Austrian potato salad (or Viennese potato salad) is a staple food of Austria. Probably the second best known worldwide, after Wiener Schnitzel. Not surprisingly, this potato salad is Austrian people’s favorite side this for their favorite schnitzel.
To make the best Austrian potato salad, I think the key is to use the perfect potato. Use high moisture content potatoes, like Yellow Finn, Yukon Gold, and red potatoes. They’ll give a pleasant creamy texture to your salad.
Austrian Potato Salad Recipe
- Cook your potatoes unpeeled. They are cooked when inserting a sharp knife you don’t feel any resistance.
- Drain your potatoes and peel them while still hot.
- Slice your potatoes directly into the serving bowl.
- Dice your onion. I like the onion smaller, about the size of 1/10 inch (2 mm).
- In a small bowl mix oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper and tarragon.
- Bring the stock to a boil.
- Pour the hot stock over the onions. Stir.
- Pour the stock and onions over the potatoes. Toss it a few times.
- Pour the oil dressing over your salad. Toss again a few times.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, overnight is better.
Cooking time depends on the size of your potatoes, between 20-30 minutes. It is advised to overcook potatoes for this salad, as the sauce will become creamier that way.
Make sure you put a lot of salt in the cooking water. 1-2 tablespoons is OK for this quantity. This might sound a lot, but actually potato loves salt, and there is nothing worse than an unsalted potato salad.
Put your potato under running cold water for a few seconds to prevent burning.
Tarragon is not necessarily an authentic element in every Austrian potato salad. But it makes this dish way more delicious, and you can even find it in restaurants in Vienna.
Use salt according to your taste. If your stock is salted, use less. Also if you’ve added more salt to your potato while boiling, you need to use less salt in this step. But again, don’t be afraid of using salt. An unsalted potato salad is really something no real cook wants to serve.
Original recipes recommend using beef stock. But it’ll be almost as good with chicken stock as well. Use vegetable stock when making a vegetarian or vegan Austrian potato salad.
Don’t worry if some of the potatoes break apart. This is what we want essentially, making a creamy sauce with the small potato parts.
How To Serve Austrian Potato Salad
Serve it chilled. Toss it before serving, so all the potatoes get the creamy sauce.
You can serve this Austrian potato salad every time you would serve a regular potato salad. But of course it goes extremely well with Wienerschnitzel.
Austrian Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 2 1/5 lbs (1 kg) potatoes – Yellow Finn, Yukon Gold, red potatoes
- 1 medium onion
- 1 cup (240 ml) beef stock (or chicken stock or vegetable stock)
- 10 tbsp vegetable oil
- 5 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp mustard
- 1/2 tsp dried tarragon (otpional)
- Salt to taste (see recipe)
- Pinch of pepper
Instructions
- Cook your potatoes unpeeled. They are cooked when inserting a sharp knife you don’t feel any resistance.
- Drain your potatoes and peel them while still hot.
- Slice your potatoes directly into the serving bowl.
- Dice your onion. I like the onion smaller, about the size of 1/10 inch (2 mm).
- In a small bowl mix oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper and tarragon.
- Bring the stock to a boil.
- Pour the hot stock over the onions. Stir.
- Pour the stock and onions over the potatoes. Toss it a few times.
- Pour the oil dressing over your salad. Toss again a few times.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, overnight is better.