- [Sheri] I cannot wait to tell you about this egg salad.

It is deviled egg salad 'cause I include everything that I love in a good deviled egg.

I'm gonna start with the dressing, which begins with a little bit of mayo.

Just a little bit on the end of a spoon.

And then, I'm gonna add mustard.

My pick for this mustard is this whole grain Dijon mustard so that these little seeds can be part of the texture of my filling.

And then, I'm gonna add a generous shake of hot sauce.

Then, we have a little bit of sugar, which balances everything.

A tiny bit of paprika and then seasoning salt.

You know, seasoning salt is one of the handiest things you can keep in your kitchen 'cause it's like giving out half of our spice drawer all at one time.

Some grinds of great pepper.

So see, we're building flavor with each ingredient.

Now, I put lemon in my deviled eggs.

I'm going to add a little bit of this delicious zest.

And then, for added measure, just a couple of drops of lemon juice.

Remember that gorgeous dill I was chopping?

In it goes.

Now the star of this show, of course, is going to be hard-cooked eggs.

Lucky for you, I have a foolproof way of doing that and I'm gonna show you how.

Perfectly cooked eggs are key to great egg salad and other recipes too.

We usually call them hard-boiled, but I prefer to say hard cooked as a reminder that the egg should never actively boil at all.

Just bring a big saucepan of water, about three quarts or so, to boil in a large pot.

Yes, that's a lot of water, but it helps.

Gently lower the eggs into the boiling water, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently for 12 minutes.

If you can hear the eggs bumping around, the heat is too high.

We want to cook them only long enough for the yolks to turn solid.

Overcooking is what turns the outside of the yolks an unsightly green.

Immediately transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water and let cool for 15 minutes before peeling.

I have great luck with this technique, although sometimes, despite doing everything just right, the egg whites can tear or rough up a little bit, especially when I'm making a platter of deviled eggs to take somewhere it seems.

But that's the beauty of deviled egg salad.

It always looks and tastes fantastic.

So look what I'm doing with our perfectly hard cooked eggs.

I am crumbling them into the bowl instead of mashing them with a fork.

That's one of the things that makes this egg salad so special and so different from most.

We've got big pieces of egg that's going to go with this delicious dressing.

Nothing soft, nothing mushy about it.

And then, I'm going to add two things for color, crunch, and even more interest.

You can use any crunchy vegetables that you like, but my two favorite, time after time, are some scallions and some celery.

Little bits of delicious, crunchy, bright green celery.

And then I'm gonna fold this together.

I'm going to make sure it's thoroughly coated, but I'm not gonna work it too hard.

We want to stir this and fold this only until everything is coated with the dressing and we have this beautiful bowl of delicious deviled egg salad.

Now you can make this a day ahead, but there is no way I'm gonna wait an entire day to taste this.

Let's check on this toast.

It looks perfect and it is ready for this egg salad.

You know, you can do a little bit so that you can pick it up with your fingers or you can do a lot and take after this with a knife and fork.

Now let's take a bite.

Mm, friends, that is so good.

And you've got that crunchy toast, but the star are the eggs.

They're buttery, they're warm, they're delicate, but yet, they're not boring.

This is exceptionally good egg salad that's gonna remind you of your favorite deviled eggs, but look how much easier this was to do.

This is a keeper.