Hawaiian Macaroni Salad – The Only Mac Salad Recipe You’ll Ever Need

By CurtisJ · Honolulu · February 23, 2026 · 1 min read

Hawaiian macaroni salad should be creamy, lightly tangy, and soft enough to sit beside hot rice and fried food without feeling stiff.

Before you cook

The texture should lean soft on purpose.

Mac salad in Hawaii is not trying to stay al dente and polished. CurtisJ's take is that it should relax in the dressing, hold plenty of mayo, and cool down the rest of the plate the second it lands next to something hot.

If this sounds good, read next

Same category

Recipe

Lau Lau: Hawaii's Steamed Pork-and-Butterfish Bundle

Lau lau is the traditional Hawaiian steamed bundle: pork and butterfish wrapped in taro leaves, then ti leaves, steamed for 4 hours. The luau classic.

Related guide

Guide

Hawaiian Noodle Recipes: A Honolulu Kitchen Field Guide

Hawaii's noodle dishes are a plantation-era pan-Asian crossroads — saimin, fried saimin, pancit, chow fun, and how each one ended up on the local menu.

CurtisJ's pick

Recipe

Kalua Pig in the Instant Pot: 90 Minutes Instead of an Imu

Kalua pig in 90 minutes via Instant Pot: pork shoulder, Hawaiian salt, liquid smoke, banana leaves if you have them. The mainland-friendly version of the imu.