The Best Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
Total Time
30 minutes
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Rating
4.7 out of 5 stars
(75)
Ingredients
8 servings
- 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)
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Preparation
Step 1
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.
Step 2
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.
Step 3
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!
Step 4
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Chef's 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.
