Earl’s Warm Potato Salad Copycat Recipe

Inspired by Earls, this creamy, bacon filled warm potato salad is sure to be a great addition to any meal! This Earls copycat recipe for warm potato salad is perfectly balanced with lemon, bacon, and chive flavors, the delectably creamy texture comes from the mayo sour cream base alongside the buttery-texture fingerling potatoes, and roasted corn provides a sweet, crunchy aspect. This makes a great side-dish to any main course, and its warm temperature is sure to be a delightful surprise.

Inspired by Earls

This recipe is inspired by a dish out of a local chain restaurant in Western Canada called Earls. Earls has changed their recipe in the past few years, however the one that has inspired this recipe is their original recipe, complete with fingerling potatoes. Although Earls has moved towards using baby potatoes in their current recipe, I really believe the fingerling potatoes are the superior potato for this dish. The baby potatoes used now tend to have a soft-creamy like texture, which I find actually makes the recipe a little too mushy, if the potatoes are even slightly overcooked. The fingerling potatoes, on the other hand, really retain their shape, which is lovely in this salad, while still having their delicious buttery flavor. That being said, if you do not have access to fingerling potatoes, baby potatoes will still work!

My brother actually had a friend, years ago, who worked as a line cook at Earls. My Mom begged him for the Earls recipe, as we all were in-love with the warm potato salad. He gave us the recipe, but as he was used to making restaurant-sized batches, that is what we received. I cannot remember the exact amounts, but the one that stood out most was the 4L of mayo! My mom attempted making it a few times, although it was never quite the same, due to some irregularities on the recipe given, as well as trouble trying to accurately down-size some of the ingredients. We eventually gave up on trying to recreate this salad for many years, until a few weeks ago when I made it my mission to attempt it for myself.

Trying, Testing, and Tweaking

In trying, testing, and tweaking over and over, I have found a few things that were necessary, a few things that worked, and a few things that didn’t. Fresh lemon juice is an absolute must. I found that using bottled lemon juice really detracted from the flavors, and added that awful metallic taste to the warm potato salad, that bottled lemon juice sometimes does. I also found that substituting with light mayo or light sour cream was completely fine. Using dried dill was actually better than fresh. In determining when to add in the corn, I tried adding it in when the potatoes first went in the oven – which led to overcooked corn, cooking/thawing it separately and adding it in at the end and tossing – which resulted in the corn not absorbing the flavors of the salad and being too distinctive of a taste on its own, finally I tried adding it in halfway through which was perfect – the corn wasn’t too dry but still blended nicely with the other flavors. In perfecting this warm potato salad, I also found that adding a small amount of the bacon fat to the dressing, gave the dressing a slightly smoky taste, really enhancing the salad. Lastly, I found that the garlic oil is so important in this recipe. I have tried it using regular olive oil, but it just wasn’t the same. The garlic oil really rounds things out, penetrating the potatoes really well with a subtle garlicky essence. However, olive oil and extra garlic will work in a pinch!

As a last aside, I have found that the best results with this salad come when you make the dressing first, and give it time to rest in your fridge, while the potatoes cook. This is simply to let the flavors, especially the dill, blend and meld together nicely.

Source: Inspired by Earls