Favorite Summertime "Savory Bacon & Carmalized Onion Red Skin Potato Salad"

This is the dish most requested by my family when we attend pot luck church dinners or family gatherings!!

My hubby always asks that I make double so we have plenty of left overs & that night I usually find my him elbow deep into the bowl  

after midnight munching away, LOL!!

For some reason I have NO pics of my recipe, this pic looks close to mine from myhappymeals.blogspot.com

  If I am making 

this for supper we typically will:

• Throw some Italian dressing marinaded chicken breasts on the grill 
• Or cook a pork/beef roast in the crock pot with some barb-b-q sauce and make pulled pork/beef sandwiches 
• Along with a spinach salad 

 

And it makes a tasty summer meal  

that even the kids will eat!

 

Favorite Summertime Potato Salad

• 2 lbs  red skin baby potatoes, cut into 1" cubes
• 6 hard boiled eggs, coarsely chopped-(saving 1 or 2 egg sliced horizontally in 4 slices for garnish.)
• 1/2-2/3 C mayonnaise (Homemade is best -just NOT imitation salad dressing type!)
• 4 slices bacon, cooked crisp & crumbled
• 1-small red onion, finely diced (Or if you can find it affordablely 2-3 red shallots!)
• 2 T flour
• 2 T distilled white vinegar
• 2-t Dijon mustard
• 1/2 T-Mustard powder
• Kosher salt & Coarse ground Black Pepper, to taste
• Smoked Parika & Fresh chopped Parsely, optional garnish

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1. Cook baby red skin potatoes whole in boiling well salted water. 
2. While potatoes are cooking,  crisp bacon in skillet, remove bacon and leave the drippings, & saute the finely diced red onion in drippings.
3. Once the onions are softened, fragrant, caramelized, sweet tasting and golden brown-remove and add distilled vinegar to de-glaze the pan.
4. Add flour & mustard powder to vinegar-drippings over medium heat and cook slightly to remove the flour taste, stirring with wooden spoon. 
5. Turn off heat, add bacon and onions back to pan stir to combine, and attend to potatoes
6. Potatoes should be well cooked, as soft as they are when you make mashed potatoes (about 20-25min), undercooked potatoes just kill the the experience!
7. Drain potatoes and cool slightly to handle & cut into 1/2" cubes and season w/kosher salt and pepper while while still very warm
8. Add potatoes to the warm bacon drippings/vinegar mixture folding gently to avoid over crumbling potatoes.
9. Mix together Mayonnaise, eggs, & mustard in a medium bowl-season with salt and pepper to taste.
10. Fold mayonnaise mixture into potato mixture gently into skillet, taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
11. Spoon Potato Salad into a large pretty serving bowl and arrange egg slices on top-sprinkle with smoked paprika and finish with fresh flat leaf parsley to garnish.

 

Can serve warm, immediately.....but we truly love it better cold. 

 

Cool completely & place lid or wrap tightly in plastic cling wrap. 

 

Allow at least 12 hours in the refrigerator for flavors to mingle before serving.

Tips and Hints:

• Ensuring the potatoes are warm and not cold when mixed into the vinegar/bacon drippings really adds depth of flavor because the warm potatoes have no flavor besides the salt you added to the boiling water and really need to soak up the vinegar-bacon mixture making them very tangy and flavorful. For added tang add more vinegar and Dijon Mustard.
• Using REAL mayonnaise really makes this dish, I have had decent results with olive oil mayonnaise, but honestly this is not a "diet" dish, just make it as is and only have a small portion if you are on a restricted diet.
• Cooking the onions in the bacon drippings really adds another layer of flavor, making the onions a tad sweet~ if you are missing that "crunch", do what you must- add more crisp bacon crumbles as garnish (Just don't add more to the drippings!! more below) or add almond slivers to the garnish perhaps? But try the onions cooked first, it really makes this delicious, then tinker with the recipe to make it yours... Whatever you do DON"T add celery- because that would be gross!
• Make sure potatoes are cooked soft, undercooked potatoes really spoil the dish and change the flavor tremendously.
• I like the smaller cut potatoes, I can't stand biting into a big chunk, I like to taste all the ingredients in one bite.
• Use REAL pork bacon, again this is not a diet a dish, u really need all 4 pieces and 5 is overkill and will make a greasy salad.

Thanks for stopping by... Linked to click here & Potluck Weekend,  :-)