The Best Pressure Cooker Classic American Potato Salad

This Classic American Potato salad is made with a mayonnaise dressing. What makes this recipe extra special is that it’s been adapted for a pressure cooker. The eggs are cooked, along with the potatoes, inside the pressure cooker (I use my Instant Pot) and it takes just minutes to be done! Easy, peasy! For summer barbecues, this is the perfect side dish that my guests dig into with gusto– and it’s so simple to make!

One of my most top viewed and rated recipes on my blog is my mother’s German Potato Salad. I can see why, because it’s delicious– and there’s bacon in it! German potato salad is made with oil and vinegar. No mayonnaise, whatsoever. To add mayo to a classic German potato salad would be sacrilegious.

American potato salad, on the other hand, uses mayonnaise. I know some people who think mayonnaise is “gross“. To each his own. I like it, but obviously, I don’t eat it in massive quantities. Now that we’re heading into warmer weather and BBQ Season, I was bitten with my yearly hankering for a  homemade classic American potato salad.

I think that a classic American potato salad should include eggs, mayonnaise and mustard. The rest of the ingredients are totally up to one’s personal taste or imagination.  I like to add celery, green onion (I find regular onion can sometimes overpower the flavor), and a little bit of chopped dill pickle.  I love to add black olives (which my son despises and says ruins the whole thing).  On occasion, I’ve been known to add thinly sliced red radish, for some crunchy texture. Or not.

Recently, I’ve been featuring recipes I’ve made with my beloved pressure cooker.

I will be sharing how I made a pressure cooker cheese cake in 12 minutes— (now, on the blog(! This was so creamy and delicious, and so easy to make!

I know that not all of my readers own a pressure cooker– or, you’ve admitted that yours has been banished to your garage, gathering dust.  I am working on a post to share my suggestions/recommendations on how to choose a pressure cooker and why I think they’re so wonderful to use. You can still make this without a pressure cooker– however it will take an additional 30-45 minutes!

I’ve never posted my American potato salad recipe, because I don’t measure when I make it.

The stove top technique to making a potato salad beings with peeling potatoes, cubing them and boiling them in salted water for 15-20 minutes, until fork tender.  Eggs are also brought to a boil, the heat turned off and pot covered and allowed to sit 15-20 minutes.  With a pressure cooker, both the potatoes and eggs are cooked for four minutes! Yes, FOUR minutes!

Ta-da!  My electric pressure cooker comes with a trivet and steamer basket. 1-1/2 cups water is added, the lid locked on. I pressed 4 minutes and while the spuds and eggs were cooking, I prepared  a  bowl of ice water.

Once the pressure cooker beeped, I removed the eggs and plunged them into the cold water. I checked that the potatoes were tender (they were) and then carefully removed the steamer basket of potatoes.
NOTE: I use my pressure cooker to “steam” the potatoes for making creamy mashed potatoes. Four minutes!  I used Russet potatoes for this salad, because it’s most traditional.  Red Bliss, Yukon Gold or even Fingerlings potatoes would work, too.

I noticed a coating of starch on the cooked potatoes. I made a split decision that I should rinse them with cold water, to remove the sticky residue. I also figured this would cool down the potatoes faster as well. I didn’t want to add hot/warm potatoes to mayonnaise, thinking it might melt the mayo.

While I left the potatoes to drain well, and for the eggs to cool down, I started with the salad dressing:

I’ve sliced about six green onions. Starting with about one cup mayonnaise, I add yellow mustard, chopped dill pickle (this is totally optional), white wine vinegar (or you can replace with pickle juice), salt and pepper …

Last, I stirred in the green onion, and tasted the dressing.  I added about one teaspoon of white sugar to counterbalance to flavor from the dill pickle.   Bingo.

Pressure cooking hard-boiled eggs has become my fool-proof method.  I’ve learned that cracking the cooked (and cooled) eggs and removing them with cool faucet water yields perfectly peeled eggs. Yes!

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Classic Potato Salad (adapted for pressure cooking)

I’ve been making this classic American potato salad for many years, but have never written it out as a recipe. The salad dressing that I make includes classic ingredients, like mayonnaise, mustard and eggs. What’s different about this recipe is that I cooked the potatoes and eggs in my pressure cooker, all together, at the same time– in only four minutes! In one hour I had a delicious bowl of American Potato Salad. This is so easy! If you don’t have a pressure cooker, no worries. Just cook the eggs and potatoes on the stove top the more traditional way.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time4 minutes mins

Total Time14 minutes mins

Course: Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: American Potato Salad, potato salad

Servings: 10

Calories: 300kcal

Author: Debby – www.AFeastfortheEyes.net

Equipment

• Pressure Cooker
• Steamer Basket

Ingredients

Pressure Cook:

• 6 medium russet potatoes peeled and cubed
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 4 large eggs

Salad Dressing:

• 6 scallions sliced (or1/4 cup finely chopped red onion)
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 dill pickle wedge;diced (optional)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons yellow mustard or grain mustard
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar can use red or cider
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 stalks celery sliced thin (optional, but adds a nice texture)
• 1/4 cup sliced black olives optional, but I love it
• 1/4 cup sliced radishes optional, but adds a nice crunch
• Paprika for garnish

Instructions

Pressure cooker:

• Add 1 1/2 cups water to the pressure cooker, and set the trivet in (if you have one, which I do).
• Distribute the diced potatoes into the steamer basket and then nestle the eggs inside the potatoes.
• Lock lid in place, select High Pressure, 4 minutes cook time and press start.
• When the timer beeps, turn off pressure cooker and do a quick pressure release. When the pressure is released, carefully remove the lid.
• Check that the potatoes are cooked, by inserting a paring knife. If it slides in easily, they are done.
• With tongs, remove each egg and plunge into a bowl of ice water.
• Carefully remove the steamer basket from the pressure cooking pot and dump into a fine mesh strainer/colander. Rinse with cold water to remove the excess starch and allow to drain well.

Perfectly peeled eggs:

• I have 100% success in peeling my eggs by cracking the bottom, and then peeling under slow cool running water. The peels come right off!

Stove top method:

• If you don’t own a pressure cooker you can easily adapt this. Just cook the potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes, until a paring knife comes out clean.
• Peel, cube and steam the potatoes on the stove until they are tender. Rinse and drain.
• PLACE eggs in saucepan large enough to hold them in single layer. ADD cold water to cover eggs by 1 inch. HEAT over high heat just to boiling. REMOVE from burner. COVER pan. LET EGGS STAND in hot water about 12 minutes for large eggs (9 minutes for medium eggs; 15 minutes for extra large). Plunge into a bowl of ice water.

Dressing:

• Mix the mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, 2 teaspoons. salt and 1 teaspoon pepper and whisk together.
• Add the pickles, if using, and give it a taste. Adjust to your desired flavor– you might want a tangier dressing, so add a dash more vinegar. If you don’t like the taste of dill pickles, leave it out. But if you do add the dill pickles, the sugar helps to balance out the flavors.
• Once you are happy with the flavor/seasonings of the dressing, add the prepared vegetables and onion and give it a good stir. Refrigerate.
• To easily peel the eggs, remove them from the ice water, give them a good crack and remove under cold running water. The egg shells should slide right off. Dice the eggs, and reserve one whole egg. (I use an egg slicer and give it 1/4 turn and slice again, which gives easy and perfect dices.
• To finish the potato salad, in a large bowl, add the cooled potatoes and diced eggs and add half of the dressing. Gently fold to combine. Add more dressing until the salad is the texture that you prefer.
• Slice the remaining egg, as a garnish and sprinkle with paprika for color.
• Chill for at least an hour, before serving.

Notes

Tasting notes: I love this salad with olives, but not everyone loves them. Potato salad is very versatile, so feel free to add or leave out any of the vegetables I like to use. You can use reduced fat mayo or yogurt and I’ve never done that. I just don’t eat too much of it, at once! Because this salad has mayonnaise, take care to keep this chilled and protected from heat to avoid any chance of food poisoning. I know this sounds extreme, but it’s better to be careful!

Recipe adapted from “Pressure Cooking Today“

Nutrition

Calories: 300kcal | Carbohydrates: 25g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 94mg | Sodium: 335mg | Potassium: 626mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 270IU | Vitamin C: 9.3mg | Calcium: 47mg | Iron: 1.7mg

Tried this recipe?Mention @afeastfortheeyes or tag #afeastfortheeyesblog!

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