Potato salad gets the buffalo treatment, just in time for Fourth of July picnics.
Chicken wings are wonderful, but Buffalo Chicken Wings are on another level — and that’s thanks to the sauce. Defined by blue cheese, celery and hot sauce, Buffalo sauce could glorify any number of dishes. Looking ahead to the Fourth of July and its picnics, I wondered what would happen if I Buffalo’d some potato salad.
There are two main kinds of potatoes: baking and boiling. Baking potatoes (aka russets, the most famous of which is the Idaho) are higher in starch than boiling potatoes and fluffier in texture, falling apart when cooked. Excellent sponges for such flavorful ingredients as cream and butter, baking potatoes are your go-to choice when the ultimate plan is to mash them. Boiling potatoes, by contrast, hold their shape when cooked. They’re sweeter than baking potatoes and boast a more assertive potato taste.
The best potato for a potato salad? Boiling potatoes are the usual choice. You want a salad with texture and integrity, not a mealy mess. But for this recipe, you also want the russet’s ability to absorb flavor. So I opted for both. As predicted, the baking potatoes fell apart and generously absorbed the blue cheese and hot sauce. Unpredictably, but happily, they also helped make the salad’s texture extra creamy. The boiling potatoes likewise did their part, acting as bricks to the baking potatoes’ mortar.
To “pre-season” the potatoes, toss them with vinegar and salt while they’re still hot, just after you’ve boiled them but before adding the dressing. Fifteen minutes later, the potatoes will have fully absorbed the preseasonings — and become that much more flavorful — and you’re then free to slather them in the mayo and sour cream.
Potatoes, like pasta, not only absorb liquid, they keep absorbing it until there’s none left. That means the potato salad that was so nice and creamy when you first dressed it may have dried out 15 minutes later. If that happens, just stir in a little cold water and the silkiness will return.
As is, this recipe may strike some folks as overly rich. If you want to slim it down, swap in light mayonnaise for the regular kind and Greek yogurt for the sour cream. The flavor will still be plenty large, and you likely won’t miss the extra calories.