New York deli macaroni salad is a creamy side dish that’s found in nearly every deli in the NY metro area. It’s perfect with sandwiches, burgers, and barbecue and is sure to stand out at any backyard gathering!
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Macaroni salad can get a bad rap at times.
Homemade versions are often a clumpy mess with little to no flavor, but anytime I’ve eaten New York deli macaroni salad, it’s been awesome!
I’ve worked in a number of delis in my life and this is the real-deal, tried and true way to ensure a tangy, creamy macaroni salad.
The vinegar brine is the key to this salad, as it is to New York deli potato salad, German potato salad, coleslaw, and others.
While many deli mac salads include just macaroni, or macaroni and a touch of celery, I added just a bit of red and green bell pepper to mine for texture and flavor.
Serve this mac salad with burgers, barbecue, or alongside an Italian hero/sub, chicken salad sandwich, or deli roast beef sandwich for the full NY deli experience!
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How to make it
Each number corresponds to the numbered written steps below.
- In a large bowl whisk together 1/3 cup of white vinegar, 3 tablespoons of water, 1/3 cup of sugar, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, a 1/2 cup of grated or pureed onion, 1 1/4 teaspoons of fine sea salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper. Finely dice half of one small green or red bell pepper and 1 rib of celery.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook 1 pound of elbow macaroni to al dente. Drain and run the pasta under cold water to cool it off and stop the cooking process. Whisk the brine again and add the macaroni along with the bell pepper and celery. Mix well to coat, cover with a lid or plastic wrap, and refrigerate the macaroni overnight to allow the flavors to absorb.
- The next day add 3/4 cup of mayonnaise and mix well until you achieve a creamy consistency, adding more mayo as needed.
- Taste test and season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
Top tips
- The brine. Brining the macaroni 1 day in advance yields maximum flavor, and the longer it sits in the brine the better it will taste. This is the key to the quintessential New York deli flavor! Most delis (all of the ones I worked at) will leave macaroni, potato, and cabbage for coleslaw in the brine overnight or longer. Then the next day they can mix up a perfect smooth batch for customers. This works for presentation but also for taste.
- Pepper. I used white pepper in the brine to keep everything uniform in color, but you can certainly use black pepper. In fact, I used some black pepper at the end to season it to taste.
- Vegetable oil. I get a lot of comments about vegetable oil and some folks prefer to not use it. This is the oil that’s being used in most delis. Using olive oil here will change the flavor. If you don’t want to use vegetable oil, something with little taste, like avocado oil, would be an ok substitute. The only use for the oil is to aid in the smoothness and creaminess of the mac salad.
More summer side recipes
This NY deli-style macaroni salad is great all year long but is especially good in the summer. Here are a few more side ideas for warm weather.
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New York Deli Macaroni Salad
Ingredients
For the brine
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup grated white onion or pureed
- 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Remaining ingredients
- 1 pound elbow macaroni
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise plus more to achieve a smooth consistency
- 1/2 small green or red bell pepper finely diced
- 1 rib celery finely diced
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Instructions
For the brine
- In a large bowl, whisk together all of the brine ingredients and set aside.
For the macaroni salad
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook elbow macaroni to al dente. Drain and run the pasta under cold water to cool it off and stop the cooking process.
- Whisk the brine again then add the elbow macaroni along with the bell pepper and celery. Mix well to coat. At this time it is best to refrigerate the macaroni overnight so that the flavors absorb.
- The next day, add the mayo and mix well again. Add more mayo as required to get a creamy consistency. Taste test and season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
Notes
- The key to getting that New York deli macaroni salad flavor is the brine. If you can wait let the macaroni sit in the brine for 1-2 days before mixing with mayo. This is how most delis do it.
- White pepper can be used for appearance.
- Leftovers can be saved for up to 5 days and taste even better after a few days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Can I use champagne vinegar as a substitute for white wine vinegar?
Yes, you can.
love it. I may put alittle chopped cilantro.
As with the New York deli style potato salad this macaroni salad is delicious.
This is the best macaroni salad I’ve ever had AND it’s the first and only salad that my very picky daughter likes. She never eats macaroni salad and it doesn’t matter to her who makes it, she has never tasted a recipe that she likes. UNTIL NOW!!! She raved about how delicious this was and not only did she eat one helping, she went back for seconds! Will miracles never cease!!!! SIMPLY AMAZING!! Thank you so much Jim for sharing a recipe all of my family finally eats!!!!
We’re so happy you and your daughter enjoyed, Nancy!
I am going to use this recipe for our midsummer feast on June 21. I will let you know the ‘verdict’ of my neighbors by then. I have a feeling my contribution to the party will be a success.
Greetings from the Netherlands.
Anne
We hope your neighbors enjoy, Anne! Thanks for the comment!
The vinegar brine is the secret to this delicious macaroni salad! Texture and flavor was spot on! My family has already nominated me to make this macaroni salad and your coleslaw recipe for the 4th of July. II’m really enjoying trying out some of your
5-Star recipes. Do you have any suggestions as to what I could make with some fresh out of the garden tomatoes? Maybe some homemade vegetable soup or a tomato, cucumber and onion salad? Thank you!
Hi Mary Jane, we use tomatoes in our potato and green bean salad, which would be great, as would pesto alla trapanese. If you have larger tomatoes, we will have a recipe up later today for Roman stuffed tomatoes, so stay tuned!
I don’t think it will matter but just want to double check. Can I use a different shape small pasta if I don’t have elbows on hand? I made your coleslaw last week and it was by far the best!
Hi Sue, you can use a different small pasta, such as ditalini/tubetti, or farfalline. So happy you enjoyed the coleslaw and hope you love this one too!
Hi!
What color onion do you use? And when you say 1/2 cup onion, grated or puréed, do you mean half cup onion and then puree, or a half cup of puréed onion?
Thanks! 🙂
Hi Jenn, thanks for the question. It’s 1/2 cup of grated/pureed onion. You can use either white or yellow onion. We’ll update the recipe to clarify.
This is a fantastic recipe. Loved every bite. Your recipes are excellent! I recently made the egg salad and the rice pudding too. Thank you.
We’re so glad you enjoyed, Andrea!
I’ve been searching for the perfect macaroni salad recipe and I have finally found it !!
Thank you for sharing !
So happy you enjoyed, Judy!
Do you add the mayo to the macaroni in the brine?
To confirm, you do not drain the macaroni from the brine before adding the mayo?
Hi Dieselle, the mayo does not get added until the next day (after the macaroni has sat in the brine). You do not drain the brine before adding the mayo. Hope you enjoy!
Does the sugar in the brine make the tuna Mac salad sweet?? Love your recipes, watch on you tube all the time thanks!!
Hi Larry, it does make it a little sweet, but it’s more to balance out the vinegar in the brine. You can use less sugar if you’d like.
Delicious!! I do have a question. Do you think it’s possible to freeze half of the brined pasta after the 24 hour mark but before adding Mayo? I’m always guilty of making too much!
Hi Christine, you’d likely be fine to freeze half the brined pasta, though we haven’t actually tried it ourselves so can’t say with absolute certainty how it would turn out.
I’m going to try and I will let you know what happens!
This is a great question Christine. I Love, LOVE this salad but I am on my own. I always cut the recipe in half or quarter. If I could pre-make the pasta in brine and freeze it into meal portions, that would make perfect sense!!
Delicious, ty for your time and effort.
I’ve made some of your recipes-peppers and onions, meatballs, Italian sub, and quite a few others..
I love deli style foods and some of your recipes are simple instructions, wonderful.
Kevin F Burggren
Malden, MA.
Hi Kevin, we’re so glad to hear our recipes are resonating with you. Thanks so much for the comment!
I love, LOVE this recipe. The brine is definitely the game changer. Could I substitute apple cider vinegar for a little extra kick?
So glad you enjoyed, Judy! You could use ACV if you’d like, though it will change the flavor of the macaroni salad.
I’m so happy to have found this recipe, I could cry! I’ve tried to make macaroni salad using different recipes I found online and they always turned out a tasteless, gloppy mess. The mayonnaise got sucked into the macaroni and it was just gross. I resorted to buying this side dish from Walmart and Kroger. This week I decided to try to make it one more time! OMG! Finding this recipe is like winning the lottery. It is easily made with ingredients on hand, but it takes patience to let the macaroni sit in the brine. However, that’s the secret to creamy deliciousness! This is the best macaroni salad I have ever had in my life!!
We are so happy you loved the macaroni salad, Barb, and really appreciate the great comment! Thank you!
My future DIL said, bring macaroni salad, who doesn’t love a good macaroni salad? I thought, me, I don’t like macaroni salad. Well, maybe it was because I had never had a good one. Fortunately, this one was a GREAT one! It reminded me of something my grandmother would have made and it was delicious and received rave reviews! I look forward to trying your other recipes.
So happy to hear that, Stacey!
Outstanding. Its all about the brine! Well done. Although, I’d recommend cutting the onion portion in half and add a small amount of Dijon mustard
So happy you enjoyed it, Frank!