We’ve been making this Hot Dog Potato Salad for years. It’s perfect for summer gatherings with family and friends when you need a satisfying and tasty side dish!
This recipe is a great new way to savor hot dogs, particularly when maybe you don’t have quite enough for each person at the table to have one, or if you simply have leftover hot dogs from a recent barbecue!
An Oldie but a Goodie
This recipe is inspired by a hot dog potato salad Giada de Laurentiis’s mother devised. “Veronica’s Potato Salad” includes hot dogs, potatoes, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. As kids, we used to watch the Food Network like it was our job.
This is one of the recipes that actually stuck with us for years and years (see also Tyler Florence’s Spaghetti Carbonara, Ina Garten’s (actually Beatty’s) Chocolate Cake, and Ellie Krieger’s Turkey Meatballs with Spicy Tomato Sauce.
While we loved the simple de Laurentiis family recipe, I started putting my own spin on it over the years. Adding parsley and chives in addition to the basil (summer is the time to be heavy handed with herbs, after all), capers and dijon mustard for a bit of tang, and shallots because I can never resist a hit of onion-y goodness.
TIp!
If you have at least two of the three herbs we call for, you’ll be okay!
If you’re not a hog dog lover, or you’re very particular about your potato salad, this may not be the recipe for you, but if you want to try something different and appreciate the salty bite from a good hot dog, we hope you enjoy it!
The Taste of Summer
There are many cooking highpoints of the year, but one that we really look forward to is going down to the local butcher to get *the good hotdogs*, firing up the grill and cooking them up until they burst open and get a little bit charred on the edges.
“The good hotdogs” are so called largely because they’re natural casing hot dogs, which will always be our preference.
While the ones pictured come from a local butcher, our favorite store-bought hot dog is Nathan’s Coney Island Original. They only seem to turn up during the summertime, so we always buy a few packages for the season. (Sarah mentions this in our Hot Dog Bao video. Guilty as charged for buying one too many packs…)
If you’d rather, you may also try this recipe with kielbasa!
Hot Dog Potato Salad Recipe
Scrub the potatoes. If you have a mix of large and small potatoes, cut the large potatoes in half so that everything cooks roughly in the same amount of time.
Add the potatoes to a medium or large pot, and cover with water. Add a generous pinch of salt, and bring to a boil (you must start the potatoes in cold water, or they won’t cook properly). Cook for 20-30 minutes, until fork tender. Drain and cool on a cutting board. If you mix the potato salad when the potatoes are still warm, some of them will “mash.” Fully cooling them will give your potato salad a neater look.
While the potatoes are cooking, you can brown the hot dogs in a skillet with just a small drizzle of oil or grill them until they’re browned. Let the hot dogs cool slightly, then slice them on a diagonal into thick slices.
When the potatoes are cooled, cut them into 1-inch chunks. In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil, dijon mustard, and salt and pepper together. (Because the saltiness of hot dogs can vary by brand, we’ve provided a range for the salt.)
Add the potatoes, shallots, capers, basil, parsley, and chives.
Toss everything together, and taste for seasoning. Add more salt and pepper if needed.
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Recipe
Hot Dog Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 2½ pounds yukon gold potatoes
- 5 standard bun length hot dogs (or 4 jumbo hot dogs)
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- ½ – ¾ teaspoon sea salt (plus extra for salting the potato cooking water)
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 small shallots (finely chopped)
- 2 tablespoons capers (optional)
- 3 tablespoons basil (julienned into ribbons)
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
Instructions
- Scrub the potatoes. If you have a mix of large and small potatoes, cut the large potatoes in half so that everything cooks roughly in the same amount of time.
- Add the potatoes to a medium or large pot, and cover with water. Add a generous pinch of salt, and bring to a boil (you must start the potatoes in cold water, or they won’t cook properly). Cook for 20-30 minutes, until fork tender. Drain and cool on a cutting board. If you mix the potato salad when the potatoes are still warm, some of them will “mash.” Fully cooling them will give your potato salad a neater look.
- While the potatoes are cooking, you can brown the hot dogs in a skillet with just a small drizzle of oil or grill them until they’re browned. Let the hot dogs cool slightly, then slice them on a diagonal into thick slices.
- When the potatoes are cooled, cut them into 1-inch chunks. In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil, dijon mustard, and salt and pepper together. (Because the saltiness of hot dogs can vary by brand, we’ve provided a range for the salt.)
- Add the potatoes, shallots, capers, basil, parsley, and chives. Toss everything together, and taste for seasoning. Add more salt and pepper if needed.
