Looking for a twist on your classic macaroni salad? With its fresh herb, citrusy dressing and smoky bacon, this summer salad boasts a flavorful new take on a traditional favorite side dish. Serve this easy-to-make herbed bacon macaroni salad at your next grill-out and your guests are in for one delicious summer meal.
I’m not hating on classic macaroni salad. When I see a big bowl of macaroni covered in creamy mayo with crunchy add-ins at a summer gathering, I don’t hesitate to take an extra big scoop, but at the end of the day, it’s still just macaroni salad — tasty but not necessarily memorable.
But that’s all about to change with this bacon-loaded macaroni salad. Sure, we still use a creamy dressing, but fresh herbs and lemon juice give this dish a welcomed brightness while the bacon adds a depth other macaroni salads lack. And, yes, this means we’re incorporating a few extra steps when making this salad, but they’re simple and take hardly any extra time.
So let’s walk through how to make the world’s best macaroni salad, shall we?
How to Make
To start, we need macaroni. Obviously. While we cook our macaroni, I like to take this time to multitask and cook the bacon. While it’s still an extra step, it doesn’t actually add any more prep time.
I like to cook my bacon in the oven, but feel free to cook it in a skillet if you prefer. For thick bacon, I place it on a large parchment paper-lined baking sheet, bake for 10 minutes in a 400-degree oven, flip the bacon and bake for another five minutes.
And now for our herbed dressing. We add mayonnaise with a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic, parsley, basil, chives, honey, salt and pepper to a food processor and give it a whirl until smooth like so.
If you don’t have a food processor, you can simply mix together the ingredients. With this method, measure the herb leaves first and then finely chop.
From here, we add our macaroni, dressing, bacon, celery, red onion and crumbled hard-boiled eggs to a large bowl.
We simply mix everything together, and all the prep work is done. Easy, huh?
Can You Make Macaroni Salad Ahead of Time?
You sure can. If you plan on serving it the same day, go ahead and store covered in the refrigerator for several hours.
However, if you’d like to make this macaroni salad more than several hours before serving, I recommend storing the cooked macaroni, dressing and crunchy add-ins in separate containers, and then you can mix them all together before serving. For the crunchy add-ins, I recommend keeping the chopped celery in water to help it stay crisp, though you can store the chopped onion, eggs and bacon in one container.
As the macaroni salad sits in the refrigerator, the pasta will absorb some of the dressing, so it won’t be as creamy if it sits mixed in the refrigerator for too long, though a few hours is fine. This ensures your macaroni salad will be the creamy delight everyone loves.
Perfect Pairing
I’m a huge fan of a bubbly hefeweizen with this macaroni salad. With a hefeweizen, we get plenty of citrus that highlights our fresh herbs, and it comes with enough body to stand up to our creamy dressing. Plus, there’s nothing like a hefeweizen on a hot summer day — that beer is made for summer gatherings.
If you prefer wine, try a refreshing chardonnay. I love how the butteriness from the chardonnay works with the dressing, and like the hefeweizen, a chilled chardonnay is perfect for patio sipping on warm nights.
For your next summer barbecue, I hope you try this gourmet take on everyone’s favorite side dish. Please let me know how you enjoyed this herbed bacon macaroni salad in the comment section and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter. You can also catch me on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.
Cheers!
Looking for More Summer Meal Ideas?
- Roasted broccoli salad (from Eating Works)
- Salmon-avocado burgers with lime-sriracha aioli
- Maine-style lobster rolls
- Burrata-blackened salmon panzanella salad
- Herbed roasted potato salad
- Summer squash pasta salad
Herbed Bacon Macaroni Salad
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 servings 1x
Description
Looking for a twist on your classic macaroni salad? With its fresh herb, citrusy dressing and smoky bacon, this summer salad boasts a flavorful new take on a traditional favorite side dish. Serve this easy-to-make herbed bacon macaroni salad at your next grill-out and your guests are in for one delicious summer meal.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups dried macaroni
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup torn basil leaves
1/2 cup parsley leaves, removed from stems
2 garlic cloves, minced or grated
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chopped chives
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup cooked bacon, crumbled, about 6 slices
Instructions
- Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water to help cool the pasta.
- In a food processor, add the mayonnaise, basil leaves, parsley leaves, garlic, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, chives, honey, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
- Add the macaroni to a large mixing bowl and pour mayonnaise dressing on top. Add the hard-boiled eggs, celery, red onion and cooked bacon. Stir until it becomes one cohesive mixture. Refrigerate for a few hours to chill and serve. Enjoy!
Notes
- For full tips, please see blog post.
- Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
- Category: Side Dishes
- Method: Stove-Top
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 scoop
- Calories: 280
- Sugar: 2
- Sodium: 388
- Fat: 20
- Saturated Fat: 4
- Unsaturated Fat: 14
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 18
- Fiber: 0
- Protein: 6
- Cholesterol: 69
Keywords: bacon macaroni salad
What a great way to make classic macaroni salad even better! Bacon is a favourite salad ingredient in this house and I’m glad you mentioned batch cooking in the oven. It just makes everything so much easier.
★★★★★
It truly makes this salad so simple!
Now this is making me crave! This herbed bacon macaroni salad looks really delicious and satisfying! I can’t wait to try this
★★★★★
I hope you love it as much as I do!
This looks so good!! I love the added herbs and bacon in the salad. Perfect for our 4th of July bbq! Thank you!
★★★★★
You’re so welcome! I loved it so much that I plan on serving it again for the 4th.
Many amazing flavors in this macaroni salad! This is truly one of the best looking macaroni salad we’ve seen! We would go for big scoops of it if it was in front of us!
★★★★★
Thank you! It’s so good — hope you try it!
Love this flavor combination! Plus, bacon makes everything taste better! Saving the recipe!
★★★★★
Can’t disagree with that! Hope you enjoy.
Oh wow! What a deliciously awesome new twist on macaroni salad! I’m LOVING that it has bacon too and the mustard! Definitely adding this to my list of summer must-makes!
★★★★★
I think you’ll love it, Lori!
Looks like you nailed everything we love about comfort food in one dish! My son will go bonkers for this.
I bet he will! It’s so good. 😀
Now this is a memorable macaroni salad. You can never go wrong with bacon and adding the herbs just pushes the pasta salad over the top. This is going to be perfect for our Independence Day gathering.
★★★★★
Absolutely! Hope y’all enjoy!
This is definitely something new to try if you like a good old macaroni salad. Love the herb and dressing – my favorite, too! 🙂
★★★★★
So happy to hear you enjoyed!
I’m just like you – I see macaroni at a buffet, and that is the first place I will go! I love the addition of fresh herbs, lemon and bacon to yours!
It really is such a delicious twist!