The Potato Salad For Salt And Vinegar Chip Fanatics

Potato salad is already a comforting classic, but what if you could combine everything that's great about it with the flavors of another potato favorite, salt and vinegar chips? Potato salad comes in a huge variety of styles, from your mayo-based American staples to the bacon-fat laced German favorite, so you know it's a great canvas for getting creative. And, of course, there are already some great vinegar-based jumping off points, like French potato salad, that make the idea of turning one of the best chip flavors into a just-as-satisfying salad much less of a stretch. In fact, making a cool, tender bowl of potato salad that can scratch your salt and vinegar itch is all about keeping things simple.

Most potato salads based around vinegar still include extra flavorings like mustard or garlic to create a vinaigrette-like sauce that flavors the potatoes. For a salt-and-vinegar inspired salad, you want to cut the core of your recipe down to three basics and leave it at that. The first two are obviously your salt and vinegar, with white wine vinegar or apple cider being good choices to bring that bright tang and a little flavor of their own. The only other core ingredient is olive oil. Instead of being emulsified with the vinegar to create a sauce, it's tossed with the potatoes at the end, bringing the fat that's essential to fully capture that potato chip taste.

To make salt and vinegar potato salad, boil some cubed or sliced potatoes until tender, usually about 15 to 20 minutes. Then, after draining, toss them with a mixture of vinegar and salt when they are still warm; this helps the potatoes fully absorb the flavor. About two tablespoons of vinegar per pound of potatoes is a good starting point. After that it's just a matter of tossing your potatoes with a generous pour of flavorful olive oil, and adding some extra salt to taste if you need to. It may not sound like much, but potato salad doesn't need much to be delicious. You can store it for days in the fridge and eat it cold, but like other vinegar-based potato salads, this one is best eaten warm.

If you want to mix it up a bit more, stick to chopping up a few toppings to add at the end with the oil as a complement to the salt and vinegar base. Pickles or red onions offer some nice crunch, and they both fit into the tangy flavor without distracting from it. Classic potato salad herbs like dill or parsley are also nice, as they can add some depth but don't change the fundamental nature of the dish. Of course, you could always go all-in and mix in some crumbled salt and vinegar chips, for a double dose of the flavor you crave.