Loaded Bacon Ranch Potato Salad. A creamy potato salad made with a homemade ranch dressing, bacon, cheddar cheese, hard-boiled eggs and green onions. All of your favorite flavors from a loaded baked potato. A perfect gluten-free creamy potato salad for your next cookout or family get together. A summer classic that everyone will love!
Add the potatoes to a large pot and cover with water. Cook on high and bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce the heat to medium and boil for 12-15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Check with a fork to see if potatoes are cooked to your liking.
Add water to a small pan and bring to a boil. Place 2 eggs in the pan and boil for 13 minutes. Once the eggs are finished cooking place the eggs in a small bowl of ice water in the refrigerator.
Drain the potatoes and rinse with cold water. Add the potatoes to a large bowl and put them in the refrigerator to cool while you are making the dressing.
I like to cut the bacon into small pieces before I fry it. In a large pan cook the bacon until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and place on a paper-towel-lined plate.
In a small bowl add of the seasonings together and give it a quick whisk or stir to combine. This is your ranch seasoning blend.
In a medium-sized bowl add the mayonnaise, sour cream (leave out if dairy-free) and ranch seasoning blend. Mix until fully combined. This is the homemade ranch dressing for the potato salad.
Add the homemade ranch dressing to the chilled diced potatoes. Carefully stir to fully cover the potatoes with the ranch dressing.
Chop the green onions and the hard-boiled eggs. I like to use a hard-boiled egg slicer. I cut the egg both ways to get an easily chopped egg. Start by adding the egg vertical and slice and then turn it horizontal and slice. A perfectly chopped egg every time.
Add 1 cup of cheddar cheese (dairy-free leave out/use your favorite dairy-free cheese shreds), 1 cup of bacon, ¼ cup of green onions and the chopped eggs to the potato salad. Stir gently. Save ¼ cup of the bacon, ¼ cup of the cheddar cheese and ¼ cup of the green onion to sprinkle on top of the potato salad before serving. so it looks just like a loaded baked potato. It's best to chill the potato salad for 2 hours before serving,