Deviled Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches
Deviled egg salad for tea sandwiches gives you the most delicious egg tea sandwiches for your party or shower. All the flavorful zing of deviled eggs, delivered in fancy egg sandwiches. This scalable recipe is easy to make and uses simple ingredients in specific measurements to give perfect deviled egg tea sandwiches for 25, 50 people or more.
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Welcome to my second recipe in my Tea Party Series! I’m on a mission to bring you delicious recipes that can be scaled up to feed a crowd for a party, bridal or baby shower, or any special occasion. Be sure to check out my English Cucumber Sandwiches for a Crowd as well and stay tuned for more tea party recipes to come.
Why this recipe works
Making tea sandwiches for a crowd of people (I’m talking dozens of people) is not hard but it is also kinda hard. It isn’t hard in that the ingredients are generally easy and affordable. There is also usually no cooking involved, and some preparation can be done well in advance.
But sandwiches are challenging for crowds because they can’t be assembled too far in advance, or the bread will get gummy or dry out. Also, when preparing any recipe in quantity that is also made into individual servings (unlike a casserole like my Macaroni and Cheese for a Crowd), then there simply is more labor involved. I learned that the hard way when I catered a “high tea” wedding for 80 with all finger foods.
Which brings me to this recipe and why it is so fabulous. Making deviled egg salad for tea sandwiches works REALLY well. First, all the ingredients are easy to find and affordable. Second, the egg salad can be prepared a day in advance with zero sacrifice in flavor or texture. Third, with just egg salad and bread, these sandwiches are the easiest I have made yet when cooking for a crowd. And of course, with devilish flavors, deviled egg salad is DELICIOUS.
About the ingredients
This recipe is 100% based on my ride-or-die, family-favorite, make-it-every-single-occasion, Deviled Eggs Recipe. All the ingredients, and all that flavor… packed in little sandwiches that we can make in quantity.
Eggs. Whole large eggs, and see my tips below for hard-boiling and shelling them.
Mayonnaise. Get the best mayonnaise and by that I mean Duke’s.
Dijon mustard. Dijon makes everything extra special.
Yellow mustard.
White vinegar.
Worcestershire sauce.
Onion powder.
Prepared horseradish.
Paprika.
Fresh chives. If not available, substitute with 1/4 cup finely chopped green onion, red, or yellow onion, or 2 tablespoons dried minced onion.
White bread. Bread loaves vary in how many slices you get (20-26, including the ends), so pay attention to the nutritional panel on the package when you buy.
I am not a fan of deviled eggs that are too mustardy, so I balance the yellow mustard with the Dijon and white vinegar. This combination (with the rest of the ingredients of course) gives THE best deviled egg flavor and I will die on that hill.
How many sandwiches to make for a crowd
I cover this a bit more in my recipe for English Cucumber Tea Sandwiches, but use the following as a guide:
- Start with 1.5 individual sandwiches per person.
- If serving an older crowd and/or serving these sandwiches with a lot of other options, stick to 1.5 per person.
- If serving a younger crowd (families, baby shower, engagement party, etc) and/or if serving these as a main dish (such as a smaller luncheon tea party), increase to 2 individual sandwiches per person.
As I cover in my Essential Tips for Cooking for a Crowd, taking a recipe and determining how much to make does not have hard and fast rules, and this is especially true when making finger foods. You gotta be a little flexible, add a little extra buffer so you have wiggle room, and be prepared to have leftovers – but not too many leftovers. Then you know you’ve done it right.
I learned this lesson when I catered a wedding for 80 at a church. I made 2 sandwiches per person, when I should have stuck with 1.5. Older crowd, lots of options… lesson learned.
Suggested additions for fancy egg sandwiches
Add something briny! Egg salad has a lot of fat due to the mayonnaise, so adding something pickled or briny acts as a foil (foodie term) to “cut” the fat. Suggestions are:
- pickled diced jalapeno
- pickled red onion
- capers
- sliced green or black olives
- smoked salmon
Add some crunch! Egg salad doesn’t have a lot of texture, so adding a bit of crunch can give a better mouth feel to this soft sandwich. Suggestions are:
- diced celery
- diced red onion
- cooked and crumbly bacon
Add some greens! Bright and peppery greens, to be specific. Their flavors lighten egg salad sandwiches right up and elevate the flavor. Suggestions are:
- watercress
- arugula
- Italian flat-leaf parsley
Tips for hard-boiling and peeling so many eggs
The hardest part of this recipe is shelling the eggs, because eggs sometimes choose not to cooperate. So here are my tips that help get those shells off easier.
Don’t buy fresh eggs. Or if you do, get them as in advance as you can. Older eggs peel more easily.
Boil the eggs a little longer than you normally would. This is especially true if you are boiling a large pot full of more eggs. So instead of 15-16 minutes that I would normally cook them, I cook the eggs 18-20 minutes (depending on how many I am cooking at once).
Add the eggs to the pot and cover with cold water – just enough to cover the eggs. Set the pot on the burger, turn it on high, and start your timer. Starting eggs in cooler water prevents them from splitting and making a mess as they cook.
Let the cooked eggs cool all the way, even overnight if you can. Peeling 50 eggs is a chore – plan 30 seconds per egg. So, it could be 30+ plus minutes just peeling eggs. Have the eggs completely cold helps speed this up.
FAQs
The deviled egg salad filling can be made a day in advance. I recommend only assembling the sandwiches no more than 4 hours in advance or the white bread can get either gummy or dry out.
Nope! Cutting off the crusts is purely for aesthetics and is not necessary. If opting to leave the crusts on, then I recommend cutting the sandwiches on a diagonal in 2 large triangles, then cut each of those again. This gives 4 cute little triangle sandwiches from each.
Deviled Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches
Ingredients
For the Deviled Egg Salad
- 1 dozen hard-boiled eggs shelled
- 6 Tbsp mayonnaise 84 grams (see Notes)
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard 15 grams
- 1 Tbsp yellow mustard 15 grams
- 2 tsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp prepared horseradish
- ½ tsp paprika
- ¼ cup chopped fresh chives
For the sandwiches
- 24 slices white bread 1 loaf, ends discarded
Instructions
Make the egg salad
- Put the shells eggs in a large bowl. Use a potato masher to break the eggs up into bits.
- Add the remaining egg salad ingredients and combine.
Assemble the sandwiches
- On a clean surface, lay out 6 slices bread. Top each with 1/4 cup egg salad. Spread the egg salad (avoiding the edges if cutting off the crusts), and top each with a slice of bread.
- Repeat with the remaining bread and egg salad.
- Cut the crusts off the bread (see Notes), if desired. Cut each sandwich into 2 either diagonally or horizontally down the middle.
- Stack sandwiches on a platter. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving.
