Our Best Mashed Potatoes Recipe – A Couple Cooks

This is the best mashed potatoes recipe, hands down! Here’s how to make creamy, perfectly seasoned potatoes that everyone will love.

“Best mashed potatoes recipe” is a bold claim, but we stand behind it. These really are the best mashed potatoes! They’re swirled with fresh garlic sauteed in butter, milk, and a little sour cream, then mashed into fluffy oblivion. For the creamiest texture you can whip them with a stand mixer. Take them over the top with our secret ingredient to make everyone around the table go mad over them. (We’ve tried it, and it works!)

Best type of potatoes for mashed potatoes

There are several controversies when it comes to the best mashed potatoes, and the first is about the type of potatoes. What’s the best type of potatoes for mashed potatoes? We think it’s a combination.

• Yukon gold potatoes have a buttery texture and rich flavor. The yellow flesh of a Yukon gold potato is more robust than a russet potato, and the buttery flavor and texture carry the dish. We like to use ¾ Yukon gold potatoes in our best mashed potatoes.
• Russet potatoes are starchy and add the classic fluffy texture. Use ¼ russet potatoes in the potato mixture, or up to half the recipe.
• Use peeled or unpeeled potatoes: your choice! We love the look and texture of potato skins in our potatoes, but sometimes we like a smooth mashed potato. You can do either here! The benefit of unpeeled is it’s less work and you keep the nutritional value of the potato skin.

Tips for the best mashed potatoes

There are lots of variations in method when it comes to mashed potatoes. Some people use a stand mixer, some use a potato masher. Some chefs use garlic, some heat the dairy before adding it to the mixture. Here’s what we’ve found makes the very best mashed potatoes:

• Cut the potatoes into even 1-inch chunks. If you cut some smaller than others, the potatoes don’t cook evenly. You run the risk of small uncooked lumps in your mash (it’s happened to us!).
• Boil the potatoes until they are very tender. You don’t want to go overboard, but make sure they fall right apart when you prick them with a fork.
• Sauté fresh garlic in butter, then add the milk. Allow the potatoes to steam while you saute the garlic. It will make the kitchen smell amazing and is the essential flavoring for these potatoes. Remove the heat and add the milk, which warms the milk before mashing (which is important for the texture).
• Add the potatoes, sour cream and salt and mash with a masher. Use a simple potato masher to mash everything into the very best mashed potatoes.

Keep reading for two tips to step them up!

How to make smooth creamy mashed potatoes

How to make the best creamy mashed potatoes? Use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment to whip them until they’re beautifully fluffy and smooth!

First, mash the potatoes with garlic, butter, and sour cream by hand to get all the ingredients combined (if you prefer, use the paddle attachment on the stand mixer for that part). Then transfer the mixture to the mixer and mix on low speed with the whisk attachment. It makes the best smooth, creamy texture! One caveat: make sure not to over-whip or the texture can become too thick and gluey.

Variation: garlic mashed potatoes

Love garlic? As garlic afficionados, there’s never such thing as too much garlic in our house! To transform these best mashed potatoes into garlic mashed potatoes, increase the garlic from 4 cloves to 6 cloves for a noticeable garlic flavor. (You can go up to 8 cloves if you like a bold garlic flavor, but we can’t guarantee there won’t be complaints about garlic breath.)

Secret ingredient: prepared horseradish

This best mashed potatoes recipe tastes great with simply garlic, butter, sour cream, and salt. But want to take it even further? Add prepared horseradish.

We learned this trick from a friend, who brought these incredible mashed potatoes to a Friendsgiving once. They had this irresistible savory, tangy, creamy flavor and no one could guess the secret ingredient. Turns out prepared horseradish takes mashed potatoes from good to irresistible without infusing spicy flavor. The quantity specified in the recipe below is enough to taste it but not identify it as horseradish.

It’s not necessary to add this ingredient, but try it if you like! You can also make horseradish mashed potatoes and increase the amount so it infuses the signature spicy flavor.

A note on serving size

This mashed potatoes recipe uses 4 pounds of potatoes, which is enough for about 8 servings. If desired you can make a half recipe for 4 servings, but we find that the half batch feels small when feeding a family. We prefer making the full 4 pounds and having leftovers (see below).

Storage for leftover mashed potatoes

Our best mashed potatoes last for up to 4 days refrigerated in a sealed container. They taste great rewarmed. We do not recommend freezing mashed potatoes, since it causes the texture to become very runny.

The best thing to do with leftover mashed potatoes? Make Potato Pancakes or Potato Waffles! They have incredible flavor and you can serve them either savory or sweet. We’ve eaten them for breakfast or as a side for salmon for dinner and they taste great both ways!

Dietary notes

As written, this mashed potato recipe is vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan and plant-based, do the following:

• Replace the butter with vegan butter.
• Use oat milk, or the dairy-free milk of your choice.
• Omit the sour cream, and add additional milk until smooth and creamy.

More potato recipes

We hope you’ll agree that this is the best mashed potatoes recipe! Let us know if you make it in the comments below and what you think, whether it’s for a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas or an everyday dinner. Here are a few more potato recipes you’ll love: