There is something about potato salad that says Summer and to me a BBQ or picnic is not complete without it. In fact, my mom has a great potato salad recipe that she has been making for as long as I can remember.
One common ingredient that most potato salad recipes have is vinegar. However, my mom did not care for that flavor in her potato salad (and I don’t really either). So she came up with this recipe that has a couple secret ingredients that make it flavorful and delicious.
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Jump to RecipeHow to make potato salad
To start, you’ll want to cook your potatoes and eggs so they have time to cool. You will need about 4 pounds of potatoes.
First, peel the potatoes, then, cut them into 1 inch chunks and finally, put them in a pot of water to boil. You’ll want to be careful with how long you boil the potatoes. They need to be cooked enough so that they aren’t too hard, but you don’t want to over boil them or they will turn mushy. I have found that 7 to 9 minutes after the potatoes start boiling is the perfect amount of time.
The trick to the perfect hard boiled egg
You will need 7 hard boiled eggs. I learned a trick years ago on how to get the perfect hard boiled egg. First, bring your eggs to a boil, then turn off the burner, cover the pot and set the timer for 11 minutes. You will have the perfect hard boiled eggs.
It’s important to let the potatoes and eggs cool completely. To help the cooling process go faster, I will usually spread the potatoes out on the counter on a paper towel.
Making the sauce
In a small bowl, mix together 1 1/4 cups of mayonnaise, 1 Tbsp of mustard, and 1/2 cup of ranch dressing. Ranch dressing you say? Yes. This is one of the secret ingredients. Even if you don’t like ranch dressing (and I didn’t for years), you can’t specifically taste it. It just adds another element of great flavor to this potato salad.
The secret ingredient
Next, add 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper, and 1 Tbsp of Johnny’s Garlic Spread & Seasoning. The Johnny’s Garlic Seasoning is the other secret ingredient. This is not to be confused with garlic salt, it’s an actual seasoning blend. It’s also great for making homemade garlic bread.
If you don’t have the garlic seasoning, you can substitute it with 2 tsp of garlic powder. However, don’t substitute with garlic salt or your potato salad will be way too salty.
Tips for finishing and getting the perfect tasting potato salad
Add the potatoes to a large bowl, then peel and chop the hard boiled eggs. This handy dandy egg slicer makes the chopping process so much faster and easier and is much less messy.
Next, add 1/2 cup of chopped green onion and 1/3 cup of chopped dill pickles. And finally, add the condiment sauce and mix everything well.
This potato salad tastes best if it’s refrigerated for at least a couple of hours before you serve it so all the flavors have time to blend together.
Kitchen accessories used to make this recipe:
Mom’s Potato Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Peel and cut the potatoes into 1 inch cubes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and boil for 7 to 9 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and let cool.
- Bring eggs to a boil, turn off heat, cover and let sit for 11 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
- In a small bowl add mayonnaise, mustard, ranch dressing, salt, pepper and garlic seasoning. Mix well. Note: If you don’t have the garlic seasoning you can substitute with 2 tsp of garlic powder.
- Peel and chop the eggs. Add the potatoes and eggs to a large bowl.
- Add condiment sauce, chopped green onions and chopped pickles. Mix well.
- Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.
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