How to Make the Best Potato Salad

Recipes

By Steven Raichlen, 5-time James Beard Award-winner and Barbecue Hall of Famer

July 31, 2026

1. Choose the Right Potato

Tradition often calls for waxy potatoes, such as fingerlings, red potatoes, and Yukon Golds. They’re lower in starch than baking potatoes, so they hold their shape when cooked and tossed with dressing. That makes them ideal for warm German-style salads and any version in which you want distinct pieces of potato rather than a softer, creamier texture.
But don’t overlook baking potatoes. They’re higher in starch and become light and fluffy when baked. Start with a fully baked potato, chill it, then dice it. One of the best potato salads I’ve ever tasted comes from Larsen’s Fish Market in Menemsha on Martha’s Vineyard. They start with baked potatoes and add bacon and scallions. Delectable!

2. Put Some Skin in the Game

Personally, I like potatoes with their skins on—more color, more flavor, and more fiber. Scrub them clean with a stiff-bristled brush before cooking. On the other hand, Mrs. Raichlen prefers her potatoes peeled before they become potato salad. Just saying.

3. Dress the Potatoes at the Right Temperature

When Germans make potato salad, they start with hot cooked potatoes. As the potatoes cool, they absorb the dressing, which typically includes vinegar, mustard, oil or bacon fat, and, of course, cooked bacon. Warm or room temperature is the way to serve it.

For a creamy American-style salad, let the potatoes cool fully before adding the mayonnaise dressing. For food safety reasons, mayonnaise should always be kept cold.

4. Choose Creamy or Vinegary

The traditional American version gets its richness from mayonnaise. Hellmann’s, please—unless you come from the South, in which case your mayo of choice may be Duke’s. Central Europeans favor a sharper vinegar-based dressing, with oil or bacon fat supplying the richness.

Neither style is automatically better. The important thing is balance. Potatoes are mild and starchy, so the dressing must bring enough acidity, salt, and seasoning to wake them up.

5. Flavor Assertively

As far as I’m concerned, any potato salad needs mustard and vinegar to offset the starchiness of the potatoes. German potato salad demands a touch of sweetness to counterbalance the vinegar and smoky richness of the bacon.

Many people crown their potato salads with a sprinkling of sweet paprika. You, my friend, will add a smoky dimension by sprinkling on pimentón—Spanish smoked paprika. Once you try it, I promise, you’ll never go back to the sweet stuff.

6. Add Crunch and Contrast

All cream and no crunch would make for a boring potato salad. In my house, capers, olives, and cornichon pickles are obligatory, as are chives or scallion greens chopped so finely a sudden sneeze would blow them away.

Sliced celery? It certainly adds crunch, but Mrs. Raichlen doesn’t like celery, so I omit it. I have been known to sneak in slivered celery leaves. Mrs. Raichlen, meanwhile, likes to add diced raw carrot—diced, mind you, not shredded—to maximize the crunch.

The exact embellishments are up to you. The larger point is to give the soft potatoes something crisp, briny, fresh, or sharp to play against.

7. Make It More Substantial

Just because it’s a side dish doesn’t mean potato salad can’t contain protein. Bacon may define German potato salad, while sliced hard-cooked eggs give an American version more heft. Peru’s popular papas a la huancaína pairs potatoes with a piquant sauce made with tangy white cheese and aji amarillo, the country’s fruity yellow chile.

8. Above All, Add Smoke

So what makes a Raichlen potato salad a Raichlen potato salad? You guessed it: smoke and fire. Instead of boiling the potatoes, I smoke-roast them on the grill.

Set up your grill for indirect grilling and heat it to medium-high—about 400°F. Add wood chips or chunks to the fire. Place the potato chunks in a foil pan and toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Smoke-roast until tender, about 40 minutes, stirring from time to time with a wooden spoon.

The potatoes emerge bronzed at the edges and perfumed with wood smoke. From there, you can take them in an American, German, or Peruvian direction.

Four Potato Salads to Try

Drum roll, please. I now give you four of my favorite potato salads—American, German, and Peruvian, with two very different approaches to the German classic. You be the judge as to which is best.

So Which Potato Salad Is Best?

Creamy or vinegary? Warm or cold? Skins on or off? There is no single correct answer. The world’s best potato salad is the one that delivers the right balance of tender potatoes, assertive seasoning, contrasting textures, and enough acidity to keep you coming back for another forkful.

But this much I know: smoke-roast the potatoes instead of boiling them, and your potato salad will taste like the barbecue it accompanies. Once you add smoke and fire, the humble potato salad becomes a star of the show.