Ree Drummond's Secret to Perfect Potato Salad for Your Fourth of July Cookout

So you're making potato salad this Fourth of July? Us too.

Somewhere between last week and this week though, we dove into a vortex of add-ins to the summertime side dish staple. Basil? Blue Cheese? String beans? Our list of potential ingredient additions grew longer and longer.

That's when we came across The Pioneer Woman's Perfect Potato Salad and realized this madness needed to stop. There was a simple, better, tastier way. And it was ours for the choosing as long as we tossed our ever-growing grocery shopping list and followed Drummond's advice.

"There are as many potato salad recipes in this great land of our[s] as there are grains of sand in all the beaches in the world, and that ain't no lie. There are potato salads made with red potatoes, russet potatoes, and sweet potatoes," writes Drummond in a 2009 blog post on The Pioneer Woman, in what has since become her "classic" potato salad recipe. "There are potato salads with a mustard base…with a mayonnaise base…or with an oil and vinegar base. There are potato salads with herbs, with onions, with water chestnuts, with bacon," she continues.

"But today, to keep things simple, I'm making potato salad. Plain—but absolutely scrumptious—potato salad. The kind that goes with baked beans and watermelon." To that, we say, thank goodness.

With only a handful of everyday ingredients — Russet potatoes, mayo, mustard, scallions, sweet pickles, paprika, hard boiled eggs, and salt and pepper — Drummond makes side dish magic. For Drummond, the secret to this dish lies in the simplicity of the ingredients and the culinary technique (to that point, be sure to use a potato ricer or food mill on the potatoes if you have one on hand). Get the full recipe here.

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Now, we can go ahead and get back to fretting over more important details of our Independence Day celebrations. Like who's on cleanup duty.