My mother and grandmother made tasty potato salad and it was a favorite around my home when I was growing up. My kids love potato salad too, so it's something I made often and had plenty of opportunity to play with.

First I'll give you the run down of my base recipe and add the option I recently experimented with below.

Potato Salad with a Kick

Ingredients:

• 6 large potatoes- boiled or baked whole, cooled, and cut into 1" cubes. Leave the skin on. (Brown potatoes were used for this demo but I prefer red potatoes. New potatoes are the best)
• 2 large stalks of celery- diced
• 1 small onion- diced
• 1 cup ranch dressing
• 1 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 3 slices of bacon, diced small, fried crisp; do not drain

Directions:

Dressing:
Mix Mayo or Miracle Whip together with Ranch dressing in small bowl. Stir in bacon, grease and all. (Turkey Bacon also works well with this recipe) Set in the fridge to chill.

Salad:
Mix potatoes, celery, onions, and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Pour dressing over salad mixture and stir well but be mindful not to stir so much you end up with mashed potatoes.

Chill for one hour and serve. Serves 8 (Unless my boys are home and then I make a double batch just for the two of them)

Options:

Additional ingredients:

2 whole chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, deep fried crisp, and drained.

Fold chicken into salad mixture with other ingredients before adding the dressing.