This Baked Potato Salad recipe takes classic potato salad to a new level! Tender, baked potatoes are combined with cheese, bacon, and a tangy sour cream based dressing. A fun choice for entertaining.
My husband gets the willies from traditional mayonnaise-based potato salad and this has caused a rift between us that I feared would never be mended. Because, like a normal person, I am head over heels in love with Old Fashioned Potato Salad.
Some of the children that we created together are on Dad’s side.
In spite of their feelings, I never gave up on my potato salad dreams. I whipped up this Baked Potato Salad for our Fourth of July feast nearly 10 years ago, and it worked!
This salad had my potato salad haters going back for seconds. I have an inkling it will go over like gangbusters in your house too.
Table of contents
Loaded Baked Potato Salad Recipe
This potato salad has all the things we love about a loaded baked potato – green onions, sour cream (yes!), cheese (Yes!), and bacon (YES!!!). While the dressing still has some mayo, the attitude of this potato salad is nothing like the traditional variety.
Yes, the salad has an attitude. A big one.
Unlike traditional potato salad where the potatoes are boiled, this truly is a baked potato salad. Baking the potatoes creates a wonderfully fluffy texture and great flavor. When combined with the other ingredients and the slightly tangy dressing, it creates a unique potato salad.
Ingredient Notes
- Potatoes – Russet potatoes are the best choice for Baked Potato Salad. They bake up with a fluffy texture and lend that familiar baked potato flavor to the salad.
Cheese – Shredded cheddar cheese. - Bacon – Cooked and crumbled or chopped into bite-size pieces.
- Dressing – The salad dressing consists of sour cream, mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar (for a wonderful tang), a touch of yellow mustard, seasoned salt (like Lawry’s), and black pepper.
- Green onions – To garnish the salad.
How to Make Baked Potato Salad
This is a quick overview of how to make this recipe. You’ll find detailed instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
Bake and Peel the Potatoes
- Poke the potatoes all over with the tines of a fork and place them on a large baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F for about 50 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a sharp knife. Set aside to cool completely.
- When cool enough to handle, remove the skins by peeling them off with your hands.
Pro Tip
If the peels are very difficult to remove, try using a vegetable peeler. Don’t be concerned if some small bits of peel remain on the potatoes – they will just add flavor.
Assemble the Baked Potato Salad
- Chop the potatoes into ½-inch pieces and transfer them to a large mixing bowl.
- Add 1 cup shredded cheese and some green onion and stir to combine.
- Combine the dressing ingredients and pour it over the potato mixture. Fold together gently until completely combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.
- Just before serving, gently fold the crumbled bacon into the mixture and garnish it with a little more green onion.
Tips for the Best Baked Potato Salad
Starchy Potatoes: To achieve the best texture in your baked potato salad, choose starchy Russet potatoes. They become tender and fluffy when baked unlike waxier Yukon gold, white, or red potatoes.
Potato Salad Dressing: A key component to this recipe is the special dressing. Sour cream, a splash of apple cider vinegar and a little yellow mustard help to balance the richness of the potatoes and cheese and create a truly heavenly flavor combination.
Variations: While cheese, bacon, and green onions are classic additions, feel free to experiment with other ingredients like diced red onion or chives. You can also lighten up the dressing by using light sour cream or replacing the sour cream with nonfat plain Greek yogurt.
Chill: For the best results, refrigerate your baked potato salad for several hours before serving. This will allow the flavors to meld together and give the potatoes some time to absorb flavor from the dressing. Plus, the salad will be perfectly chilled and ready to serve for your gathering.
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Baked Potato Salad
Ingredients
For the Baked Potato Salad
- 3 pounds Russet potatoes, scrubbed and poked a few times with a fork
- 1 ¼ cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- ⅓ cup chopped green onions, plus additional for garnish
- 6 or 7 slices bacon, cooked and sliced or crumbled into bite-size pieces, divided
For the Dressing
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
- ¾ cup sour cream, regular or light
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
- 1 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt, or other all purpose seasoning mix
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and transfer to the oven. Bake the potatoes for 50 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a sharp knife. Remove from the oven and set aside until cool enough to handle.
- Remove the skins by peeling them off with your hands. If the skins are difficult to remove, use a vegetable peeler. Chop the potatoes into ½-inch pieces and transfer them to a large mixing bowl. Add 1 cup of shredded cheese and the green onions and stir to combine. Set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, vinegar, mustard, seasoned salt, and pepper. Pour the dressing over the potato mixture and fold together gently until completely combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 to 4 hours before serving.
- Just before serving, gently fold the crumbled bacon into the mixture (reserve a small amount for garnish). Transfer the potato salad to a serving bowl and garnish with the remaining cheese, bacon, and additional green onion, if desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated using generic ingredients, and is an estimate not a guarantee. For more accurate results, please refer to the labels on your ingredients at home.
This post was originally published on June 25, 2014. It has been updated with new text and images.
Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker
If I am going to double this recipe do I just double all the ingredients or is there some that you wouldn’t want to double like mayo or sour cream?
Hi Sara. If you’re planning to double the amount of potatoes, definitely double all the other ingredients as well or you won’t have enough dressing. I hope it works out well for you 🙂
delicious
This salad looks amazing Valerie! Hope you are doing well. I see you are going to BlogHer! I am going for the first time and am SO excited!
Hi Raquel! It will be my first BlogHer conference as well and I’m super excited too. We definitely need to meet up, okay? Lets be session buddies!
This looks sooo good Valerie! Your pictures are just gorgeous! Pinned 🙂
Thanks so much, Trish!
Wow, what an irresistible potato salad! My hubby would definitely dive right in…and so would I! Perfect for the 4th!
It`s like a traditional potato salad, but not really, because it looks better!! My parents don`t care much for potato salad, but my sisters and I do! Haha.
This looks incredible as usual, Valerie! I love cheesy potatoes. I’ve never added mayonnaise to mine but always open to different flavors, I’m sure it’s awesome!