Chicken salad and potato salad

You, dear reader—yes, you!—are a big disappointment to me. After my call last week to share chicken recipes, I got exactly one recipe. Thanks to Mary Kay Hughes for sending along her version of chicken salad:

Mary Kay’s chicken salad

Meat from one rotisserie chicken, finely chopped

One cup finely chopped celery

One minced clove of garlic

Dash of salt and onion powder

Duke’s mayonnaise (adjust to desired creaminess) Spoonful of sour cream

Blend well and serve as a sandwich or as a dollop on a plate surrounded by sliced tomatoes.

So let’s move right along to potato salad. I consider myself a connoisseur of potato salad. I once was married to a man who ordered cheesecake every time he saw it on the menu, because he was looking for the perfect cheesecake. He never found it, of course, because he compared everything to New York deli cheesecake. I’m the same way about potato salad. I order it everywhere and am disappointed at least half the time.

My mom learned to make potato salad from a hospital cook who advised pouring vinaigrette over still-warm potatoes, then adding onion, celery, yellow mustard, and mayonnaise. I’ve grown up and do it differently these days, but my youngest daughter still craves what she calls, “mustard potato salad.”

I do not like mashed potato salad, especially what we generally get in too many barbecue joints (Heims in Fort Worth is an exception), and I do not like yellow or salad mustard. I have tried making a non-mayonnaise salad, with a strictly vinaigrette dressing—like German potato salad only served chilled instead of warm. It’s good for a change, and it meets the requirements of my older daughter who dislikes all the white things—mayo, sour cream, cream cheese, goat cheese. A favorite we like is a lemon potato salad, the recipe from a friend—it, too, is without mayonnaise. I think I shared it here not long ago.

What I like best is a mixture of mayo and sour cream, but the absolute best recipe to my mind is County Line potato salad, from the barbecue restaurant by that name in Austin, but it makes enough for Coxie’s Army. I have halved it, and it’s still a lot. You can find the recipe all over the internet.

This weekend when my oldest, Colin, and his family were here, daughter-in-law Lisa brought potato salad that was much like County line but didn’t make so much. Colin says it’s his favorite, and Lisa says she’s always going to make it that way from now on.

Here’s the recipe:

Lisa’s potato salad

3 lbs. potatoes, cooked and cubed

½ c. sweet onion, diced

4 hard-boiled eggs

2 Tbsp. dill pickle juice.

½ c. dill pickles, chopped (or use dill relish)

½ c. mayo (I might use ¼ c. each of mayo and sour cream)

¼ c. mustard

¼ tsp. pepper

2-1/2 tsp. kosher salt (sounds like a lot of salt—you might start small and taste)

Pinch of paprika

            Pair that with Mary Kay’s chicken salad and you have a great, light summer meal.