Roasted Bacon Ranch Potato Salad

Today I would like to talk about bacon. Don't you just love it?

Oh yeah, I forgot... YOU'RE HUMAN.





So, we all like bacon. But how about potato salad? I hear some people don't like it. If you know one of these poor souls, please reprimand them. And/or make this potato salad for them. It's not like most. See, like this loaded potato salad, the potatoes are roasted and not boiled. This seriously detracts from the smush factor.

Also, if the mayo is what makes you squirm, you can leave it dry as you see above. Or you could use ranch dressing, since it already is ranch flavored anyways. Though I, for one, would be frankly insulted if someone served me mayo-less potato salad. But that's coming from a girl who would eat mayonnaise off a spoon when she was a wee child.

Ew. Was that really me? Sorry for making you nauseous.



But yeah. What I really wanted to talk about was bacon. Stop distracting me.

You know, as much as I love bacon, I don't love it as much as I did when I didn't know how to cook it. Back then I pretty much only ever had bacon on an occasional BLT ordered from a restaurant. I was probably thinner then.

Anywho, there are three main ways to do it.

1. Microwave. It's easy. It works. It's not five star restaurant material, but it makes hardly any mess if you make sure you cover it with paper towel.

2. Oven. About 20 minutes at 400ºF. Easy.

3. The regular old stove top method. Throw it in a big skillet. Just make sure you can cover it or you will have a mess.

I usually do #3. I don't know why. It's like... I actually like making messes. I can't explain. 

Bacon Ranch Potato Salad

3 pounds red potatoes, washed and dried
3 cloves garlic
a few tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons ranch dressing seasoning (about one packet of dry ranch dressing mix, I think)
About 8 pieces of bacon
1 small white onion (about 1/3 cup chopped)
1 bunch of chives, chopped
1/4 cup of mayonnaise (or more)

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Chop up the potatoes and mince the garlic. Spread onto a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Bake until the potatoes are golden and soft when poked with a fork. Cook bacon and crumble onto the potatoes. Toss in the ranch seasoning, chopped onion, and chives. Stir in the mayo a little at a time until it's as wet as you like it. Take about 1/2 cup of the potato salad out and mash it with a fork and then stir it back in.

Yeah, I only realized after I had taken all those pictures that I should have mashed some of the potatoes and stirred them back in to make it a better texture. After I did that, I took this last picture. By then the rest of the bacon was mysteriously gone so there are no bacon bits on top. Oh well. It's what's on the inside that counts. Follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Adios.