The most comforting side dish! This recipe is a step-by-step guide to making perfect mashed potatoes every time.

In this recipe for Perfect Mashed Potatoes Every Time, the Potato is the highlight

we stick with the basic ingredients.

When it comes to mashed potatoes, I am a purist. Adding anything but butter, milk/half and half, salt, and pepper, doesn’t seem right. Mashed potatoes serve as a supporting character to the big bold flavors of whatever dish you’re serving them with. Simple ingredients enrich the potato’s flavor. It makes for a true mashed potato with extraordinaire flavor. For a pure mashed potato flavor, save the chicken broth for the gravy and save cream cheese for a bagel. For this recipe, I stick with the basic ingredients.

If you want a richer potato dish there are many out there. Some examples of potatoes with more complex ingredients and flavors are scalloped potatoes, fondant potatoes, potatoes Romanoff, dutches potatoes, and potatoes dauphinoise.

If you’re looking for a classic side dish that takes gravy well– this recipe for Perfect Mashed Potatoes Every Time is it!

Ingredients:

Potatoes: For this recipe a russet/Idaho potato is the potato to use. It is a perfect potato for a basic mashed potato, the classic side dish. There is a time for Yukon gold mashed potatoes or smashed red potatoes but to be a side dish at Thanksgiving or to accompany a French stew is not the time.

Salt: an absolute necessity as salt brings out and enhances the flavor of a dish. Salt needs to be added in layers to build flavors. In this recipe, you salt the water when the potatoes are boiling and you also season the potatoes when being mashed. Diamond Kosher Salt was used in this recipe, it is a less salty salt than other salts, so if you use a different salt use it to taste.)

Pepper: unlike salt which enhances the flavor of a dish, pepper changes the flavor. Pepper adds a small amount of heat and spice. You can use white or black pepper or a combination of both in this recipe.

Milk or Half n Half: I use either interchangeably or a combination of both. I don’t always have halfnhalf but I always have milk on hand.

Butter: There are two full sticks of butter in this recipe (I have been known to add more). The butter in this quantity is a must here. It gives the mashed potato an amazingly rich and nutty flavor and helps to produce the perfect mashed potato texture.

How to make Perfect Mashed Potatoes Every Time

Equipment:

Potato peeler: swivel peeler, y peeler, or a paring knife.
Large bowl of ice water to hold potatoes until going into the stock pot.
Small bowl for water to rinse potatoes before slicing the potatoes.
Large stock pot to boil the potatoes.
Potato masher or food mill to mash potatoes.
Chef knife to slice potatoes before boiling.
Butter knife to check if the potatoes are done.
Wooden Spoon to gently fold butter, milk salt, and pepper in.

Ingredients:

5 lb Potatoes (after peeled potatoes weighed 4lbs 2 ouncesz0
1 1/2 tbsp Salt, divided (2 tsp while boiling potatoes and 2 1/2 tsp for the mashed potatoes)
1 tsp. Pepper
1 cup Butter (2 sticks of butter
1/3 cup Milk or Half n Half (you may need a bit more or less, add slowly)

Step by Step Directions:

First, gather all equipment and ingredients. Make a peeling station.

Potato Peeling Prep Station:

For peeling the potatoes: Get a garbage/compost bowl for the scraps, get a small bowl full of water to rinse freshly peeled potatoes, and a very large bowl half full of ice water to hold peeled and sliced potatoes prior to boiling. Pick your peeler: swivel peeler, y peeler or a paring knife.

If the potatoes have a lot of dirt on them, rinse them off.

Now, peel the potatoes with the peeler of choice.

As soon as the potato is fully peeled, dunk the peeled potato in a small bowl of water to clean it off before dicing the potato. (The small bowl of water is instead of rinsing the potato under the sink faucet. The small bowl of water saves time, water, and mess rather than turning the faucet on and rinsing a potato in the sink with every potato. This conserves water and saves on splashing with every potato being rinsed separately. *See the pictures provided to explain.* )

Once the potato is peeled and rinsed off slice the potato into 3 to 4 uniform pieces.

Place diced potato in the large bowl of ice water until you are ready to boil the potatoes.

Boiling Potatoes:

When you are ready to boil the potatoes, transfer potatoes from the large bowl of ice water into a stock pot. Fill the stock pot with water 1- 2 inches over the potatoes.

Then, add 2 tsp salt to the stock pot.

Next, cover the stock pot with a lid until water comes to a boil (this will help the water come to boil faster.)

Once the stock pot comes to a boil take the lid off and boil until a soft knife goes through and potatoes just start to break on the edges-better.

When the potatoes are cooked, immediately strain in colander.

Melt butter, warm milk (or half and half), and mix in salt and pepper. It is best to pre-combine these ingredients to avoid over-mixing the mashed potatoes.

Finishing the mashed Potatoes:

Then, add the potatoes from the colander back to the stock pot. Mash with a masher or use a food mill.

Now, add the melted butter, and milk (or half and half), and gently fold in salt and pepper with a wooden spoon. If you over-stir the potatoes, it can cause gummy potatoes so fold in the ingredients gently and don’t over-stir to avoid activating the starch in the potatoes.

Keep mashed potatoes warm in a low oven or warming drawer until serving.