Most cookout tables have a bowl of potato salad that nobody talks about. It gets eaten. It never gets asked about. The potatoes are soft, the mayo is sweet, and by the third forkful your mouth has quit paying attention.
The fix is sitting in the fruit bowl and costs about a dollar. Dice a firm apple into the salad and the whole thing wakes up: cold crunch against soft potato, a flash of sweetness cutting through all that mayonnaise. It sounds wrong right up until the first bite, which is why it keeps converting the people who said no at the cutting board.
The version I keep coming back to is a bacon-and-apple potato salad from Mary Pipkin of Melba, Idaho, who figured potatoes and apples both grow in her state, so they may as well share a bowl. Two cubed Golden Delicious, five strips of crumbled bacon, and a dressing built on mayonnaise, plain yogurt and cider vinegar. Full recipe is below. First, why this works at all.
Apples Do What Celery Does, Only Better
Celery is in almost every potato salad for one reason: crunch. The trouble is that celery goes limp and watery once it sits in a creamy dressing for a few hours, which is why day-two potato salad is always a little sadder than day-one. Apple has a similar texture and holds that crunch noticeably longer, so the last scoop out of the bowl still has some snap to it.
The sweetness matters just as much. Mayonnaise is rich and a little sour, and most potato salads pile vinegar or pickle juice on top of that. A touch of sweetness rounds the whole thing out, cuts the richness and tempers the acid, which is the same reason some cooks stir a spoonful of honey or maple syrup into the dressing. Diced apple does that job and brings texture along with it.
This Is Not a New Trick
In Puerto Rico, apples in potato salad are not a clever twist, they are the recipe. Ensalada de papa is one of the dishes that defines Thanksgiving there, every family makes it a little differently, and cubed apple is the ingredient that sets it apart from the Southern-style potato salad most Americans grew up on. The rest looks familiar: mayonnaise, red onion, a splash of vinegar, green onions, sometimes pimento peppers and hard boiled eggs.
German-American cooks have been going the sweet route for generations too, folding sugar and dried fruit into their potato salads. Raisins turn up in plenty of homemade versions, and the internet has never let that go. Apples get a friendlier reception.
The Bacon Version Worth Making First
Pipkin’s Idaho salad starts with six medium potatoes boiled whole until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. The dressing is 2/3 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 2 tablespoons cider vinegar, 2 teaspoons prepared mustard, a minced garlic clove and a teaspoon of salt, whisked together while the potatoes cook.
The potatoes get peeled while they are still warm and sliced straight into a big bowl with the crumbled bacon and a grated medium onion. Dressing goes over the top, everything gets a gentle toss, and the two cubed Golden Delicious apples are folded in last so they stay in one piece. Then it goes in the fridge for several hours.
Three things make it better than the sum of its parts. The yogurt lightens the mayonnaise so the salad does not sit in your stomach like wet cement. The onion is grated, not chopped, so it disappears into the dressing instead of ambushing you. And the cider vinegar echoes the apple, so the fruit flavor runs through the whole bowl and not just the chunks.
Which Apple to Buy
Golden Delicious is mild and easygoing, which is why it works in a salad with bacon and garlic. If you want more presence, Honeycrisp is the sweet, extremely crunchy pick, and Gala is the other reliable sweet option. Both are firm-fleshed enough to survive a bowl of dressing without turning to mush.
Granny Smith goes the other direction. It is tart rather than sweet, so it gives you the crunch without making the salad taste like dessert, and it plays well with any recipe that already leans on vinegar. Cooks who have tested both describe Gala as the sweeter choice and Granny Smith as the sour one, and neither is wrong.
One or two apples is plenty for a standard batch. Core them, peel if you like (the skin can stay on, especially with red-skinned varieties), and cut into half-inch chunks so they are big enough to crunch but small enough to get a piece in every bite. Potatoes are still the main event here. An overloaded bowl reads as fruit salad.
Keep the Apples From Turning Brown
Cut apple goes beige fast, and beige apple in a white salad looks like a mistake. Toss the pieces in apple cider vinegar the second they come off the knife. The acid slows the browning and the vinegar flavor belongs in the salad anyway, so nothing is wasted.
If your dressing already has vinegar in it, that does the same job. A vinegar-forward dressing keeps diced apple looking fresh once it is folded in, so the trick is simply not to let the fruit sit naked on the cutting board for twenty minutes while you deal with the potatoes. Cut the apple last.
The Potato Mistakes That Sink the Whole Bowl
Start with waxy potatoes. Red potatoes and Yukon Golds are lower in starch, they soak up less water while they boil, and they hold their shape when you stir. Starchy russets soak up water and crumble, which is how you end up with lumpy mashed potatoes pretending to be salad.
Boil them whole, or in large chunks, and keep the water at a gentle boil. A hard rolling boil knocks the potatoes against each other until the edges break off. Check for doneness with the tip of a sharp knife, and check more than once, because size and variety change the timing. Overcooking is the mistake that cannot be undone.
Drain them, then set the pan back over low heat for about a minute so the leftover water steams off. Dress them while they are still warm, since warm potatoes absorb dressing and cold ones just wear it. One catch, from Taste of Home’s recipe testers: hot potatoes can break down the eggs in a mayonnaise dressing and leave it greasy, so toss the hot potatoes with plain cider vinegar first, let them cool a bit, then add the creamy dressing.
Make It Ahead and Change It Up
This salad is better on day two. Give it at least 30 minutes in the fridge, overnight if you can swing it, so the dressing settles into the potatoes. You can even split the work: boil the potatoes one day, build the salad the next. Leftovers keep three to four days covered in the fridge, and summer heat shortens that, so taste before you serve.
Want it lighter? Swap part or all of the mayonnaise for Greek yogurt. One lean version dresses about 22 ounces of quartered baby reds or Yukon Golds with nothing more than 1 teaspoon Dijon, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar and a single tablespoon of reduced-fat mayonnaise, with a diced Gala, red onion, celery and chives doing the rest of the work.
For a sharper, pickle-heavy take, go with Granny Smith, diced gherkins or dill pickles, a third of a cup of apple cider vinegar and a generous handful of fresh dill folded through a mayonnaise dressing. The sour apple, the brine and the dill hit all at once, and it is the version most likely to convert someone who claims they do not like potato salad.
What to Put It Next To
Anything off a grill. Burgers, hot dogs, steak, grilled chicken thighs, pulled pork, chicken skewers. The apple does nice work against smoke and char, and it holds up next to ham, schnitzel or breaded fish just as well. It also travels, which is the whole point of a potluck side.
Do not file it away as a summer dish, either. Apples push potato salad into fall, and a little sweetness on a Thanksgiving table is not a stretch, it is tradition in plenty of households. Buy one apple. Dice it. You will not go back.
Bacon and Apple Potato Salad
Course: Side DishCuisine: American10
servings15
minutes20
minutes244
kcalThe potato salad with a secret crunch nobody at the table can place.
Ingredients
6 medium potatoes (red or Yukon Gold work best)
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons cider vinegar, plus a splash for the apples
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
1 garlic clove, minced, and 1 teaspoon salt
5 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 medium onion, grated
2 medium Golden Delicious apples, cubed
Directions
- Scrub the potatoes and place them whole in a large saucepan, then cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and cook until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Keep the water at a gentle boil so the potatoes do not knock against each other and break apart.
- While the potatoes cook, whisk the mayonnaise, yogurt, 2 tablespoons cider vinegar, mustard, minced garlic and salt together in a small bowl until smooth. Set it aside so the garlic has time to soften into the dressing.
- Cook the bacon until crisp and drain it on paper towels, then crumble. Grate the onion on the large holes of a box grater so it melts into the salad instead of showing up in raw chunks.
- Drain the potatoes and return the pan to low heat for about a minute so the extra water steams off. Peel them while they are still warm, holding each one in a towel, then slice into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the crumbled bacon and grated onion to the warm potatoes. Pour the dressing over the top and toss gently to coat every piece, since warm potatoes soak up dressing far better than cold ones.
- Core the apples and cut them into half-inch cubes, tossing the pieces with a splash of cider vinegar as you go so they stay pale. Fold them in last with a light hand so they keep their shape and crunch.
- Taste and add salt and black pepper as needed. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for several hours, or overnight, so the dressing settles into the potatoes and the flavors come together.
- Stir well before serving and loosen the salad with a spoonful of mayonnaise or yogurt if it has tightened up in the fridge. Top with a little extra crumbled bacon and serve cold alongside anything off the grill.
Notes
- Golden Delicious is mild and blends in. Gala and Honeycrisp bring more sweetness and crunch, and Granny Smith is the tart pick if you do not want sugar in your potato salad.
- Toss the diced apple with cider vinegar the moment it comes off the knife so it does not brown before it hits the bowl.
- This is a make-ahead salad. Boil the potatoes a day early if it helps, and keep leftovers covered in the fridge for three to four days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do I have to peel the apples?
A: No. Peeling gives you a smoother, more uniform salad, and plenty of recipes call for peeled, cored, diced apple. Leaving the peel on works too and adds color, especially with red-skinned varieties. Either way, cut the pieces into half-inch chunks.
Q: Which apple holds up best in a creamy dressing?
A: Firm-fleshed ones. Gala and Honeycrisp are the sweet, crunchy picks and stay crisp in the bowl, while Granny Smith gives you tartness instead of sugar and works well if your dressing already has vinegar in it. Soft, mealy apples turn to mush.
Q: Can I make this the day before a cookout?
A: Yes, and it tastes better that way. Chill it at least 30 minutes, though several hours or overnight is better. You can also boil the potatoes one day and assemble the salad the next if that splits the work up more easily.
Q: What keeps potato salad from going watery?
A: Use waxy potatoes like red or Yukon Gold instead of starchy russets, boil them whole or in large chunks just until tender, and drain them. Setting the drained pan back over low heat for a minute lets the leftover moisture steam off before you dress them.
