Chef’s Cupboard Potato Salad
Aldi is known for its house brands that you won’t find anywhere else. There is Mama Cozzi’s, which encompasses pizza of all sorts. There’s L’Oven Fresh, the Aldi private label for all kinds of different breads. There is also Friendly Farms, which includes milk, yogurt, and other dairy products. I could go on.
Another common house brand you’ll find at Aldi is Chef’s Cupboard. Many classic, shelf-stable pantry staples fall under this label, including canned soups, mashed potato mixes, onion soup and dip mix, stuffing mix, and so on.
The other week at Aldi, I came across a handful of limited-time Chef’s Cupboard products I can’t recall seeing before: shelf-stable potato salad kits. They consist of a box with a bag of dried, sliced potatoes with a packet of seasoning. You boil the potatoes on the stovetop, drain them, and then mix them with the included seasoning packet that you mix with your own mayo (or in one case, plain yogurt, if you prefer). Then you chill the potato salad in the fridge and serve.
These potato salad kits look a lot like the boxed cheesy scalloped potatoes my mom often made as a hot side dish when I was a kid, except that after making these potato salads, you chill them and serve them cold.
Aldi sells several types of ready-to-serve refrigerated potato salads as summer-only Seasonal Items, and they’re all quite good, but they’re perishable and we have to eat them soon after purchasing them. So, I was curious to see if these boxed potato salads, which can sit unopened on your pantry shelf for months, could compete with the refrigerated ones.
I picked up a box of each of the potato salad mixes. They came in three varieties: Dill, American, and Loaded.
Chef’s Cupboard Potato Salad is an Aldi Find, which means each store received one shipment, and after these sell out, they’re gone and you won’t be able to order any of these online from Aldi.
These cost $1.49 for a 5.25-5.4-ounce box at the time of publication. That comes out to about 27-28 cents per ounce. Each box makes about 4.5 three-fourth-cup servings, which comes out to about 33 cents per serving. You have to add half a cup of your own mayonnaise, or plain yogurt, which will increase the total price by pennies.
You make these all the same way, regardless of the flavor. The directions are for stovetop only. There are no microwave directions. However, because the finished product needs time to chill in the refrigerator anyway, speedy microwave directions perhaps aren’t as necessary, as this is a dish that just takes some time.
To make the potato salads, remove the seasoning packet from the box. Mix the seasoning with 1/2 cup of mayonnaise (or you can use plain yogurt for the Dill potato salad, if you want to, but mayo is perfectly fine for the Dill version as well). Set aside the seasoning and mayo/yogurt mix.
In a medium to large saucepan, bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Add the sliced potatoes and boil for 15-17 minutes. When the potatoes are tender, use a colander to rinse the potatoes under cold water until the potatoes have cooled. (During the rinsing process, depending on what kind of colander you use, you might lose some of the herbs, small diced veggies, and other seasonings that are mixed in with the bagged potatoes. I didn’t rinse any of these potato salads much to minimize losing things.) Drain for 2-3 minutes until completely free from water. (Don’t skip the draining step or you’ll have runny potato salad.)
Add the drained potatoes to a mixing bowl. Add the dressing you made with the seasoning packet and mayo/yogurt, and mix until well blended.
Refrigerate for an hour before serving. Mix with a fork before serving.
When prepared, these all have a fair amount of total fat, saturated fat, sodium, and carbs. They also have lengthy ingredients lists with a few processed ingredients. So they’re probably something best enjoyed in moderation.
Keep reading for more information and our thoughts about each potato salad variety.
Chef’s Cupboard Dill Potato Salad:
This might have been our least favorite of the potato salad varieties. The box says it’s a “classic Russet potato salad with a hint of dill.” It has a classic dill flavor and a bit of a bite to it, and it’s almost slightly spicy. It includes dried dill, onions, chives, and leeks, which give it some green accents. All those little green bits were easy to lose out of my colander when I drained the potatoes after cooking.
The directions for this one say you can make it with either mayonnaise or plain yogurt. I had a little plain Greek yogurt in my fridge, so I decided to try making it with yogurt. It came out fine, but this potato salad didn’t impress us enough to make us want to buy it again. It might be a matter of personal preference and how much you like dill-flavored foods.
The Dill potato salad does not list any common allergens.
One 3/4-cup serving of prepared potato salad has 280 calories, 18 grams of total fat (23% DV), 3 grams of saturated fat (15% DV), 730 mg of sodium (32% DV), 26 grams of total carbohydrates (9% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (7% DV), 1 gram of total sugars, 1 gram of added sugars (2% DV), and 3 grams of protein.
Chef’s Cupboard American Potato Salad:
This is a classic potato salad with a creamy mayo-and-mustard base. The box says it’s a “traditional tangy Russet potato salad with a touch of mustard.” It includes dried onion, red and green bell peppers, carrots, and celery. This one tasted fine, and most of our taste testers liked it more than the Dill version.
The American potato salad does not list any common allergens.
One prepared 3/4-cup serving has 280 calories, 18 grams of total fat (23% DV), 3 grams of saturated fat (15% DV), 780 mg of sodium (34% DV), 27 grams of total carbohydrates (10% DV), 3 grams of dietary fiber (11% DV), 4 grams of total sugars, 2 grams of added sugars (4% DV), and 2 grams of protein.
Chef’s Cupboard Loaded Potato Salad:
The box describes this as a “Russet potato salad with cheddar cheese, sour cream, chives & imitation bacon.” It also includes dried onion and red bell peppers.
Of all three different boxed potato salads, this looked like the one our tasters might like the most, and I guessed right. It has a creamy mayo base, with notes of sour cream, and the bacon (the ingredients list calls it imitation bacon flavored chiplets) is a nice addition. Is this as good as a loaded-style ready-made refrigerated potato salad from the store? Probably not. But it’s decent.
If you’re looking out for allergens, the Loaded potato salad contains milk and soy.
One prepared 3/4-cup serving has 280 calories, 19 grams of total fat (24% DV), 3 grams of saturated fat (15% DV), 660 mg of sodium (29% DV), 25 grams of total carbohydrates (9% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (7% DV), 2 grams of total sugars, 1 gram of added sugars (2% DV), and 3 grams of protein.
The Verdict:
Chef’s Cupboard Potato Salad comes in three varieties: Dill, American, and Loaded. These are shelf-stable kits that include a bag of dried, sliced potatoes that you boil on the stovetop. You then drain the cooked potatoes and add them to the contents of an included seasoning pouch that you mix with mayonnaise or plain yogurt. Then chill and serve.
These potato salad mixes are okay, but none of them really wowed us. We like the Loaded version the best, followed by the American version. The Dill one is all right if you’re a big fan of dill, but otherwise we could take or leave that one.
