This Mashed Potatoes Recipe is the perfect side dish with minimal effort. If you're looking to make the creamiest mashed potatoes, make one of our favorite side dishes! This recipe is the star of the family dinner table, and the best part is, you won't need an extra trip to the grocery store. This simple side dish is probably the best way to impress potato lovers with only 7 pantry and kitchen staples!
This mashed potato recipe is the perfect base for any meal. Truly it's one the whole family will love. Serve it with your favorite main dish, like pork chops, a grilled steak, Swedish meatballs, and more!
In the mood for more potato recipes? Be sure to check out our air fryer garlic herb and parmesan smashed potatoes or these air fryer sweet potato cubes for an easy side dish.
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❤️Why you'll love this
- Simple ingredients: This recipe only requires 6 staple ingredients, and we added in an optional extra to take it to the next level. Plus? They're kitchen staples!
- Quick & easy: If you're looking for a side that's ready in under 30 minutes, you're in the right place!
- No special equipment needed: While special tools can help speed up the process, you can make these easily at home without anything extra!
- Packed with flavor: These will quickly become everyone's favorite mashed potatoes. We can almost guarantee it!
🥔Ingredients
Here are the ingredients you will need.
✏️Ingredient Notes
Here is a list of ingredients, you can see the recipe card for quantities.
- Redskin potatoes - Scrubbed clean of any blemishes. You don't need to peel them, however.
- Sour cream & heavy whipping cream - For extra creamy and rich potatoes, with the right amount of tanginess added from the sour cream. Room temperature will help produce the best mashed potatoes texture.
- Unsalted butter - We like to use unsalted butter so we can control the salt level as much as possible. Make sure it's melted before being added to the potato mash.
- Black pepper, kosher salt & fresh thyme - The only two essential ingredients is black pepper and kosher salt. Fresh or dried thyme adds an incredible flavor but is optional.
- Olive oil - Technically optional, if you are looking to dry out all the excess water from the potatoes later. We'll explain in further detail later on.
- Cold water - Just enough to cover the potatoes in a large pot. Adding potatoes to hot water cooks the outside quickly. while the inside doesn't cook, making the outside of the potatoes mushy. Allowing the water and potatoes to heat up at the same time ensures the potatoes cook properly.
📖Instructions
This Google web story is a different way to view the mashed potato instructions.
🔪Prep work:
- Bring butter, heavy cream, and sour cream out of the fridge to soften about an hour before cooking if possible.
- Scrub the potatoes, remove any blemishes, and quarter them.
Add potatoes to a large pot. Pour in enough water to cover, along with salt. Bring the potatoes to a boil, and boil until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Drain potatoes, and set aside.
If desired, you can heat up a little olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat and add the potatoes to it.
Move continuously while heating the potatoes for 2-3 minutes. This ensures you have no excess water, and the potatoes are nice and hot for mashing, which will definitely produce the best.
Using a potato masher, hand mixer, or stand mixer, mash the potatoes until there are just a few lumps.
Next, add in melted butter, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and fresh thyme & continue mixing or mashing to combine and desired texture is reached.
Place potatoes into a large bowl, and drizzle on melted butter to serve.
Garnish with fresh thyme, salt, and black pepper. Enjoy!
Hint: Room temperature or even hot butter and dairy will yield the best results. Adding cold dairy to mashed potatoes cools the potatoes down, preventing them from getting perfect and creamy.
✨Substitutions
Wondering about substitutions? We've got you covered!
- Heavy cream- You can use any milk you prefer instead of heavy cream. If you're vegan, use your favorite vegan substitute. If you're just looking to lower the calories a tad, swap the cream for whole milk.
- Water - If you want to use chicken broth in place of water to boil the potatoes in, we think this is a good idea to add extra flavor!
- Sour cream - Feel free to use room temperature cream cheese in place of sour cream if you don't have it on hand. If using cream cheese, you may need to add a few extra tablespoons of liquid.
💭Variations
Here are a few ways to alter these mashed potatoes for even more flavor!
- Chive or green onion mashed potatoes - Craving the sharpness of some added onion flavor? Mince some fresh chives or green onions and mix them into the potato mixture, as well as top them with them at the end.
- Garlic redskin potatoes- Most people love garlic, so if you're craving extra garlic flavor, we have a few suggestions. You could roast a whole head of garlic, and add them to the mixture to make roasted garlic mashed potatoes. You could also sprinkle in some garlic powder to add more flavor.
- Brown butter - Browned butter is one of the best ingredients ever! If you want to level up this recipe, this extra flavor will make you swoon!
- Parmesan - Add parmesan cheese with any of the above combos, or just on its own for an extra something to love!
❓Frequently asked questions
There is no need to peel the potatoes for this red potato recipe. Some types of potatoes should be peeled because the peels are quite thick and chewy. One of the best things about these potatoes is that the thin skin will not interfere with enjoying the potatoes.
We actually think the peels add a great texture to this dish. Another thing to know is that the peels themselves are full of nutrients. Read more about that here.
There can be a lot to know when it comes to picking potatoes. Redskin potatoes are perfect for this recipe and offer an incredibly creamy texture.
One of the great things about these mashed red potatoes is that waxy potatoes can also absorb moisture really well, making extra creamy potatoes. Using redskin potatoes is the best idea, but here are a few tips on some other varieties.
Yellow potatoes - Like Yukon gold potatoes, are medium-starch potatoes, making them quite all-purpose. We'd say this is our top pick for substitute redskin potatoes.
White potatoes - These are starchy potatoes, like russet potatoes. If you are looking to swap out the red potatoes, feel free. Just make sure to peel these potatoes, as their peels can be chewy and undesirable for the texture.
Yes, you can! To speed up the process of boiling potatoes, you can certainly use a pressure cooker or Instant Pot.
Place potatoes in your Instant Pot with water, and a good pinch of salt. Allow the pressure cooker to come to high pressure and cook for 8 minutes, then use the quick release functionality. The potatoes should be fork tender. Drain potatoes, and continue on with the rest of the process.
*Please note that other varieties of potatoes may have a longer cooking time.
🥣Equipment
Luckily, this recipe is pretty standard and you actually don't need any special equipment to make it! Here are some different tools you can use if you want to make your life even easier.
- If you want the creamiest mashed potatoes, we highly recommend using a stand mixer or hand mixer! Our stand mixer is truly an extra set of hands, so we love using it to make the perfect mashed potatoes every time.
- Instant pot - If you're low on time and want to speed the process of boiling the potatoes up, you'll love using an Instant Pot! See the instructions above on how to do this.
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🥣Storage
These will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. They can also be frozen for up to 6 months. Thaw in the fridge, and reheat gently in the microwave. You may need to add more fat (either butter, sour cream, or heavy cream) when reheating.
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📖 Recipe
Redskin Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 pounds redskin potatoes, cleaned and quartered, skins on
- cold water to cover potatoes (about 4-5 cups)
- kosher salt for the water to boil potatoes
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (optional)
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1.5 sticks unsalted butter, melted
- 3 ounces heavy cream, room temperature
- 8 ounces sour cream, room temperature
Instructions
- Add potatoes to a large pot. Pour in enough water to cover, along with salt. Bring the potatoes to a boil, and boil until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Drain potatoes, and set aside.
- If desired, you can heat up a little olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat and add the potatoes to it.Move continuously while heating the potatoes for 2-3 minutes. This ensures you have no excess water, and the potatoes are nice and hot for mashing, which will definitely produce the best results.
- Place potatoes into a large bowl, and drizzle on melted butter to serve. Garnish with fresh thyme, salt, and black pepper. Enjoy!
- Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Notes
- The nutrition facts do not include any extra melted butter used when serving.
- Using cold water in the pot of potatoes will ensure the best texture for the potatoes.
- Make sure to add melted butter, and room temperature (or hot) cream and sour cream to the potatoes mixture to ensure the potatoes don't get gummy.
- See the post for the full list of substitutions and additional flavors to add.
- Fresh thyme is optional. Feel free to replace it with any herb of choice, or leave it out entirely.
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