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Ranch Potato Salad is what happens when a loaded baked potato crashes the picnic, golden roasted Yukon golds folded with crispy bacon, sharp cheddar, and a creamy herb flecked ranch dressing, and when I brought a bowl to a Fourth of July cookout, it beat the burgers to empty. If your table already loves our classic potato salad, this is the bacon loaded upgrade.
Roasted potatoes instead of boiled change absolutely everything.
Ranch Potato Salad Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 15 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 45 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 1 hour
- 🍽️ Serving: 8 servings
- ⚡ Calories: 451kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Creamy ranch, smoky bacon, sharp cheddar, golden roasted potato
- ✋ Difficulty: Easy, same effort as our sweet potato fries
Quick Answer
Toss diced Yukon gold potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes, flipping every 15 minutes, then cool completely. Cook diced bacon until very crispy. Stir mayonnaise, sour cream, and ranch seasoning together in a large bowl, then fold in the potatoes, bacon, cheddar, scallions, dill, and parsley until coated. Serve warm or chill an hour first.
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Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- Roasting beats boiling. Roasted potatoes bring toasty golden edges and concentrated flavor instead of the waterlogged blandness boiled potatoes can carry into a salad.
- Yukon golds hold their shape. Their waxy, creamy flesh stays in distinct cubes through roasting and folding, no mashed corners in the bowl.
- Very crispy bacon stays crispy. Cooking the bacon past soft ensures it keeps crunch even after mingling with the creamy dressing.
- Sour cream plus mayo mimics real ranch. The tang of sour cream against rich mayonnaise is the actual flavor base of bottled ranch, the dried seasoning just amplifies it.
- Fresh herbs double the ranch effect. Fresh dill and parsley echo the dried herbs in the seasoning packet, making the dressing taste garden fresh instead of powdery.
- Cooling the potatoes protects the dressing. Folding warm potatoes into mayo thins it into soup, completely cooled cubes let the dressing cling thick and creamy.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It is a loaded baked potato in scoopable form, every cookout crowd pleaser in one bowl.
- Roasting the potatoes adds a toasty depth no boiled potato salad can touch.
- It travels beautifully, the same make ahead confidence as our creamy cucumber salad.
Key Ingredients
A loaded baked potato bar, folded into one bowl.
- Yukon gold potatoes: Waxy and creamy, they roast golden and hold their cube shape in the salad.
- Thick cut bacon: Diced and cooked very crispy so it stays crunchy against the creamy dressing.
- Sharp cheddar cheese: Small dice, not shreds, so every scoop gets distinct savory cheese bites.
- Mayonnaise and sour cream: The half and half creamy base that reads as homemade ranch.
- Ranch seasoning, dill, and parsley: The dried and fresh herb double team that gives the dressing its ranch identity.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
One creamy ranch bowl, plenty of ways to load it.
- Add sliced hard boiled eggs for a heartier, deviled egg inflected version.
- Swap the cheddar for pepper jack and add a diced jalapeno for a spicy kick.
- Use baby red potatoes with the skins on for extra color and texture.
- Stir in a tablespoon of dill pickle relish for a briny pop against the creamy dressing.
- Prefer crunch over cream? Our cheddar bacon ranch celery sticks are this salad’s appetizer cousin.
How to Make Ranch Potato Salad
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the diced potatoes on a sheet tray and toss with the olive oil, salt, and pepper until coated, then spread them in a single layer.
- Bake for 45 minutes, flipping the potatoes every 15 minutes for even browning, until lightly golden brown and cooked through. Let them cool completely.
- Cook the diced bacon over medium low heat until very crispy so it will not turn soggy in the salad. Drain on a paper towel and set aside.
- Make the dressing by combining the mayonnaise, sour cream, and ranch seasoning in a large bowl, stirring until smooth.
- Add the bacon, cooled potatoes, scallions, dill, parsley, and cheddar to the bowl and fold everything together until coated in the dressing.
- Serve warm, or cover with plastic wrap and chill for one hour for the flavors to meld before serving.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Cut the potatoes evenly. A uniform medium dice roasts at the same rate, so nothing burns while its neighbors finish.
- Do not crowd the sheet tray. A single layer with breathing room roasts golden, a piled tray steams pale.
- Cool the potatoes fully before folding. Warm cubes melt the cheddar and thin the dressing into a slick.
- Cook the bacon past soft. It should shatter, that is what survives an hour in creamy dressing with its crunch intact.
- Dice the cheddar, do not shred it. Cubes stay distinct while shreds vanish into the dressing.
- Taste after the chill. Cold mutes seasoning, a pinch more salt or ranch seasoning after the rest wakes it back up.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
This is fried chicken’s soulmate, pile a scoop next to our southern fried chicken and dinner is a picnic no matter the season.
At a cookout it holds its own beside smoky mains, we love it with our beer can chicken and a stack of napkins.
For game day, serve it alongside a tray of our sticky grilled chicken wings, the cool creamy salad against sticky sweet wings is the play.
Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The flavors actually improve overnight as the ranch settles into the potatoes. Give it a gentle fold and a fresh sprinkle of dill before serving round two, and do not freeze it, mayo dressings break in the thaw.
Ranch Potato Salad FAQs
Two things, the dressing and the method. The dressing is a creamy ranch built from mayonnaise, sour cream, ranch seasoning, and fresh herbs instead of the classic mustard and egg profile. And the potatoes are roasted until golden instead of boiled, which adds a toasty flavor traditional potato salad never gets.
Dried ranch seasoning is the winner here. A teaspoon of the powder concentrates the buttermilk herb flavor without thinning the dressing, while bottled ranch is already diluted and makes the salad loose. The mayo and sour cream provide the creamy body, the seasoning provides the ranch.
You can, simmer the diced Yukon golds about 10 to 12 minutes until just fork tender, then drain and cool completely. The salad will still be delicious, but you lose the golden roasted edges that make this version taste like a loaded baked potato. If the oven is free, roast.
Yes, it is even better after a rest. Make it up to a day ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator, the ranch flavors bloom into the potatoes overnight. Hold back a little of the bacon and add it just before serving so the topping stays crunchy.
Both work, which makes it a flexible side. Folded together while the potatoes are just barely warm it eats like a creamy roasted potato dish, and after an hour in the refrigerator it firms into classic scoopable potato salad. For picnics and potlucks, chilled is the safer call.
Covered tightly, 3 days. Keep it chilled and do not let it sit out longer than 2 hours at a party, standard mayo dressing rules apply. The bacon softens a little by day 2, a fresh crumble on top brings the crunch back instantly.
Made this Ranch Potato Salad? Leave a comment and a star rating below, and tell me what you loaded on top!
Ranch Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes medium diced
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 8 slices thick-cut Bacon cut into 1/2 inch dice
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon dried ranch seasoning
- 1 teaspoon fresh dill finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh parsley finely chopped
- 1 scallion thinly sliced, green part only
- 4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese small diced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place the potatoes on a sheet tray and toss with the olive oil, salt, and pepper until coated, make sure they are laid out in a single layer.2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
- Bake for 45 minutes or until lightly golden brown and cooked through. Flip the potatoes over on the sheet tray every 15 minutes for even browning. Take it out of the oven and let it cool completely.2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
- Cook bacon over medium-low heat until crispy. You want the bacon very crispy so it doesn’t turn soggy in the salad. Discard bacon grease and let the bacon cool on a paper towel to absorb excess grease, set aside.2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
- Make the dressing by combining the mayo, sour cream, and ranch seasoning in a large bowl, stir to combine.2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
- Add the bacon, potatoes, scallions, dill, parsley, and cheese, fold everything with the dressing until coated.2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
- Serve warm or cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for one hour to chill, serve and enjoy!2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
Notes
- You can use shredded cheese instead of cubed cheese if you like.
- Usually Yukon gold potatoes are used but you can use Russet or Red Potatoes.
- Make sure that your bacon is really crisp, otherwise it will get soggy in the salad.
- You can easily double this recipe to serve to more people!
- If you cant find fresh herbs or you don’t want to use them a small amount of dried herbs can be substituted.
Nutrition
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