About This Recipe
I love experimenting with tried-and-true recipes to come up with new ideas. That flash of excitement when a new idea works is so wonderful. This recipe for Creamy Chicken Potato Salad is an example of a great experiment.
My Mother’s Potato Salad is one I have been eating all of my life. It is simply the perfect potato salad: creamy, with a jolt of mustard, perfectly cooked potatoes, hard cooked eggs, and radishes. The dressing is the secret. It’s made of mayonnaise, milk, mustard, and the perfect addition: Miracle Whip. There’s something about that sweet and tart, creamy white dressing that adds the perfect flavor touch to this salad.
So, of course, I never thought about changing it a bit. That is, until I got the idea to make a main dish potato salad with chunks of tender chicken in it. And I thought I would use this penultimate potato salad recipe as the base. Complete success!
You must make this salad dressing just as written. Don’t try to add anything, and for heaven’s sake, don’t subtract anything either! Once you have made it once you can try to fiddle with it, but try the pure version first.
Tips for the best Creamy Chicken Potato Salad:
- Make more dressing. Both the chicken and potatoes will absorb it and you will need more.
- The only way to tell whether potatoes are cooked properly is to stick a fork in them. Maybe that’s where the saying came from? The fork should enter easily with little resistance.
- Don’t let the potatoes cool too long before you peel and cube them. Add them immediately to the dressing so they absorb the flavors.
Why this recipe works:
- If the chicken is perfectly cooked the texture should be just about the same as the potatoes, creating a super creamy and velvety salad.
- The dressing has more liquid than most potato salad recipes, which are usually just plain mayonnaise. Because it has more liquid, the potatoes and chicken can absorb the dressing, making the salad ingredients more flavorful.
- Honestly, a rotisserie chicken fresh from the supermarket is your best bet for the most tender chicken. Remove the meat when it’s still warm and cube it, then immediately add to the dressing so the chicken stays moist.
Steps
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1
Done
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Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the potatoes. Bring it back to the boil, reduce the heat, and simmer the potatoes for 12 to 18 minutes until tender. The potatoes, being different sizes, will cook at different times. Start testing the smaller potatoes at 12 minutes. A fork should easily slip into the potato with very little resistance. |
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2
Done
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As the potatoes are cooked, remove them to a wire rack. When you start removing the potatoes, you’ll have to keep at it until they are all done. |
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3
Done
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In that 12 minute time period before you start testing the potatoes, make the dressing. Combine the mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, milk, and mustard in a large bowl and blend well with a wire whisk. The dressing should not be thick, but it shouldn’t be runny either. It should be about the consistency of pancake batter. |
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4
Done
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When all of the potatoes are cooked and on the cooling rack, let them cool until you can handle them. The potatoes should still be very warm. You’ll notice that as the potatoes cooked, the skin started to peel off of them. Now you will finish that process. |
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5
Done
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Using a sharp knife, carefully pull the skins off of all of the potatoes. As you finish each potato, cube it and add to the dressing; stir the potato in gently. Adding the potatoes to the dressing while they are still warm will let the potatoes absorb the flavors from the dressing and is one of the keys to this salad. |
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6
Done
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When all of the potatoes are peeled, cubed, and added to the dressing, stir gently again to coat. Then add the chicken, bell peppers, celery, and peas and stir again. Put the hard cooked eggs on top of the salad. Cover the salad with foil and refrigerate for 2 to 6 hours or until cold. |
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7
Done
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To serve, stir the salad gently and dig in. You can add a bit more milk to make the salad at this point to make it creamier if you’d like. |
