Amp Up Potato Salad With A Popular Smoky Sauce

Whether it's part of dinner, a picnic spread, or a quick lunch, it seems like there's no place where a good potato salad won't be appreciated. The mix of creamy mayo dressing, bite from the mustard, and crispy bits of onion along with the spuds makes for a winning combination. Unsurprisingly, there are virtually limitless modifications one can make to a potato salad, including the viral deviled egg potato salad. However, almost every version of the dish starts with the aforementioned components, so a modification usually involves additional ingredients that level up potato salad. While you can get as fancy as you want with the dish, some of the best potato salads out there manage to retain their homely simplicity through small additions that add big flavor or texture.

If you're wondering how to amp up your potato salad, look to the dishes it best pairs with. Considering the light, creamy flavors best accompany the deep sweet-savory notes of a gorgeously barbecued piece of meat, a dash of barbecue sauce added straight to potato salad is a delicious modification. While regular barbecue sauce works well, it can sometimes be too sweet for the side dish. Fortunately, there are several types of barbecue sauces to choose from depending on how you want to balance flavors in your elevated potato salad.

To enjoy a dish as creamy and starchy as potato salad, you need some sharp flavors to cut through the richness. This is usually achieved by mustard; therefore, when adding barbecue sauce, cut down on the mustard in the salad, especially if you use extra sharp mustard. It's also a good idea to add a little bit of barbecue sauce to your finished potato salad, taste it, and only add more if needed. Because of the sauce's sweetness, you may also have to balance the dish with a little more salt and pepper. Curry powder — a seasoning that levels up egg salad — can also help balance sweetness.

With certain sauces, like Kansas City-style, which contains ketchup and molasses and has become the default flavor most people think of when they hear barbecue sauce, it's important to account even more for the sweetness. If you're not getting the level of smokiness you want and don't want to risk making things too sweet, add a drop of liquid smoke to the mix.

There are also other types of barbecue sauces to consider for additional smokiness, sharpness, and complexity. North Carolina-style BBQ sauce contains vinegar, is on the spicier end of the spectrum, and can add a nice kick to the side dish. If you want to double down on the mustard flavor, try a mustard-based BBQ sauce. Or, for more creaminess, you can even try the Alabama-style mayo-based BBQ sauce.