James Kenji Lopez-Alt
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Grill Your Potato Salad!
🕑 Added 2025-08-21 17:45:22 +0000 UTCYou can find a video walk-through of this recipe as part of my Grilled Skirt Steak with Herb Sauce video.
Don't get me wrong. I love potato salad in virtually all forms, whether the creamy, mayo-based American classic, the vinaigrette-based Austrian-style potato salad we serve at Würsthall, or the tender, mashed potato-like version my Japanese grandmother used to make.
But in the summer, when the grill is fired up and I can't find enough things to grill, you can bet my potatoes are hitting that live fire. Grilling your potato salad results in a salad that has all the creamy, starchy, comforting qualities of the picnic classic, but with the added texture and flavor of the flame.
Potato salad is one of those dishes that benefits enormously from a little technique. In an older version of this salad I made years ago over on Serious Eats, the key move was boiling potatoes until tender, then roughing them up in the bowl so their cut surfaces released starch. This is a technique that works great for roasting potatoes (and one I turn to in my Crispy Roast Potatoes recipe), adding surface area and therefore crunch to the potatoes, but over the years I've found that the starchy surface can cause them to stick to the grill more often than not.
Instead, I skip the roughing-up step and just make sure the potatoes spend enough time on the grill to get a nice crust and a few charred bits for flavor.
In my older recipe, I also finished the dish with raw scallions for a bit of onion bite. These days, I prefer to throw whole scallions or spring onions directly on the grill, letting the outer layers char and the interiors soften. Once chopped and tossed into the salad, they add a smoky sweetness that raw scallions can’t deliver—another layer of grilled complexity that ties the potatoes and vinaigrette together.
The rest of the recipe still follows the same logic: potatoes par-cooked so they don’t fall apart, a two-zone fire for maximum control, and a bright vinaigrette made with grilled lemon juice, mustard, and herbs to cut through the richness. The techniques are simple, but they transform a backyard potato salad into something that tastes like it could only have been cooked outdoors, over fire.
Grilled Potato Salad with Charred Spring Onions and Grilled Lemon Vinaigrette
Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.
What I like about this recipe:
The grill adds smokiness, char, and texture to this simple potato salad.
Grilling the lemons tames their acidity and adds some caramelized complexity to their juice.
Once the potatoes are par-boiled and the dressing is made, the salad comes together easily outdoors.
Yield: Serves 4-6
Active Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Note: You can make the vinaigrette, par-boil the potatoes, and store them separately in the fridge up to a day ahead, making it very easy to finish just before serving.
Ingredients
For the Dressing:
¼ cup (60 mL) olive oil
2 tablespoons (30 mL) whole grain mustard
2 tablespoons (4 g) chopped parsley
1 shallot, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Salad:
2 pounds (900 g) Yukon Gold potatoes, halved
Kosher salt
Olive oil
6–8 spring onions or scallions, trimmed
2 lemons, halved
Directions
1. Make the Dressing. In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, mustard, parsley, and shallot. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Par‑boil the potatoes. Cover the potatoes with cold, salted water. Bring to a boil, then simmer until tender but still firm—about 10–15 minutes. Drain and let them sit briefly to evaporate excess moisture.
3. Preheat the Grill. Light one chimney full of charcoal. When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Alternatively, set half the burners on a gas grill to the highest heat setting, cover, and preheat for 10 minutes. Clean and oil the grilling grate.
4. Grill the potatoes. Place potatoes cut‑side down over direct heat. Cook, turning the potatoes occasionally, until well-browned and crisp all over, 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the dressing.
5. Char the onions and lemons. Add the spring onions and lemons (cut-side down) to the grill. Cook, turning the onions occasionally, until well-charred and tender and the lemons are deeply browned and very juicy, about 5 minutes.
6. Finish the salad. Roughly chop the spring onions and add them to the bowl. Squeeze the lemons into the bowl. Toss everything thoroughly and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve.
Comments
Nay
Hi Kenji, do you think baby potatoes kept whole would work for this recipe?
James Kenji Lopez-Alt
That sounds fantastic.
Sonja Kodric
Excellent. Thank you 🙏 much appreciated
Tim Powell
I have made the SE version of this many times and been celebrated by family and friends every time. I try to double the recipe because reheated in a cast iron with a little cotija and tomatillo salsa, it makes the best taco you’ll probably ever have.
