For Potato Salad Packed With Flavor, Add A Splash Of This Spicy Liquid Most People Throw Away

While there are tons of tasty takes on potato salad from around the world, once high picnic season hits, it can seem like once you've seen one mayo-laden starchy vegetable combo, you've seen them all. But there's a particularly bright twist on the dish that breaks from the everyday and blends in seamlessly: A bit of the pickled jalapeño brine that you might otherwise toss out with a finished jar is just the thing to give your potato salad some extra zing.

Your standard basic potato salad recipe is generally pretty mild. Its seasonings might even be limited to table salt and black pepper, on the extremely plain end. But that paucity of flavors means that there's more room for moreish additions like jalapeño brine. If the mere mention of the spicy peppers starts to make your eyes water, or you plan to dine with the highly heat-averse, worry not. For one, today's jalapeños are probably not as spicy as you remember, thanks to selective breeding for market homogeneity. Sure, some of the fire that they have retained will seep into the brine. But you're only adding enough to introduce a perky kick without diluting the whole side dish down to a gloopy mess. The way you add it also matters for the most successful upgrade to you spud salad.

Your greatest challenge when incorporating additional liquid to a recipe that doesn't already account for it is the risk of texture-ruining dilution. You can shake almost as much extra paprika or cayenne pepper onto your potato salad as you want without affecting its consistency, for example, but something like jalapeño brine is another story. Stir it in with your mayo first thing to see how thin of a dressing you're ultimately willing to work with while still imparting enough jalapeño flavor for it to be worth it.

About 2 or 3 tablespoons of the brine should incorporate wonderfully with the mayo while still leaving it with enough cling to properly coat the salad's titular spuds. Mixing it mightily enough with the mayo to combine is really all you need to do aside from following your usual favorite potato salad steps. There is also one more obvious, not-so-secret ingredient that makes sense here, too: the actual pickled jalapeños. Chop up a handful of those before the jar actually runs out next time for some more substantial heat and even more texture.