Loaded Potato Salad

I wasn’t a fan of Potato Salad for most of my life. My Mom made hers with potatoes, hard-boiled eggs and celery, all tossed in Miracle Whip. It led to a lifelong aversion to hard-boiled eggs (still going strong!) and a severe distrust of mayo in all forms, because I never knew the difference between Miracle Whip (disgusting) and mayo (delicious). Because of this I also avoided any potato salad that came in a tub or bucket from the grocery store (still do).

Like so many other things in my culinary life, I realized what I was missing out on from watching Barefoot Contessa and reading her cookbooks. Look at this recipe for Old-Fashioned Potato Salad from Barefoot at Home: potatoes, mayo, two kinds of mustard, fresh dill, celery and red onion. Flavour explosion! Plus no hard boiled eggs! It was like a whole new world opened up to me. Then I started reading Smitten Kitchen, and made this recipe which is very similar, but with chopped pickles! Bliss!

As much as I grew to love these recipes, Potato Salad is still not something I’m whipping up on the reg in my kitchen, so I’ve never documented anything here. But like a bunch of other things I’ve finally had time to blog about during this pandemic, I’ve decided to make it official with my new favourite recipe. This is originally a Jalapeno Popper Potato Salad from Pioneer Woman, although I’ve left out the jalapenos, as well as the hard-boiled eggs (of course), and the yellow mustard (so overpowering!). What you’re left with is basically like a loaded baked potato, in Potato Salad form: cheddar, bacon, green onions, plus the excellent addition of pickles! When I made this the first time I also had pickled red onions in the fridge, so they went in as well. It was fantastic.

Add-ins

I feel like Potato Salad is such a controversial topic, so I took to my IG Stories to see what people had to say about it:

  • 84% of voters like it // 16% take a pass
  • 78% say “Yes Please” to mayo in it // 22% think it’s gross
  • 66% like hard-boiled eggs in it // 34% say “GAG”

I also asked what other stuff people like to add in, and here are the answers:

  • green onion, bacon, cheese, sometimes radish
  • a Caesar Potato Salad with green onion, bacon and Renee’s Caesar dressing (I feel like I would LOVE this)
  • green onion, pickles, my mom adds radishes
  • caramelized onions
  • bacon, chives, apple cider vinegar
  • beets and some sort of crunch – crispy onions
  • you MUST ADD DILL PICKLE JUICE it will change your life (agreed!)
  • bacon, chives, paprika, dill, dill pickles
  • pickles, green onion, bacon, celery
  • celery seed adds a nice flavour! or even just teeny pieces of celery.
  • sour pickles, mustard, egg, celery and chives on top
  • green onion, bacon, I don’t mind a hard-boiled egg chopped up in the mix
  • pickles are amazing! my family makes it with potato, red onion, olive oil and lemon
  • capers!

I loved reading about all these variations! Definitely have to get some radish in the mix next year!

Loaded Potato Salad

Source: Pioneer Woman (with a few changes)

Ingredients

  • 3 lbs russet potatoes (about five medium sized potatoes) scrubbed and cut into 1″ cubes
  • 1 cup mayo
  • 2 tbsp pickle juice
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 6 slices bacon, cooked until crispy and chopped
  • 4 green onions (both white and green parts), chopped
  • 1/4 cup chopped pickles (dill or bread & butter, whatever you have/like)
  • 2 cups grated cheddar

Directions

  1. Add the potatoes to a gigantic pot and cover them with water by 1″. Salt the water. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat and cook for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through.
  2. Drain the potatoes, and add to a big bowl. Mash them up just a little bit, so there’s a mixture of different size chunks.
  3. Add the mayo, pickle juice, salt and pepper and stir together gently (so the potatoes stay chunky!).
  4. Fold in the bacon, green onions and pickles.  I usually let it cool a bit here (so the cheese doesn’t immediately start to melt), then fold in the cheese.
  5. Let cool, then serve at room temperature, or chill in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.