco (1Tbl = 1 strip of bacon), 1 Tble of dried chives, and twice the cheddar cheese. Excellent! It is a tad salty (it could be omitted completely), but as I was craving salt tonight, it hit the spot! On whole wheat bread with lots of romaine lettuce, this will be perfect!
Karly says
Great idea on the potato ricer!
Judy says
What kind d of vinegar to use
Karly says
I use white distilled vinegar.
Julia Book says
I thought this was amazing! I didn’t have parsley, so I subbed a teaspoon of chives. I also used the real bacon, bacon bits that I buy from the bulk food warehouse. I use one tablespoon for each slice of bacon and I microwave for a few seconds before I toss them in so they are like fresh crumbled bacon. Makes a quick simple receipe even quicker, simpler and with less clean up. Thank you!
Karen says
How long does this last in the fridge (as long as it’s not gobbled up immediately)? If I make a batch, can it last 2-3 days for making my lunch each morning before heading to work?
Karly says
I think it’d be fine for up to 3 days. 🙂
Aim says
I put bacon bits in my deviled eggs..real bacon bits. They never last. Going to try this as well. Sounds yummy.
Denise Harrington says
I made this today. Delicious!! 🙂 I will definitely be making it again.
Carolyn says
Really like your site. you have printable recipes. So many don’t.
Pam says
This egg combination is also very good serving it as deviled eggs!
Tete says
I really liked this egg salad but I wish I had left the mustard out. The mustard was not a good addition to the other ingredients.
Taryn says
Made this last night and wrapped it up in some lettuce leaves with diced up tomatos and had it for brunch today! Best thing I’ve eaten in a long time! So delicious!
Judy says
I have never liked egg salad. **Until I made this!** I had way too many eggs and needed to use them before they went bad & saw this recipe on my FB feed today. I thought “why not?”
It is DELICIOUS!!
Karly says
Oh, that’s awesome! Glad you enjoyed it.
Carmen says
Do you use white vinegar?
Karly says
I do! 🙂
Maggie Wade says
So a friend posted a link to this one on Facebook and I gave it a shot – OMG! I had to make a second batch by the afternoon. I’ve now made a third and I think it will now be a staple in my refrigerator forever. (And I am NOT an egg salad lover – but this is good stuff! And the kids snack on it all the time) Thank you. I need to look now for all of your other make ahead and store it in the fridge type recipes. I need easy, homemade, inexpensive and crowd pleasing. This one fit the bill. Please point me to the rest! 😀
Karly says
Yay! Love to hear that! 🙂
I have a whole section of super easy recipes, if you’d like to check them out. http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/category/easy-breezy-chicken-squeezy/
Meghan Montgomery says
Before i make this, I want to make sure we just bring the water and eggs to a boil, remove from the heat and then cover for 15 minutes? You don’t boil the eggs and water for a length of time before removing from heat?
Karly says
That’s correct. Add the eggs and water to the pot, bring to a boil, turn off the heat, and cover the pan. 🙂