I grew up in a family that went to A LOT of church covered-dish dinners. On top of that, we celebrated EV-ER-Y thing with some sort of dinner. My grandma would make WAY too much food (because that’s what you do) and we’d spend a lot of time around the table with friends and family telling the same jokes and stories. I loved each of those times! Potato salad was at ALL of those covered dish dinners at church, and was always on the table at her house. In fact, the very first post I made on this blog was rooted in a realization I had last summer about a connection to my Grandma I made while I was making this very recipe for family and friends here at home.
So what’s so special about a silly potato salad? Honestly- I have no idea. It just takes like home; that’s all I can say. The recipe I’m sharing below is based on what my Grandma taught me, and has been doctored through the years as I’ve experimented with other things to achieve the ‘tangy’ taste hers used to have. (I’m not convinced she didn’t leave a couple of these ingredients out when she first gave me the recipe. It would’ve been like her to leave me a little something to figure out.)
There are a lot of ingredients here, but I promise you- each has a special role in making this potato salad so good you’ll be the hero of anyone who tries it.
Ingredients:
5 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
1 tablespoon table salt
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp Duke’s mayonnaise (Don’t play. Get you some Duke’s.)
1 cup of sweet pickle cubes (be sure to drain the pickle juice from them)
chopped red onion (start with 1/2 cup- but I almost always end up using more like 3/4 cup for texture)
chopped celery (again- start with 1/2 cup)
chopped green bell pepper (guess what…start with 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup chopped parsley (use flat leaf)
1/4 cup yellow mustard
1 jar (4 oz) of diced pimentos
2 Tablespoons of seasoned rice wine vinegar (check the asian food area of the grocer if you can’t find this with the other vinegars)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1-2 tsp of celery salt (start with 1 and you can add more if you need to once everything is mixed together)
4 drops of hot sauce (I like Red Clay…and typically end up using more like 6-8 dashes)
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Optional Ingredients: hard boiled eggs (I don’t like eggs, so I never add them) 1-2 jalapeño peppers chopped.
Preparation:
While you’re potatoes are boiling, chop your onion, celery, and bell pepper. Combine into a large bowl (big enough to mix everything together) (If you chose to add egg and/or jalapeño peppers, you can add them into the mixture with the chopped veggies.)
Add mayo, mustard, pimentos, pickle cubes, olive oil, lemon juice, hot sauce, seasoned rice wine vinegar, celery salt and smoked paprika to the copped veggies and stir together.
When potatoes have finished boiling/cooling down, cube the potatoes into the mixture and stir to coat the potatoes.
add salt and parsley; stir to coat the potato mixture
taste a bite (SMILE) and then add any dashes/touches of ingredients you want to make the potato salad exactly how you or your family like it.
Cover and stir.
This should make enough for 10-12 healthy servings. I recommend making it ahead of time if you can. The more time the ingredients have to ‘get happy’ together, the better this salad becomes.
I hope you enjoy this. If you make it, I’d love to hear what you think!
