Forget Extra Ingredients: The Creamiest Potato Salad Requires Just One Extra Step

Just when you think you've tried every extra spicy, botanical-packed, or particularly herbaceous potato salad adaptation, something new-to-you can unlock untold levels of spud success. And one particularly creamy preparation does not require any extra seasonings, veggies, or other mix-ins at all. Mashing your potato salad, even just a little bit, breaks down the vegetable to create additional molecular surface area for fats like mayo to cling and create a more yielding texture than you'd get with larger pieces alone. This is not to mention the fact that a smashed potato portion will be softer than a chunk to begin with.

The first mashed potato salad I ever had was at Hometown Barbecue in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The nearly whip-smooth tubers were kind of a surprise on the first bite, then practically impossible to stop tasting. Absent any true potato cubes or slices, this was on the extreme end of the potato salad softness spectrum, but with just enough rough disruption in the consistency to keep the side from seeming like just cold mashed potatoes. And you can mash your own potato salad to fall anywhere you'd like on that same spectrum, from somewhat crushed all the way to a nearly hand mixer finish, with a creaminess that increases accordingly as you go. Just don't go too far. Potatoes famously hate overmixing, so be sure to sample along the way and quit before they become gluey. You can even more or less follow your existing favorite potato salad recipe to achieve this easy twist.

You may want to hew close to what you're already familiar with on your first creamy mashed potato effort. And that most likely means a little light smashing, rather than than the ricer treatment. The Yukon Golds that make for the best standard potato salad base also work terrifically here. You'll cube and then boil them for around 15 minutes until a fork sinks in without resistance, as usual. But then you'll crush those cubes down to your desired consistency with the back of a big fork or even a good, old-fashioned potato masher. Crumbly bits amid larger, more potato-salad identified pieces will create a happy, creamy medium between what you're used to and something new.

Once you've got a nice, jagged bowl full, you can stir the potatoes in with your preferred mayo, salt, pepper, and other seasonings. Bacon is, of course, always a great addition, and it makes the whole dish even more decadent in light of the added creaminess that the smashing brought about. You can also serve your smashed, bashed, or mashed potato salad at room temperature or even warm, to make sure they don't come across like a Thanksgiving side that's been left on the buffet for too long.