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Mashed potatoes are the ultimate comfort food – creamy, buttery, and perfect for any meal. Whether you’re preparing a classic Thanksgiving dinner, a Sunday roast, or a weeknight side, this simple how-to guide will help you achieve perfect mashed potatoes every time.
Mom’s Perfect Mashed Potatoes
I grew up eating these creamy mashed potatoes almost every Sunday. My mom always served them as a side with her famous Sunday dinners of roast turkey or roast beef. This is her homemade mashed potatoes recipe. They are never too thin and watery, or too thick and dry. Her method and add-ins are what make them absolutely perfect!
Ingredients in Mashed Potatoes
- Potatoes: Russet or Yukon Gold (see detailed tips below).
- Sour Cream: For a tangy, rich flavor.
- Butter: Adds creaminess and depth.
- Milk: Helps achieve the perfect consistency.
- Salt & Pepper: Essential seasonings.
- Optional Garnish: Fresh herbs like parsley, thyme, or chives.
Choosing the Best Potatoes for Mashed Potatoes
The type of potato you use makes a difference!
- Russet Potatoes: High starch, fluffy, and budget friendly. The skin of a Russet potato is thick and dry, so peeling is recommended.
Fun fact: Russet potato and Idaho potatoes are both Russet potatoes, but only Russets grown in Idaho can legally be referred to as “Idaho” potatoes. - Yukon Gold Potatoes: Creamy, buttery flavor with thinner skins. You can choose to peel or not to peel. Leaving the peel on adds nutrients and doesn’t interfere with the creamy texture.
How to Cook Potatoes for Mashing
1. Boiled
The traditional and most common method for softening your potatoes for mashing.
- Peel and dice potatoes into large chunks.
- Boil in salted water for 15-18 minutes or until fork-tender.
- Drain and mash immediately for the best texture.
2. Steamed
Steaming your potatoes can prevent potatoes from getting mushy or waterlogged from over boiling.
- Use a steamer basket in a large pot for lighter, fluffier potatoes.
- Fill the bottom of the pot with 2 inches of salted water making sure the water doesn’t come into the holes of the steamer basket. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a rapid simmer.
- Add potatoes to the steamer basket, cover, and steam for 25 minutes or until tender.
3. Instant Pot (pressure cooker)
I love this method for Thanksgiving mashed potatoes – it saves precious stove top space.
- Quick and convenient.
- Check out our detailed Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes recipe.
4. Crock Pot
Another great method for Thanksgiving dinner because you can start your potatoes and move on with the rest of your Thanksgiving meal prep. Mashed potatoes prepared ahead can also be kept warm in your slow cooker.
- Spray Crock Pot with cooking spray and add peeled and diced potatoes (as many as your Crock Pot can comfortably hold). Add 1 cup milk, ½ cup water, and a generous pinch of salt over the potatoes, gently stir to combine.
- Place the lid on the Crock Pot and cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or until potatoes are tender.
- After mashing/whipping the potatoes, return to Crock Pot to keep warm until ready to serve
Our Best Mashed Potatoes Tips
- Use a stand mixer: I don’t know about you, but mashing potatoes by hand is not my favorite thing. I love using my Kitchen Aid with the whisk attachment. If that’s not available, a hand mixer will also give that fluffy, airy texture. Makes them perfectly every time without the hand cramps.
- Heat dairy ingredients: Heat your milk and butter ingredients in a small saucepan or the microwave before adding to the potatoes. This will keep the potatoes warm and help with even distribution.
- Extra creamy mashed potatoes: If you like your potatoes extra creamy and a little more rich, use half and half or heavy cream in place of the milk.
- Add some color: When serving, add a garnish of a parsley or thyme sprig to add fresh color to the potatoes.
Ways to Serve Mashed Potatoes
- Potatoes and Gravy: These potatoes are so good on their own, but they are my favorite with gravy. Here are some of our very favorite homemade gravy recipes to serve with mashed potatoes:
- Turkey gravy
- Beef Gravy
- Crockpot Steak and Gravy
- Country Gravy (included with our Chicken Fried Chicken recipe)
- Fully Loaded: Top your potatoes with cheese, crumbled bacon, and green onion. So good we gave these potatoes their very own post – Loaded Mashed Potatoes.
- Sour Cream and Chives: Stir in a little sour cream and top with chives and fresh ground pepper.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mix sour cream, milk, or heavy cream along with melted butter into the mashed potatoes for a fluffy, creamy texture. Use a stand mixer, or spend plenty of time hand mixing, for airy and light potatoes.
Yes! For Yukon Gold or red potatoes, leaving the skins on add nutrients and texture. I don’t recommend leaving skins on Russet potatoes because the skins are thicker and result in a less creamy mashed potato dish.
The first step is to heat the milk and butter before adding them to the mashed potatoes. Once the dairy is blended in, keep mashed potatoes in a covered ceramic dish in the oven on warm or in a crockpot on warm until ready to serve.
Storing and Reheating Mashed Potatoes
Storing: Keep leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
Reheating: You can reheat mashed potatoes in the microwave, oven, Crockpot, or on the stovetop. No matter how you re-heat your potatoes, the most important thing to remember is to add liquid. Milk or broth work best.
Creative Ways to Use Leftover Mashed Potatoes
When I have leftover mashed potatoes, I like to incorporate them into a completely different meal. It’s easy to make two meals out of one big batch of potatoes! You don’t even need to make them the very next day. Your mashed potatoes will stay good in the refrigerator for up to four days.
- Shepherd’s Pie: A hearty way to repurpose leftovers with ground beef and vegetables.
- Cheesy Potato Cakes: Crispy, golden appetizers with creamy centers.
- Thanksgiving Leftover Casserole: Combine all your favorite Thanksgiving leftovers into one dish.
How to Make Mashed Potatoes
Homemade Mashed Potatoes
Video
Ingredients
- 3-4 pounds Russet potatoes
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel potatoes and cut into quarters.
- Place potatoes in a large stockpot and cover with cold water, add salt (about 1-2 teaspoons) and bring to a boil.
- Allow to boil for about 20-25 minutes or until the potatoes fall apart when poked with a fork.
- Combine milk and butter in a microwave safe bowl and place in the microwave for about 40 seconds or until butter is melted. This makes it so the milk doesn't cool off your potatoes when you add it.
- Drain potatoes and mash with a potato masher or mix in a stand mixer with whisk attachment. If you do a stand mixer, make sure to keep it on low to medium speed.
- Slowly add milk/butter mixture until you reach your desired consistency, adding more milk if you want the potatoes to be thinner.
- Mash in sour cream and salt & pepper. Serve immediately.
Notes
To keep mashed potatoes warm after cooking:
- Heat oven to 300 degrees. Put mashed potatoes in an oven safe dish with a lid, or cover with foil. Keep in the oven for up to an hour, stirring occasionally.
- Place mashed potatoes in a slow cooker/crockpot set on low or keep warm. Stir occasionally to prevent sides from burning.
To reheat mashed potatoes:
- Oven: Stir in the liquid and butter into the mashed potatoes and spread in an even layer in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake at 350-degrees for 30 minutes or until heated through (165-degrees).
- Stovetop: In a large pot over medium heat, add potatoes, liquid, and butter. Stir often until heated through.
- Crockpot: Place potatoes, liquid and butter in a Crock Pot on low heat for two hours, stirring occasionally until heated through.
- Microwave: Though this is the fastest way of re-heating mashed potatoes, it is the least desirable. The consistency won’t be the same as when you first made the potatoes, but sometimes you just need to get them heated quickly. In this case, place potatoes, liquid, and butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Heat for one minute at a time, stirring well each time until heated through.
I’ve made these potatoes several times. I love how delicious yet simple they are. The tips help so much, thank you!
The milk to butter to sour cream ratios are perfection! This is one of our favorite ways to make mashed potatoes!
The tips for reheating are so useful – thanks for this in depth recipe.
These tips were invaluable. I’ve tried mashed potatoes so often that I was getting frustrated with the results: too gummy or slushy, underdone or overcooked. At your suggestion, I quartered, rather than diced the russet potatoes before boiling them. Then I used my stand mixer with the amount of milk and butter you recommended for 3 to 4 pounds of potatoes. The results were so on mark that I will stick to this recipe forever.
Can red skinned potatoes be substituted for russet in this recipe?
Sure!
These mashed potatoes are delicious. I finally got a great recipe.
Wanting to make these for Thanksgiving but would like to know if anyone has prepared them ahead of time and then reheated them? I’d like to have as much work done ahead of time so I can enjoy my company. Suggestions?
We’ve made them ahead of time before and it usually works great! We just reheat them over the stove with a little milk to keep the creamy consistency.
I never get tired of mashed potatoes, that’s for sure – my favorite side to so many other dishes. Yum!
These mashed potatoes look PERFECT for Thanksgiving, can’t wait to make them, thanks!
I am craving mashed potatoes and gravy so badly! I basically eat them once a year at thanksgiving so I’m definitely going to have to use this perfect recipe!
You can’t beat mashed potato for a comforting side, and this really does look perfect.
Love the sour cream in this. I’ve always loved it whenever I make baked potatoes, should have made the connection sooner. 😉
Mashed potatoes just the way I love them!!
Made these because adding sour cream sounded to good to me, and they were fantastic!
Your web site provides me with good inspiration. Many thanks
I didn’t think I needed a recipe for mashed potatoes. I’m soooo glad I found your recipe! I normally do mine in my pressure cooker. I was only cooking enough for my husband (I’ve gone Keto Ü) so I didn’t want to dirty up my pressure cooker. He loved them! Mashed potatoes are mashed potatoes…No Way! Not these! We’re actually moving to Idaho ♥ so I’m glad I have your recipe to break me in to the plentiful potato State Ü
Woohoo! So glad that you liked this recipe– we Idahoans love our potatoes 😉 You are going to love it here!
Love your recipe! Have a question?
Will be traveling down the shore on Thanksgiving morning (about a 2 hr, trip). Plan on making mashed potatoes the night before. How do I keep the potatoes soft and fluffy…….and not dry??
I haven’t tried storing them overnight, but I would definitely make sure to store it in an air-tight container to keep them from being dry. As far as keeping them soft, you might just want to mix them again up with a hand mixer or kitchen aid type mixer once you get to your destination. Hope this helps!
Do you recommend this recipe for a large batch of mashed potatoes? Planning on making 15lbs worth!
Yes, of course! It will work great. That is a lot of potatoes. You must be cooking for a big crowd. Sounds fun! The trick will be “eyeing” the amount of potatoes you have per batch once they are cooked. I would recommend dividing the cooked potatoes into fourths, and then mashing a batch at a time with the amounts of milk, butter, and sour cream in the recipe and then keep each batch warm in the oven as recommended. When you are ready to serve, you can mix them together in a big serving bowl, or pull each batch out of the oven one at a time. If you need oven space, you can also keep them warm in a crock pot on low. Be sure to stir the potatoes often so they don’t burn or stick to the sides. Good luck! 🙂
Any advice on making them ahead and keeping them warm in a crockpot? Would they be ok kept in one on low until dinner if we’re short on oven space?
I haven’t tried that before, but I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t work! Let me know how it goes if you do try it!