The Spicy Upgrade Your Potato Salad Needs Is A Mexican Staple

Cue the sad violins: We've all seen that dejected tub of potato salad languishing on the potluck table. Blandly beige or vaguely yellow with nary a hint of crunch, herb, spice, or personality, it's no wonder potato salad never gets asked to dance. But this side dish doesn't have to be boring, especially not when you take advantage of this pantry-friendly Mexican ingredient.

There are lots of reasons why you should keep a can of chipotles in adobo sauce in your pantry, spicing up one-note potato salad being chief among them. Of course, this ingredient brings pleasant heat, but the starchy potatoes and creamy mayonnaise balance it out, allowing the subtle fruity sweetness, deep smokiness, and tangy qualities to come through, too.

Chipotles are smoked and dried jalapeño peppers, and the adobo sauce is the liquid that they are rehydrated and canned in — it's typically made with a combination of tomatoes, vinegar, garlic, and seasonings. The small cans (usually around 7 ounces) will contain up to about eight chile peppers. The chiles themselves hold most of the heat — chop up one or two per pound of potatoes, and stir them right into your mayo-based dressing. For a milder take, add a spoonful of the adobo sauce at a time, tasting as you go. You can also puree the contents of the entire can for a chipotle sauce with a medium heat level that's easy to incorporate.

If you're already adding chipotles in adobo sauce to potato salad, you might as well take this flavor story all the way. Make a creamy sauce with the peppers, mayo, Mexican crema agria, salt, and pepper for the base. Then jazz it up with ingredients like thinly sliced red onion, cilantro, canned or fresh jalapeño peppers, charred corn kernels, or salty crumbles of cotija cheese.

For the mayo haters among us, you can substitute the condiment for ingredients like Greek yogurt or sour cream. For a totally dairy-free take, make a simple vinaigrette by blending chipotles in adobo (plus some of the sauce), lime juice, a touch of sweetener (agave nectar is a great choice here), a neutral oil, and salt. For some herbaceous vibrancy, blitz in fresh cilantro or even a few spoonfuls of grocery store salsa verde. Toss the dressing with boiled potatoes, or, to play off the smoky notes of the peppers, use cubed-up grilled baked potatoes instead.

Even if you want to make a more traditional potato salad, you can still take advantage of chipotles in adobo sauce. Using your favorite recipe, omit the black pepper and the acidic component, like vinegar or pickle brine. Add in a couple of spoonfuls of the adobo sauce instead — it brings necessary acidity and that peppery note but in a more interesting way, almost like spicy smoked paprika with a bit more oomph.