How to Make the Best-Ever Potato Salad, According to Chef Jacques Pépin
No offense to burgers and ribs, but summer is all about the sides. It's the season of smoky grilled corn, tangy tomato salad, cooling coleslaw and maybe our all-time favorite, potato salad.
And when it comes to making potato salad there are many different styles. There's mayo vs. vinegar, peeling vs. skin-on, and the mix-in discussion can go on and on and on. Do you want pickles? Celery? Scallions? Are you team hard-boiled egg? We like a range of potato salads. What we want at the moment often depends on our mood and what we're eating with the spud-centric dish.
But you know what we always want? We always want to know how chef Jacques Pépin prepares a dish. And when we recently ran across a video of him demonstrating how to make his warm (plot twist!) potato salad we sat up and took notice. Here's what you need to know to make potato salad like the legendary French chef.
Related: How to Make the Best-Ever Baked Salmon, According to Chef Jacques Pépin
How to Make Jacques Pépin's Potato Salad
Like so many of his recipe, Pépin's potato salad is simple, but it's the little details that make all the difference.
? Pick your potatoes. Pépin starts by boiling his potatoes. In the video, he calls for 1 pound of potatoes, which is three medium-sized potatoes. Judging by what you can see in the video, they're fairly thin-skinned potatoes. He says to cover them with water and add some salt, then boil them until really tender.
? Rest your spuds. After the potatoes are cooked, Pépin drains them and leaves them in the pot while he works on the dressing. This gives them time to cool a bit (but not too much) and dry out a tad.
? Dress up your dressing. When it comes to potato salad, Pépin isn't a mayo guy or a vinegar guy, he's both. He likes to make what he calls "mayo-grette," basically a vinaigrette that includes mayo. To make a medium-sized batch, he puts 2 tablespoons of mayo and mustard in a bowl. To thin it, he adds water, but in the video he adds the water to the almost-empty mustard jar and shakes it around to get out every last drop. He then adds salt, pepper and 1/4 cup of good olive oil. He shakes up the mixture until it's smooth and creamy, then goes back to his potatoes.
? Skip the peeler. Because Pépin cooked the potatoes with the skins on, you don't need to use a vegetable peeler. The skins will come right off with some gentle encouragement with a sharp paring knife.
? Keep things chunky. Pépin likes his potato salad on the chunky side and reminds cooks that the pieces will break down a bit when you stir the potatoes with the dressing. To make sure you end up with big enough pieces, he likes to cut the potatoes into 1 to 1 1/2 inch chunks.
? Gussy it up. Once the potatoes are cut, you add about half of the mayo-grette, along with some chopped scallions and parsley. Pépin says that you can also use cilantro, tarragon or basil if you prefer.
? Serve it warm. If you take only one tip away from this recipe, this is it. Pépin likes to serve his potato salad lukewarm. "It tastes much better than cold potato salad," he says. The slightly warm potatoes have a silkier texture than cold ones and none of the flavors are muted by the chill of the fridge. When we say that we learn something new every time we watch a Jacques Pépin video, we mean it. Thank you, chef!
Up next: How to Make the Perfect Classic Quiche, According to Legendary Chef Jacques Pépin (and His Mom)
