hello this is chef john from food wishes
comma with grilled German potato salad
that's right we're gonna make a potato
salad using grilled potatoes which I'm
sure comes as a huge disappointment to
the people that thought we were gonna
make a German potato salad and then
grill it
which is not the case you only make that
mistake once but anyway if you're still
watching this really did come out
amazingly well and to get this started
what we'll do is grill some potatoes
until tender and I say grill but what
we're really gonna do is roast these on
the grill and to accomplish that what
we'll do once these are down is go ahead
and close the cover and we'll try to
keep our heat about the same as we've
used in the oven if we were roasting
these I'm thinking something around 375
would be perfect and what we should
probably do every once in a while while
these are roasting is go ahead and give
them a flip and by the way as far as
timing goes I'm doing this on a grill I
cooked chicken on earlier and I'm
basically using up those leftover coals
and then we could either serve this
later with another meal or make it ahead
for the next day but let's say you're
doing something like a brisket or a pork
shoulder that takes a long time you
could actually do these potatoes while
that's cooking and make this to go
alongside it but regardless we will go
ahead and roast these until just tender
which is almost impossible to gauge by
time since potatoes are gonna come in
all different shapes and sizes so what
we'll do to check these is test them
with a wooden skewer and what we're
shooting for like I said is something
that's just barely tender okay we don't
want soft and falling apart but we
really really really don't want
undercooked
all right there's literally nothing
worse than a potato salad with
undercooked potatoes so suzy's are just
barely tender as tested with us here
we'll go ahead and pull those off and
then we will bring those inside and let
them sit until they're cool enough to
handle
and by handle I mean eventually we will
peel them and slice them and while those
are cooling we should have just enough
time to make our hot bacon dressing
which we will start by adding a whole
bunch of sliced bacon to this cold dry
pan and we will set that over medium
heat and we're gonna want to cook that
bacon until crisp or very close to it
and by the way there's good founds
there's great funds and then there's
bacon funds so if you're using a
stainless steel pan you should notice a
very substantial buildup of that
caramelized goodness on the bottom which
once the glaze is going to add
ton of flavor to our dressing but anyway
we'll go ahead and continue to cook on
medium and one great visual clue you're
getting close is that grease in the pan
starts to appear a little bit foamy
alright so when your pan starts to look
like this
your bacon is probably getting very
close to the perfect crispness and if so
what we'll do is grab a slotted spoon
and we will remove exactly half and as
you'll see we'll use that to top our
salad later but in the meantime what
we'll do is add a diced onion to the
bacon left in the pan along with of
course all that rendered bacon fat and
what we'll do is continue to cook this
on medium until our onions turn
translucent and sort of soften up a
little bit since that's probably gonna
take about five minutes or so what we
can do while that's happening is go
ahead and peel and slice our potatoes
which by now should be cool enough to
handle and I should mention the peelings
optional but that skin really does come
off quite easily especially after you've
grilled them so I'm gonna go ahead and
peel that off and then cut this potato
in half lengthwise and then eventually
into quarters and then as per usual
we'll turn that and cut across into
whatever thickness slices we want and
I'll generally shoot for something
between a quarter and a half inch okay
if they're too thin they're gonna turn
into mashed potatoes when we mix them
with the dressing and if they're too
thick the dressing won't penetrate as
well but anyway that's going to be up to
you I mean you guys are after all the
Donnie deutsches of these kinds of
choices but what you're seeing here is
what I think personally is the optimum
size and that's it we'll transfer those
potatoes to a mixing bowl where they are
now ready to be drenched with our
soon-to-be finished dressing so we'll
head back to the stove or by now our
onions should be done and once we've
determined our onions have cooked long
enough we'll go ahead and add the rest
of the ingredients which will include
some white sugar or as I've started to
call it the devil salt and then we're
also going to need some actual salt and
it's good friend freshly ground black
pepper and we'll finish up our
seasonings with a little bit of cayenne
pepper or cayenne Pfeffer as they call
it back in the old country and then to
finish this up we will go ahead and add
enough white vinegar specifically in my
case champagne vinegar to perfectly
balance the bacon fat in the pan and how
much vinegar you need exactly depends of
course on how much bacon fat you have in
the pan but for the half pound of bacon
I'm using I find about a half cup is
perf
and what we'll do is stir that in and of
course that's going to deglaze whatever
goodness is left on the bottom and at
this point we can go ahead and raise our
heat to medium-high and then all we're
gonna have to do to finish this dressing
is simply wait for it to come to a boil
and that's it as soon as it starts
bubbling we'll give it a stir and turn
off the heat and our hot bacon dressing
is now officially ready to use and yes
you can absolutely make this ahead of
time and reheat it but I want a grilled
German potato salad now so let's go
ahead and pour that over our potatoes
and then we'll go ahead and give that a
toss to combine and what I like to do
after give me at this first initial
tossing his let it sit for five minutes
and give it one more mixing at which
point we can add the final ingredient
some freshly chopped Italian parsley and
by giving it a couple mixings and
letting it sit for a little bit before
we add this I think our parsley might
stay a little greener but anyway we will
mix in our fresh parsley and that's it
other than giving this a taste for salt
I think we're done so I went ahead and
took a little taste and I'm happy to
report it was perfect which means we can
go ahead and serve this up and do
something a little more presentable and
we'll go ahead and garnish the top a
little extra parsley as well as of
course I reserved crispy bacon and then
for no apparent reason a little extra
parsley and that's it what I'm calling
grilled German potato salads done and
ready to enjoy hopefully while still
warm and why the it's kind of a big deal
is because cold bacon fat will coach
your palate and it will not taste as
good which by the way zweite works so
well for summer cookouts since I'm like
most other potato salads this actually
gets better sitting in the Sun and then
as far as the taste goes we have a
beautiful balance between sweet and
tangy which may not sound like it works
incredibly well with potatoes but when
you include all that beautiful smoky
bacon it really does work beautifully
but really takes us up to the next level
is that subtle smokiness from the
potatoes so I really did thoroughly
enjoy this although I did decide I
probably should stop eating out of the
bowl and I plated some up Nexis and
burnt chicken so I could take a few more
bites and by the way that wasn't really
burnt
that was from a koji rub chicken
experiment I mentioned on Twitter a
while back that as you can see I'm still
perfecting but anyway that's it grilled
German potato
whether you're one of these people that
just doesn't like mayonnaise or maybe
you need a potato salad that can sit on
a sunny picnic table for like four hours
without making anyone sick or neither of
those things and you're just looking for
an intensely delicious potato salad I
really do hope you give this a try soon
so head over to food wishes dot-com for
all the ingredient amounts of more info
as usual and as always enjoy
you
