A simple and environmentally friendly electrochemical deposition method was used to prepare a poly-salicylaldehyde para-aminobenzoic acid modified glassy carbon electrode (poly-SAPABA GCE), and an electrochemical sensor for the detection of nitrite was successfully constructed. The electrochemical performance of the poly-SAPABA GCE was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, chronocoulometry, and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The results showed that the poly-SAPABA film promoted electron transfer, which improved the electrochemical performance. The poly-SAPABA GCE has a good electrocatalytic performance for the detection of nitrite. The CV curves for the poly-SAPABA GCE were measured in pH 3.25 phosphate buffered solution (PBS) containing nitrite. The peak current of nitrite increased linearly with the nitrite concentration in the range from 3.12 × 10−5 to 1.53 × 10−2 mol L−1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.9999, and a detection limit of 5.04 × 10−6 mol L–1 at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 was calculated. The poly-SAPABA GCE also has good selectivity, stability, and reproducibility, and was successfully applied to the determination of nitrite in actual samples. The recovery of nitrite was 96–105% and the relative standard deviation was 3.28%. The proposed method can potentially be used for the detection of nitrite.