This Ultimate Loaded Baked Potato Salad is the best potato salad ever. It’s made with all your favorite baked potato toppings: sour cream, cheddar cheese, green onions, and BACON. This one will steal the picnic!
It’s grilling season and I can sure tell because my Best Homemade BBQ Sauce recipe is going crazy. I figured that if y’all are grilling up a storm, you need something to serve alongside it. Enter the BEST potato salad EVER.
Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
What Makes This Potato Salad So Good?
What makes it so amazing? It’s based on the flavors of a loaded baked potato. So you’ve got cheddar cheese, green onions, and bacon. So good, right?
I think what makes it the best though is that the dressing isn’t made with as much mayonnaise as most potato salads. Instead, it’s half mayo and half sour cream (you can totally use Greek yogurt to make it healthier). The sour cream gives it a light, fresh flavor and adds a different kind of creaminess than mayonnaise does. I like it so much that I’m going to try making some of my other favorite potato salad recipes with half sour cream.
You’re hungry now right?
If you want a more classic potato salad, try my Easy Creamiest Potato Salad recipe which keeps things simple and to the basics.
How To Make Loaded Potato Salad
Now, while the flavors are based on a loaded baked potato, we aren’t going to be baking the potatoes for this dish. Like with other potato salad recipes, we’ll boil the potatoes until tender. Rinse them with cool water and let them cool down before mixing with the other ingredients. I like to use red potatoes for this recipe, because they have a firm waxy texture that holds up well with all the other ingredients we’re adding. If you prefer the creamier russet potatoes, you can use those.
To make the dressing, combine green onions, chopped bacon, some salt and black pepper, sour cream, and mayonnaise. Add the cooled potatoes to the bowl of dressing mixture and stir gently to combine.
Cover and chill in the fridge. Once cooled, add the Cheddar cheese and stir. Serve chilled alongside all your summer cookout favorites.
My Best Potato Salad Tip
One more thing before I share the recipe. I have a crucial tip. An important tip. You might even call it a crucially important tip.
My Crucially Important Potato Salad Tip: If you make potato salad ahead of time (a day or several hours before), you need to add more dressing before serving.
You see, potatoes love to suck up liquid. If you make a creamy potato salad and then stick it in the fridge for a while, the potatoes keep absorbing the dressing. When you take it out of the fridge, it might look creamy because the fat has remained on the outside of the salad. But much of the moisture of the dressing is now inside of the potatoes.
What you need to do is taste it. If it’s not as creamy as you remembered from a few hours ago, add more dressing. In this case, you’ll be adding equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream. Start with two tablespoons of each. Stir gently and taste again. When the creaminess is how you like it, start scooping!
More Side Dish Recipes
Need more delicious side dish ideas for your next barbeque or gathering? Try these!
Podcast Episode On Making Baked Potato Salad
Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this potato salad, with some great tips along the way, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
PrintThe Ultimate Loaded Baked Potato Salad Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
This Ultimate Loaded Baked Potato Salad is the best potato salad ever. It’s made with all your favorite baked potato toppings: sour cream, cheddar cheese, green onions, and BACON. This one will steal the picnic!
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 lbs. red potatoes, in 1/2 inch cubes
- Salt
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 6 slices cooked bacon, chopped
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
- 1 cup sour cream (possibly more before serving)
- 1 cup mayonnaise (possibly more before serving)
- 1 and 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Put the potatoes in a large pot and add 1 tablespoon of salt and just enough water to cover them.
- Put the pot over high heat until it reaches a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook stirring occasionally until fork tender, 7-9 minutes.
- Drain and rinse. Cover with cold water, stir and drain a few times to get them to cool down.
- While the potatoes are cooking, in a large bowl combine the green onions, bacon, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, the black pepper, sour cream, and mayonnaise.
- Add the potatoes to the bowl and stir gently to combine.
- Cover and chill. Once cooled, add the cheddar cheese and stir. Cover and cool until time to serve.
- Before serving, stir and then taste. It is possible that the potatoes will have soaked up some of the dressing and that it is now less creamy and moist than it was before. If this has happened, add an additional 2 tablespoons each of sour cream and mayonnaise. Stir and taste. Repeat if needed.
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This post originally appeared in August 2015 and was revised and republished in May 2024.