World's BEST Easy Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes
AWARD WINNING MAKE AHEAD ROASTED GARLIC MASHED POTATOES
World’s Best Mashed Potatoes
I love to eat. It’s one of my favorite activities. Therefore, I am an enthusiastic if slightly lazy cook. This makes for someone who has gathered many recipes through the years that are delicious but not too fussy or involved. One of those is my make-ahead mashed potato recipe. I don’t remember exactly where it came from originally, but not only is it delicious (just ask the 20ish people who eat them every Thanksgiving…hey, if it works, why vary?), it removes the element of last minute sweaty labor over a gigantic, steamy, hair-do wilting pile of potatoes that need to be made edible and remain hot in the last 10 minutes before eating can commence. You make them in the morning while you are still in your cozy clothes and guests won’t be arriving for hours. Then you plop them in your crock pot, set it on low, and forget about them until it’s time to eat. Sound good?
AWARD WINNING MAKE AHEAD MASHED POTATOES
Delicious, easy, and won't wilt your hairdo right as the turkey is coming out!
- 5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes rinsed and halved (and peeled if you don't have a ricer) (10 lbs fills my big oblong crockpot)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 8 ounces cream cheese (at room temperature)
- 6 tbsp butter (plus 2 or 3 T for top)
- 2 tbsp fresh chives, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1-2 bulbs roasted garlic (cut bulb in half horizontally, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper, stick halves back together, wrap in a double layer of foil and bake at 350 F for 1 hour and 15 minutes)
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Leave enough time to get that garlic roasted!
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Boil potatoes until tender (usually takes about 25 minutes)
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While potatoes are cooking, plop sour cream, butter, and cream cheese into a big bowl (the bigger the better so you can stir the whole mess without losing any over the sides)
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Drain potatoes
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Put hot potatoes and roasted garlic through ricer (a note on this below) cut side down onto the sour cream, butter, and cream cheese.
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Add chives, salt, pepper, and heavy cream and stir
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Taste them. Yum! They may need more salt, pepper, or cream at this point. Depends on how you like them.
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Place in your crockpot and set on low. Dot the top with butter and put lid on pot. Now, whenever the rest of your meal is ready, these will be too! If you want to make them the day before and refrigerate over night, just make sure you put them in the crockpot and turn them on at least 2 hours before you plan to eat.
Note on the ricer: Putting your potatoes through a ricer instead of mashing them keeps them creamy and avoids the sticky, pasty texture of overworked potatoes. If you use gold potatoes, you can leave the peel on ad it stays in the ricer! Did you hear me? NO PEELING POTATOES! I’m only yelling because it’s such good news!!! Also, using the ricer is fun. It’s kind of like playing with a play dough factory. Remember those!? If you don’t know what a ricer is, it looks like a giant garlic press. Amazon has tons and they are about $25. So worth it!!!
Additional fun fact: I recently participated in my niece and nephew’s Top Chef church fundraiser to raise money for their mission trip to Belize. They asked people to fix their favorite dish in one of several categories, sold 300 tickets for people to come eat the food, and then had all of the eaters vote for a winner in each category. I entered these potatoes into the side dishes category, and they won! Granted, I only had 2 competitors (small category) but their food was delicious too! I could eat those three dishes alone every night this week for dinner and be thrilled. So there you go. Validation that these are the world’s best mashed potatoes.
Go make some! And if you have a good eater/lazy cook compatible recipe, put it or a link to it in the comments. Let’s share!
Speaking of having 20 + guests over for Thanksgiving, entertaining used to be really stressful for me. Over the years, I’ve learned some great tricks to make entertaining easier. I also put together a printable six page entertaining guide I think you might find super helpful. Check out 15 Tricks to Make Entertaining Less Stressful for Introverts and Newbies.
Adapted from the original article written on April 26, 2017 at https://cozyclothesblog.com/worlds-best-make-ahead-mashed-potatoes/