Extraordinary Smoked German Potato Salad

Smoked German Potato Salad Recipe

I. Heart. German Potato Salad.  This is my mom’s recipe.  Kind of.  She doesn’t write anything down.  There are many reasons why I don’t make it often though.  The time it takes, the bacon fat…but it can’t hurt you if you do it ONCE every 6 months, right?  I say right.  Anyway, I’ve taken her recipe (that lives in her head and not on paper), and doctored it up to EXTRAORDINARY smoked German potato salad!

Instead of baking the potatoes beforehand (BORING!), I thought, what if we spiced it up and SMOKED the potatoes beforehand?  That would make things interesting.

So for a full casserole dish of German Potato Yumminess, here’s what I do:

To smoke the potatoes:  Think of the smoker as an oven.  It should take about an hour or so to cook the whole potato.  Poke several holes in each potato with a fork and set them on the grill – indirect heating set up.  (If you feel like getting really crazy, wrap each potato in bacon.) When the potato feels soft, just like you were cooking in the oven, it’s done.  Take it off the grill and let it cool. If you tried to do anything with it at this point, you’d burn yourself.  You can actually do this step a day before you want to make the potato salad.

Cook the bacon in a pan on the stove.  (I actually feel the need to specify this because of the random times we throw things on the grill).  Make sure it’s crunchy, but not overdone. KEEP the grease.

Now cook the onions in the grease.  What you are smelling right now is one of the top 3 smells ever, in my opinion.  Onions in bacon…..Come on.  Anyway, let the onions cook until you can’t deal with how good it smells – and until they are transparent.

Onions cooking in bacon grease

Add 2 tablespoons of flour to onion mixture. Then add the sugar, salt, celery seed and pepper until it’s bubbly.  Slowly add in the vinegar.  I’d say 1/3 cup is a good tartness.  But, if you like your Potato Salad tart, keep adding vinegar. Let the mixture boil for a minute, stirring it constantly, getting really excited, then turn it off.  Time to deal with the potatoes.

Now that the potatoes have cooled, take off the skin and slice them into about 1/2 inch round slices.  Some may fall apart a little bit, and that’s ok – just put those on the bottom. It’s all going to the same place anyway, right?

Lay 1 layer down in your 9 x 13 casserole dish. Pour on some of that yummy sauce, just enough to cover potatoes..  Then layer some more potatoes.  Keep going until you’re out of potatoes.

 Finished German Potato Salad Then, crumble the bacon on top of the whole thing…unless your husband or hungry son stole a piece…just crumble whatever is left, how about that?  I prefer my German Potato salad either room temperature or slightly warm, so I tend to do this right before serving. Enjoy!  Now I’m really craving some potato salad…..

Smoked German Potato Salad

Smoked German Potato Salad

Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Course Salad
Cuisine German

Ingredients
  

  • 6 potatoes smoked for 1 -2 hours
  • 1 large onion diced or 3/4 cup
  • 6 slices of bacon
  • 2 T flour
  • 1-2 T sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp celery seed
  • dash of pepper
  • 2/4 cup of water
  • 1/2 cup of white vinegar

Instructions
 

  • To smoke the potatoes: Think of the smoker as an oven. It should take about an hour or so to cook the whole potato. Poke several holes in each potato with a fork and set them on the grill – indirect heating set up. Once it's cooked, take it off the grill and let it cool.
  • Cook the bacon in a pan on the stove. Make sure it’s crunchy, but not overdone. KEEP the grease.
  • Cook the onions in the grease until they are transparent. Add 2 tablespoons of flour. Then add the sugar, salt, celery seed and pepper until it’s bubbly.
  • Slowly add in the vinegar. I’d say 1/3 cup is a good tartness. But, if you like your Potato Salad tart, keep adding vinegar. Let the mixture boil for a minute, stirring it constantly,then turn it off. Now that the potatoes have cooled, take off the skin and slice them into about 1/2 inch round slices. Some may fall apart a little bit, and that’s ok – just put those on the bottom.
  • Lay 1 layer down in your 9 x 13 casserole dish. Pour on some of the sauce, just enough to cover potatoes. Then layer some more potatoes. Keep going until you’re out of potatoes.
  • Crumble the bacon on top of the whole thing. I prefer my German Potato salad either room temperature or slightly warm, so I tend to do this right before serving.
Keyword Smoked German Potato Salad

One thought on “Extraordinary Smoked German Potato Salad

  1. This sounds like the potato salad my German Grandmother used to make and she couldn’t give me the recipe for hers were all in her head too. I can’t wait to make it. Thank you for bringing it back into my life.

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