Hello favorite food season and favorite food item of said food season I SEE YOU INSTANT POT MASHED POTATOES!
If you love mashed potatoes, you are going to LOVE love love these in the Instant Pot. One pot, 30 minutes and done. Fluffy, creamy, perfect, and honestly just so low maintenance. They are infused with an herby butter, so they’re rich and interesting, but also: E-A-S-Y. You get both. Your mashed potato life will never be the same.
In This Post: Everything You Need To Know
- How to make mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot
- Frequently asked questions about Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
- The best potato for mashed potatotes in the Instant Pot
- Ways to use leftover mashed potatoes
- WATCH how to make Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
Prefer To Watch Instead Of Read?
Reasons To Love These Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
There are so many! Here are the ones that make me jump up and down:
- You can use russet potatoes or yukon potatoes (some commenters have used red potatoes as well).
- You can peel your potatoes, or leave the peels.
- It’s ready to go in 30 minutes with very little fuss.
- It has amazing garlic herb flavor.
- But also, you can pick the herbs you like, and you can decide how much garlic, and basically it’s a choose your own adventure.
How To Make Mashed Potatoes In The Instant Pot
I am not kidding when I say that these will cut significant time out of your Thanksgiving prep time. While these cook away, you could be making the cranberry sauce, assembling the stuffing, chatting with your Aunt Nancy, whatever.
Here’s how easy it is:
- Add your potatoes to the Instant Pot with water and salt (that’s it!).
- Make a quick garlic herb butter if you wish (you do). Regular butter will work just fine too.
- Mash your potatoes right in the pot and add your butter, something creamy (like sour cream, Greek ogurt, or cream cheese), and salt and pepper.
And you’re done!
Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes: Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, and there’s a recipe for you! Check out these Easiest Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
Totally! While I prefer a smooth, creamy texture, you can leave the skins on to make it even easier. One caveat: if you’re using russet potatoes, I’d opt to always peel to skin off since the texture isn’t as texturally appetizing as a red potato, golden potato, or Yukon potato.
You can use a potato masher or wooden spoon for mashing. If you want really fluffy and smooth potatoes, you could use an electric hand mixer.
The Instant Pot has a “Keep Warm” setting that you can use. However, to avoid any potatoes sticking or burning at the bottom, I’d recommend giving them a stir and maybe adding a splash of milk every once in a while.
What Is The Best Potato For Mashed Potatoes In The Instant Pot?
I’ve had success with many types of potatoes:
- Russet potatoes
- Yukon potatoes
- Red potatoes
Besides some variations in taste and texture, the timing will be adjusted slightly for each type. Russet potatoes need a bit more time because they are larger, and red and yukon potatoes don’t need quite as long because they’re smaller.
Russet potatoes are the standard potatoes used for mashed potatoes but I love Yukon potatoes as well.
Ways To Use Leftover Mashed Potatoes
If you haven’t completely conquered this batch of mashed potatoes when all is said and done, thankfully there’s no shortage of ways to use them. Here are a few ideas:
- Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie (easy, yummy, cozy, SO GOOD)
- Leftover Mashed Potatoes Gnocchi from Life as a Strawberry
- Everything Cheesy Potato and Egg Casserole from Half Baked Harvest
- Loaded Mashed Potato Cakes from Spend with Pennies
- Mashed Potato Doughnuts from Dinner with Julie
- Potato Rolls from Spicy Southern Kitchen
Mashed potatoes forever. ❤️
The Best Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 1-cup servings 1x
Description
These Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes are so, so good! They are so creamy, so fluffy, and laced with garlic herb flavor. From start to finish in 30 minutes, all in one pot!
Ingredients
- 5 pounds of potatoes, peeled and halved (see notes)
- 4 teaspoons salt, divided
- 2 sticks butter (1 cup)
- 2–4 cloves garlic
- a few sprigs of herbs (sage, thyme, etc.)
- 1 cup cream cheese or sour cream
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
- 1/2 cup broth or milk (optional, for texture)
Instructions
- Potatoes: Put your potatoes in the Instant Pot and cover with about 6 cups of water – enough to be completely covered. Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Cook on the steam setting for 12 minutes. Release steam right away. Drain the potatoes. They should be fork tender.
- Garlic Herb Butter: Melt your butter in a large skillet. Add the garlic and herbs and let it just gently cook and infuse the butter with flavor for 10-15 minutes. Pull the herbs and garlic out, and reserve your flavored butter. YUM.
- Mash and Mix: Using a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon, mash the potatoes right in the Instant Pot. Add the garlic herb butter, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, and the rest of the salt. Stir to combine. Season with more salt to taste – be generous! Voila. Delicious mashed potatoes are yours!
Equipment
Notes
If you want the potatoes to be a little thinner, add 1/4-1/2 cup milk or broth.
A few comments have noted that 12 minutes was not enough time to cook their potatoes. This is most likely because of the size variation of potatoes. I like to try to get evenly sized potato pieces without spending a lot of time cutting them up all (you’re just going to mash them anyway!) so I usually cut the big ones in half and leave the rest alone. But if you’re working with very large potatoes, you may want to cut them into quarters, or cook them for closer to 15 minutes.
To prevent lumpy potatoes, mash them right after they’re done cooking. Don’t let them sit around for too long. They’ll develop a skin and it will be harder to get them to mash smoothly and evenly.
This is the Instant Pot that we use. (affiliate link)
A previous version of this recipe was written for half of this amount.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Side
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: mashed potatoes, instant pot mashed potatoes, potato side dish, thanksgiving side dish, creamy mashed potatoes
Other Delicious Thanksgiving Recipes
- Sweet Potato Casserole (a Thanksgiving staple!)
- Bacon and Brussels Sprout Salad (the salad I bring to EVERY Thanksgiving)
- Baked Mac and Cheese (perfectly cheesy with a buttery crispy top)
- Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie (perfect use of leftover potatoes too!)
- Pumpkin Dessert Bars (let’s just say these include yellow cake mix – thank me later!)
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our coziest comfort food recipes page. Check it out!