Hi guys I'm Laura Vitale and on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen I want to share with
you my recipe for a classic potato salad, like an American style potato salad. This
does have mayonnaise but I can promise you it is not going to be gloopy and flavorless
and just ehh. It is going to be creamy, full of flavor, and absolutely delicious. I am
going to show you all of the ingredients you will need in a bit but we are going to start
with the potatoes which is what I have in front of me. Now, I have got some russet potatoes
here and all I am doing, I have them on a baking sheet and I am just pricking them with
a fork just a few places. Now, most people boil their potatoes to make potato salad and
you absolutely can do that. I on the other hand happen to think that if you bake your
potatoes until they are nice and fluffy you get a much better texture because they will
be really dry on the inside but they will be really soft and fluffy and I personally
prefer them that way. So I have got my oven pre-heated to 375. I have my potatoes on my
baking sheet and I am going to pop them into the oven for an hour to an hour in a half
until how ever long it takes for them to get nice, soft, and tender. I promise you this
step might seem like it is an extra step but think about it, less cleaning up to do you
are just putting potatoes on a baking sheet and popping them in the oven. It is just going
to provide such a great texture for your potato salad. No water anywhere near it which can
be a problem and make it really sort of soggy and then it mixes with the mayonnaise and
then gets all messy. This is perfection, so I am going to pop this into the oven, let
them bake and get nice and tender, and I will show you what they look like and show you
the next step once we get them all nice and fully cooked. My potatoes baked for about
an hour and a quarter and I have let them cool completely. And now I am going to do
is I am going to split them down and they are beautiful and perfectly cooked. Now, before
we go any farther I am going to show you the rest of the ingredients you will need which
is some good quality mayo, sour cream, yellow mustard, hard boiled eggs, finely chopped
dill pickles these are little baby pickles that I finely chopped, chopped up scallions,
parsley, dill, white wine vinegar, paprika, granulated garlic, salt, and pepper, and that
is it. Before I go any farther with the potatoes I am actually going to mix things up in here.
I am going to add my vinegar and my granulated garlic and paprika along with my salt and
pepper, make sure you put plenty of salt because potatoes need salt otherwise they will taste
like nothing. After you have added that give it a good whisking, stir, whatever you want
to call it. I am just using my spatula and you do not have to use my exact ingredients
that I am using I am just showing you my favorite ingredients for a classic potato salad. As
you can see I am not making a ton of dressing because I think that is the thing that can
ruin a really good potato salad is when you add so much in there that it is overpowering
and gloopy. Now, a lot of people take a potato masher and mash their potatoes before they
put it in a potato salad because a classic potato salad is not chunky at all. I just
take a spoon and this is what I do. I run it down, right, I just run it like so that
way some pieces like this piece right here is a bit bigger the rest are much smaller
and you can by all means leave it really chunky you do not have to roast the potatoes like
I did you can totally just put them in boiling water and boil them however you like. This
is just my favorite way of doing it I just think because the potatoes are nice and dry
it provides like the best blanket for that dressing. So I am just going to continue to
get all my potatoes in the bowl and then toss the rest of our ingredients. To my potatoes
I am going to add my hard boiled eggs, which to me is another crucial ingredient. And then
no potato salad would ever be complete without dill pickles. I am a dill pickles kind of
girl, no bread and butter here please, I love dill pickles so lots of them for me. And then
I like to do scallions, dill a must, and a little bit of parsley. Then all you got to
do, and I, see potato salad is one of those things where it is a matter of preference.
If you do not like paprika then do not add paprika in and you will have a white sauce.
I just like to add a little bit in and it just gives it more flavor. If you like your
potatoes really chunky leave them chunky but I like my potatoes really creamy so as you
can see what I am doing I am using my spatula and kind of giving everything a mush because
that is how I like my potato salad. But again matter of preference and you can see it is
not gloopy at all it is just beautifully coated in that dressing. I am so excited to give
this a try, very excited about that. That looks good enough to me right. Lets give it
a go. Where is the pickle, there it is. That is money. Hands down the best classic potato
salad around. Full of flavor, not gloopy and gloppy, you can taste each individual ingredient
really well. But they all go together really well as well so that you get everything in
one bite and it just goes perfectly together if that makes any sense. The potatoes are
exactly how I like them and I wanted you to kind of see, I think see there is no liquid,
there is no moisture on the bottom of the bowl. That I think in my opinion anyway partly
because of the amount of dressing that we made but a lot of it has to do with the fact
that we roasted our potatoes, we baked our potatoes instead of boiling them because when
you boil them there is a chance of water and moisture surrounding the potato and this just
is perfection. I am going to cover this and pop it in the refrigerator for about a half
hour before serving and I suggest you do the same so the flavors can all meld much better
together. Laurainthekitchen.com will have the recipe waiting for you. I hope you enjoyed
spending time with me. Make this classic one, let me know how you like it and I will see
you next time. Bye! Bye!