The Best Potato Salad You'll Ever Make (Deli-Quality)

Epicurious

In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef and chef instructor Frank Proto demonstrates how to make the ultimate potato salad to serve at a backyard barbecue or bring to your next pot luck.Get our recipe: Perfectly Creamy Potato Salad

Transcript

00:00 I'm Frank Proto, professional chef and culinary instructor,

00:02 and today I'm gonna show you

00:03 how to make the best potato salad.

00:05 This recipe is simple and quick.

00:07 You don't need a lot of ingredients.

00:08 You can do this, I promise.

00:11 This is potato salad 101.

00:13 Potato salad comes in a lot of different forms.

00:18 Everyone has their own preference.

00:20 My perfect potato salad is the way

00:22 that my grandmother used to make it.

00:23 It is very simple, but it is extremely delicious.

00:27 It's boiled potatoes, a Yukon Gold to me

00:30 is one of the best waxy potatoes.

00:32 It holds its shape.

00:33 It has great flavor and texture.

00:36 For the most part, waxy potatoes like a Yukon Gold

00:38 don't get fluffy.

00:39 They get more of like a kind of a creamy texture

00:42 when you cook them,

00:42 which is exactly what you want for a good potato salad.

00:45 I always start out with cold water.

00:47 My potatoes are washed.

00:48 I scrub the skins.

00:49 I know you've had waterlogged potatoes.

00:51 They're wet, they're squishy, and it's not good.

00:53 I find if you leave the skins on,

00:55 you kind of have that jacket on them

00:56 and the potatoes don't get waterlogged.

00:58 So potatoes into cold water, turn it on.

01:00 If we boil the potatoes the whole time,

01:03 they kind of jump around the pan and they get beat up.

01:05 The skins come off.

01:06 We lose a lot of starch.

01:08 So let it come to a boil and then lower it to a simmer.

01:11 It's probably gonna take about 35 to 40 minutes

01:14 to cook these potatoes.

01:15 So you gotta be patient.

01:17 Sometimes people will wanna put salt into this water.

01:19 I stay away from that.

01:20 If I have peeled potatoes in the water,

01:23 I will salt the water because the salt's actually

01:25 gonna get into the potato.

01:26 Here, I have the skins on so salt's not getting in.

01:29 I'm also gonna rinse these potatoes

01:31 and chill them down under cold water

01:33 so that rinsing and chilling is gonna wash off

01:35 any seasoning anyway.

01:37 So I choose not to salt the water.

01:39 Potatoes have been in the pot simmering away happily

01:41 for about 20, 25 minutes.

01:44 And now what I like to do is add my eggs.

01:46 We egg need about 10, 12 minutes.

01:48 So I'm gonna put my eggs in.

01:49 The potatoes and the eggs will be done at the same time.

01:52 And they all cook happily away together.

01:55 Now we wait.

01:56 You can see that I have a little bit

01:57 of falling apart potatoes,

01:59 but they're not shredding and falling apart.

02:01 Now, how do I know the potatoes are done, right?

02:03 This is a raw potato.

02:04 If I stab this raw potato, what happens?

02:07 It doesn't fall off.

02:10 It holds on real tight.

02:11 But if I stab a potato that is mostly cooked,

02:16 it slips right off of my paring knife.

02:18 And that's what I want.

02:19 It should slip off my paring knife.

02:21 It should not fall apart.

02:23 These are perfect.

02:24 Let's drain them.

02:25 I got my potatoes in the pot.

02:26 I've run some cold water over them.

02:28 So they're easy to handle.

02:29 And as a chef, I might wanna ice these down.

02:32 And that's okay.

02:32 If you have the ice and you wanna do it,

02:34 I'm gonna let them cool so that I can handle them.

02:37 And then we can finish the salad.

02:38 So now all I really wanna do is peel everything

02:43 and get into my bowl.

02:44 I'm not gonna use a cutting board.

02:45 I have a bowl for all my waste.

02:47 I have a bowl that my salad's gonna go into.

02:49 I get a paring knife.

02:50 Just remember these are cooled off

02:52 and I can hold them in my hand without being uncomfortable.

02:54 If they're still hot,

02:55 you can always put them in a towel and peel them.

02:58 But for the most part,

02:59 I like to cool them so they're easy to peel.

03:01 I can tell that this potato is cooked right on the money

03:04 because the outside is not kind of shredding

03:07 and falling apart.

03:08 And then when I stick my knife through,

03:10 it just has a little bit of resistance.

03:12 So what I like to do is cut my potato in half,

03:15 and a half again,

03:17 and then just into nice chunks.

03:20 Potatoes are cut.

03:21 Now we can peel the eggs.

03:22 And what I like to do with eggs

03:23 is just kind of bang them on the table.

03:27 There's almost always a little air gap in one side,

03:30 and that always helps your eggs peel better.

03:32 And then we peel.

03:34 Eggs are really difficult to peel

03:35 while they're still super hot.

03:37 You should always cool them down a little.

03:38 And then this membrane separates away from the egg,

03:41 and they're a lot easier to peel.

03:42 So not cold, not hot,

03:45 but somewhere in between,

03:47 and these shells come off like a dream.

03:50 My eggs are peeled,

03:51 and I have a really great trick on how to chop these up.

03:53 No fuss, no muss.

03:55 Get yourself a resting rack,

03:57 put it on top,

03:58 take your egg,

03:59 smash it through.

04:02 Look at our eggs are chopped.

04:03 Potato salad for egg salad.

04:05 This is the right way to do it.

04:07 It's super quick and efficient.

04:09 I am going to save two eggs for garnish.

04:11 I'm just gonna slice them on top,

04:13 but chopping eggs couldn't be any simpler than that.

04:19 Time to make our salad.

04:20 The ingredients for this salad is super simple.

04:23 It's just potatoes, eggs, olives, mayonnaise, and vinegar.

04:26 Of course, salt and pepper.

04:28 So you kind of gotta get these right.

04:30 So you have to taste as you go.

04:31 So I'm gonna start out with just a little bit

04:33 of black pepper, not a lot,

04:36 and a decent amount of salt.

04:37 Remember, there's no salt in this yet.

04:39 I'm using kosher salt.

04:40 Whenever I salt things,

04:41 people think that I'm over-salting,

04:43 but kosher salt has big flakes.

04:45 You can see them better.

04:46 So it looks like I'm putting a lot of salt in, but I'm not.

04:49 Distilled vinegar.

04:50 You could be tempted to use fancy vinegar for this.

04:53 I want white distilled.

04:54 It's got a clean flavor.

04:56 It's nice and acidic.

04:58 I put in about a quarter cup, maybe a little less,

05:00 and I like to put that over the potatoes

05:02 before I put the mayonnaise on,

05:04 just for the fact that the potatoes will soak it up.

05:06 So now I'm just gonna kind of give it a little toss

05:09 with that salt, pepper, and vinegar.

05:11 I have some of these green olives with pimento in them.

05:13 I think it adds some color, a little pop of salt.

05:15 I'm just gonna add these whole

05:17 and save some on the side for garnish later,

05:20 just to kind of stud on top.

05:22 Last but not least is mayonnaise.

05:24 I like Hellmann's.

05:25 A good prepared mayonnaise is key here.

05:27 Do not use Miracle Whip.

05:29 Miracle Whip is gross.

05:31 Throw it out the window.

05:32 Mayonnaise every single time.

05:34 And you don't wanna be shy with this.

05:36 You wanna make sure that there's enough mayonnaise

05:38 that you don't have a dry potato salad.

05:41 You want it to be dressed really well.

05:43 So at this point, we just kind of give it a little toss.

05:47 What's gonna happen is as this salad sits,

05:50 it will soak up some of that mayonnaise.

05:52 So you might have to readjust

05:54 after it sits for a little while,

05:56 but I want it to be nice and creamy and delicious.

05:58 Make sure the egg is studded through.

06:01 I think that's good on the mayonnaise for now.

06:03 I'm gonna test the salt and pepper in this.

06:06 Just get a piece of potato.

06:07 Good.

06:11 I'm tasting potatoes.

06:11 I'm tasting a little vinegar.

06:13 It definitely needs a little more salt.

06:15 It definitely needs just a little more mayonnaise.

06:17 Finish mixing it up.

06:18 It's not making that sound.

06:20 It's not good.

06:21 Let me give it another little taste.

06:24 I think we're good there.

06:27 We're gonna leave it alone.

06:29 It's on the money.

06:30 Time to plate it up.

06:34 It's simple.

06:35 It's potato salad.

06:36 It's a side.

06:37 It's not gonna be too fancy.

06:38 Get yourself a nice heaping mound of potato salad.

06:43 Get it in there.

06:44 Don't be shy.

06:46 I'm gonna stud it with a couple of olives.

06:48 And then I like to just take slices of the egg

06:52 and kind of just put that around.

06:54 A little bit of that yolk crumbling.

06:56 And there you have it, everyone.

06:57 That is my potato salad.

06:58 Let's give it a taste.

07:00 Get a nice piece of potato in there.

07:02 Make sure you get it nice and dressed.

07:04 Potatoes are perfectly cooked.

07:08 They have a little bit of bite to them.

07:10 Crumbly on the outside.

07:11 The olives have a nice salty pop.

07:13 It's creamy.

07:14 It's eggy.

07:15 Every time I try it, I'm that little boy

07:17 back on Long Island, my grandmother serving this up.

07:19 And that's part of why this is so wonderful.

07:21 It's a great potato salad,

07:22 but then I get to think about my grandma.

07:24 (electronic music)

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