Who says you have to stop eating potato salad when the weather starts to chill?

Not me.

Not when you can make it with buttermilk, cream cheese, fresh chives & dill then bake it topped with crispy Panko and salty Parmesan.

And most certainly not when it looks like this:

This is by far one of the top food requests in our house. The first time I made it my brother-in-law was visiting us from Chicago and he even emailed me after he got home asking for the recipe. (Yes, Jamie… I know, I know… it was over a year ago. Sorry, bro! I still owe you the Sour Cream Apple Pie notes too. I’ll get right on that.)

Technically, I’m not sure this is classified as a ‘salad.’ It’s probably more of a casserole of sorts, but whateveskies… I’m calling it salad so you will too. 🙂

Baked Potato Salad
makes 6 servings
6 – 8 medium sized russet (or yukon gold) potatoes (diced)
12 oz cream cheese
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)
3 tbsp fresh chives (chopped)
1 tbsp fresh parsley (chopped)
1 tbsp fresh dill (minced)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 tsp paprika

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Boil the potatoes in salted water until fork tender, but not overly done (12 – 15 minutes), then drain.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and buttermilk and mix to combine. Add in the cheddar cheese, chives, parsley, dill and cayenne and mix until smooth and creamy, then season with salt and pepper. Add the warm potatoes and toss to coat. Transfer to a casserole dish and set aside.

To prepare the topping, combine the Panko bread crumbs, Parmesan and paprika. Season with additional salt and pepper then sprinkle evenly over the potato mixture.

Bake (uncovered) in the preheated oven until the topping is golden brown and the potatoes are completely soft (around 20 – 25 minutes.)

There aren’t many things that are completely consumed by the next day in our house. We’re food snobs. We eat the first day, with every good intention of finishing off left-overs the second day (a task that’s usually assigned to Baby Daddy because I’m admittedly a WAY bigger snob than he is), but more often than not they just keep on leaving-over well into day three and/or four.

Not. This. Stuff. It’s that good. Bake some up with a roasted pork tenderloin and you’ve got yourself a comfort meal worth writing home about.

Just ask my brother-in-law.

OMFG. SO GOOD.