Mashed Potatoes

These Mashed Potatoes are the buttery, fluffy potatoes that come to mind when we think about the classic Thanksgiving Day holiday side dish. These are made with a combination of Yukon Gold potatoes and Russet potatoes for the perfect texture and creamy buttery flavor, the potatoes are first baked, then pushed through a ricer, and mixed with lots of buttery milk.

This easy mashed potato recipe is a nice Rustic Mashed Potato with a rich, creamy, irresistible flavor. Besides being great for the holidays, they’re the perfect side dish for any meal. So full of roasted toasty complex potato flavor.

If you love good, old-fashioned mashed potatoes, this is the recipe for you! It’s made with just 4 ingredients. And this go-to recipe for simple, homemade mashed potatoes, that are fancy enough for the holiday table, is a Thanksgiving dinner must.

I first published this recipe in 2010. I’ve updated it a few times over the years, but this is my first major update now with new information, photos, and how to instructions. Wow my photos were bad (I left one at the bottom of the post if you want a laugh) when I first published this! But the recipe was so good and still is!

We appreciate your support

Please let me know if you have any questions about this recipe. I read all the comments myself and I try to help as soon as I can. I have readers from all levels of comfort and experience in the kitchen on my site, and I’ve tried to answer some of your questions already in the post. But if I’ve missed anything, please feel free to leave a comment and ask.

How do you like your potatoes?

There are probably as many ways to make mashed potatoes as there are people. Runny, lumpy, chunky mashed potatoes, skin on mashed potatoes, without skin, boiled, roasted, with cheddar cheese, with garlic, leeks, with green peas, made with Russets, with Yukon Golds, I’ve even made blue mashed potatoes.

But this recipe is a classic, delicious recipe that will please everyone at the table.

They’re perfectly thick and creamy. These aren’t the whipped and light kind of potatoes.

These are easy to make ahead of time and reheat when you want them.

This is the simple mashed potatoes recipe that you want on your Thanksgiving or Christmas spread. These are also the taters you want for weeknight dinners! Just the classic potato and buttery flavors so they don’t interfere with the other flavors at dinner (no garlic to overpower the other dishes or anything!).

Extra special potatoes

Most mashed potatoes recipes usually have you peel the potatoes, chop the potatoes into cubes, and boil the chopped potatoes until tender; then mash with milk & butter. It makes a nice simple side dish as long as you follow some tips.

However, if you want something a little extra special, bake the potatoes. It gives the mashed potatoes an earthy rustic quality with a more complex flavor.

I’m also a big fan of skins left on – easier, healthier, and tastier. The skins develop a caramelized toasty quality after an hour or so in the oven. And the Yukon Gold potatoes have a nice thin skin that goes well in the dish.

Learn how to make mashed potatoes

Pro tips and tricks for great mashed potatoes

• Use a couple different kinds of potatoes. They’re the star of this show, after all! Grab some starchy Russet potatoes and buttery Yukon Golds, about half of each. This will make the fluffiest and buttery-est mashed potatoes.
• The fat helps coat the potatoes so they don’t get gluey. We’ve made this step easy by ricing the potato directly into the melted butter.
• The milk that’s added to the potatoes needs to be hot, or the mashed potatoes may be gluey or sticky.
• Avoid water logging your potatoes. Too much water is the enemy of mashed potatoes. We’ve solved this problem by baking the potatoes rather than boiling them.
• Don’t over mix the potatoes. It creates a stickier gummy potato. Again, this is solved by ricing the potato for a fluffy mash.

Ingredients

Now let’s talk about those simple ingredients.

What kind of potatoes should I use?

We’ve already talked about the potatoes – half Russets and half Yukon Golds.

Don’t use the waxy red potatoes for this mash. They won’t break down enough giving you lumpy potatoes, and don’t absorb the dairy very well.

It may seem counterintuitive to use a high-starch potato for a preparation where starch is the enemy, but due to their mealy composition, russet potatoes fall apart easily. Russets also absorb dairy more easily than waxy potatoes, which means less overworking.

And those gold potatoes have that beautiful color and buttery flavor right there in the potato.

So, the combination of the two is perfect!

Milk

Want richer potatoes? Use richer dairy.

Use cream if you want for over the top, decadent potatoes.

Half & half isn’t as thick and rich as cream, but it also isn’t going to be as heavy.

I’m a big fan of whole milk for a balance of taste, calories, and richness.

You can make some pretty good potatoes with 2% milk, but for special occasions, I’d recommend a different choice.

You can also make vegan mashed potatoes using plant-based milks. Choose one that’s neutral in flavor, unsweetened, and no vanilla flavoring added.

In this recipe I have you warm the milk with the melted butter so it’s hot when you rice the potatoes into it. This helps the potatoes absorb the dairy much easier, and you won’t have to work them as much to mix in the butter and cream. Less agitation means creamier mashed potatoes.

Butter

Use unsalted butter. That way you can control how salty your potatoes are. Salted butter varies from brand to brand, and even batch to batch.

The butter is one of the main flavors in mashed potatoes, so use the best quality you can.

If you want to use salted butter, don’t add the 1 teaspoon salt called for in the recipe, and simply taste and add salt as needed in the final seasoning.

Melting the butter and adding it to the potatoes with the warm milk coats the starch and results in silkier potatoes.

Smooth mashed potatoes trick

Let’s gather our tools and answer the question of, “what tool should I use to mash potatoes?”

I love my {affiliate link} Potato Ricer. If you don’t have one, I seriously recommend one! It makes smooth evenly mashed fluffy potatoes with no lumps! And it’s easy to fish out the peel after ricing the potatoes. No need to peel the potatoes beforehand.

Or, you can chop the peel a little smaller and toss it into the dish.

Food mills {affiliate link} are great. I use them for my pumpkin pie recipe too. It makes for fewer lumps, fluffier taters, and separates the skins so no peeling needed.

You can use a hand potato masher, however, the final dish will be lumpier and possibly heavier.

Potatoes made with an electric mixer, blender, or food processor can be overworked and too starchy ending up with a gluey sticky mess.

How to make

Be sure to scroll down to the printable recipe card for full ingredient amounts and instructions.

Wrap each potato in foil, then prick potatoes through foil several times with a fork. Bake until tender, 1 to 1 & ¼ hours.

Heat milk, butter, and salt in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat until butter is melted.

While milk mixture heats, unwrap baked potatoes and, cut unpeeled potatoes in quarters.

Force the hot potatoes through potato ricer into the hot milk mixture in pan and gently stir with a large heatproof spatula just until combined.

The skins can be scooped out of the bowl of the ricer as you mash the potatoes. You can also chop the skins into smaller pieces and add them to the potatoes.

And this recipe is easily doubled or tripled. Just use the calculator built right into the recipe card to make it easy on you!

How to serve

Rustic mashed potatoes are a family favorite; they’re versatile and can be served alongside so many main dishes. Comfort food here we come!

For a wonderful family dinner, serve up some Cedar Plank Air Fryer Salmon, Italian Apricot Chicken, or Smokehouse Style Beef with Maple Thyme Roasted Carrots and Air Fryer Green Beans on the side.

Mashed Potatoes are fantastic topped with Vegetarian Gravy,  Creamy Mushroom Sauce , Chipotle Sour Cream Sauce or country gravy.

Thanksgiving Day menu

Looking for great dishes for Thanksgiving? Don’t worry, I got you covered!

Start with some Marinated cheese and crackers. It can be made ahead of time and it’s so good!

You’ll want to make this Stuffed turkey along with Vegetarian Stuffing, Vegetarian Gravy Recipe, Roasted Cranberry Sauce, Roasted Vegetables, and some creamed spinach. Oh don’t forget my favorite turkey day side dish of cucumbers and onions.

Finish it all off with a great Pumpkin Pie Recipe.

Reheating

Reheat any leftovers in the microwave, in the oven, or on the stove. You may need to add a little more milk and butter if they’ve dried out a bit.

To reheat in the oven, place them in a 350° F oven, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes until heated through. This is the way I do it when I take them to a family gathering too.

Heat them, covered, in a heavy saucepan on the stove over low heat, stirring, until heated through.

Leftovers can be made into something new too, like Mashed Potato Puffs, Mashed Potato Casserole, or Potato Veggie Fritters. Or use them as a topper for shepherd’s pie.

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