Spicy Red Chipotle Potato Salad

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On my recent visit to Idaho, I had the opportunity to try a delicious chipotle and cheddar mashed potato casserole served at one of the potato farm tours.  I’ve been dreaming about that dish since and decided to give it a summer twist by turning it into a salad.  I wanted to keep the flavors similar because they go so well together but I also wanted to incorporate some flavorful ingredients that are a must in a colorful salad.

For this potato salad, the potato of choice was Ruby Red Idaho Potatoes, one of my favorite varieties.  I love using this variety of Idaho Potato in practically every potato dish because the potato is tender enough to be cooked quickly and it’s small enough to quickly slice, quarter or cook as a whole.   I always keep its peel on, even when making mashed potatoes because the peel gives it so much texture.  It’s soft enough to blend in with the rest of the potato.  Plus, who wants to peel potatoes?  I don’t, so I end up cooking every single part of that potato, and it’s delicious.

For this Spicy Red Chipotle Potato Salad, I decided to quarter each potato, spray those fourths with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast them until the skin begins to crisp up but the flesh is soft and tender. When I’m ready to assemble the salad, I lighly mash the roasted pieces of potato with a fork, but not too much.  I still want the texture of a very chunky potato salad but soft enough to incorporate with the other flavor components.

For the rest of the ingredients,  a small can of chipotle peppers in adobo played a very important part.  The adobo gave this texture salad the perfect spice it needs.  If you love your potatoes very spicy, go ahead and blend an entire chipotle pepper to the mayo mix. In my case, I only used the adobo and reserved the leftover chiles for a spicy cream sauce I can serve with another meal or as a topping on a giant, cheesy baked potato.

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