This post contains affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
The best creamy mashed potatoes recipe – delicious light and fluffy creamy perfect mashed potatoes in under 30 minutes!
Serve with The Best Easy Turkey Gravy Recipe for a delicious, hearty side dish that will be the star of your Thanksgiving, Christmas, or other dinner table!
Don’t want all the extras in a recipe post? We provide a skip to recipe button in the top left corner, as well as a clickable table of contents, just below, to help make this page easier to navigate.
At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. My goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
Table of contents
Easy Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Delicious creamy mashed potatoes made with chicken stock, garlic powder, butter, heavy cream, and sour cream are a decadent twist on the classic side dish. The use of chicken stock as a base adds a savory depth of flavor, elevating the potatoes beyond their usual taste profile. This stock, combined with a hint of garlic powder, infuses the potatoes with a subtle, aromatic warmth that complements their natural earthiness. The addition of butter brings a rich, smooth texture, ensuring each spoonful melts in your mouth. The heavy cream and sour cream work together to create an incredibly creamy and indulgent consistency, with the heavy cream adding a luxurious richness and the sour cream providing a slight tanginess that cuts through the richness, balancing the flavors perfectly.
The process of making these mashed potatoes is both simple and rewarding. Boiling the potatoes until tender in a mixture of water and chicken stock enhances their flavor from the inside out. Once drained and mashed, the addition of garlic powder, butter, heavy cream, and sour cream transforms the humble potato into a dish of creamy delight. The key is to mash the potatoes to a smooth, velvety consistency, allowing all the ingredients to blend seamlessly. This dish is not just about taste; it’s about texture too. The final result is a bowl of mashed potatoes that’s so rich and creamy, it almost feels like a guilty pleasure. Perfect for a comforting family dinner or as a luxurious side dish during the holidays, these creamy mashed potatoes are sure to be a hit with everyone who tries them.
How to Make Creamy Mashed Potatoes
First assemble the following ingredients:
Boiler potatoes (6) – Boiler potatoes have a mild, subtly earthy flavor with a creamy, starchy texture that absorbs other flavors well.
Chicken stock (1 cup) – Chicken stock offers a rich, savory depth with subtle notes of herbs and vegetables, enhancing the overall umami in dishes.
Garlic powder (2 tbsp) – Garlic powder provides a concentrated, slightly sweet and pungent garlic flavor that is more mellow and less sharp than fresh garlic.
Celtic sea salt (3 tbsp) – Celtic sea salt adds a complex, briny flavor with a hint of minerality, distinct from regular table salt.
Pepper (2 tbsp) – Pepper contributes a sharp, mildly spicy and slightly woody flavor that complements and accentuates other ingredients.
Butter (4 tbsp) – Butter imparts a creamy, rich taste with a slightly sweet and smooth texture that adds a luxurious mouthfeel to dishes.
Heavy cream (1/2 cup) – Heavy cream has a rich, velvety texture with a mildly sweet and buttery taste, adding a lush richness to recipes.
Whole milk (1/2 cup) – Whole milk provides a gentle, creamy sweetness with a full-bodied texture, offering a subtle backdrop for other flavors.
Sour cream (1/2 cup) – Sour cream delivers a tangy, slightly acidic flavor with a creamy, thick consistency, often used to add richness and balance to the potatoes.
Use this Method:
Boil. Bring water and chicken stock to a boil in a large stock pot. Peel potatoes and cut into 1″ chunks When water and stock are boiling, add in prepped potatoes. Cook until potatoes are soft to the touch and crumble with light pressure, about 8-10 minutes.
Drain. Drain potatoes and immediately transfer to large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.
Toppings. Add all other ingredients to bowl. Mix with a whisk, a hand mixer, or a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Continue mixing until there are no lumps and potatoes are light, fluffy, and airy. Serve immediately.
Tips and Tricks to Perfect Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Perfect creamy mashed potatoes are incredibly simple and delicious with a couple of easy tips and tricks to be sure your potatoes come out perfectly!
Follow these steps to ensure light, fluffy, smooth, and creamy mashed potatoes.
-Peel and cut potatoes before boiling. This will reduce cook time significantly, ensuring potatoes don’t dry out.
-Don’t rinse potatoes with cold water after cooking.
-Mix hot potatoes with butter and sour cream immediately after draining water from stock pot to prevent potatoes from drying out.
-If using garlic cloves instead of garlic powder, dice garlic finely and place in a pan with butter until butter is melted and garlic is fragrant. Add to hot, drained potatoes when ready in the large pot when adding sour cream and continue with recipe instructions.
-For extra indulgent mashed potatoes, add up to ½ cup of cream cheese or parmesan cheese.
-If you don’t have heavy cream, swap it for ¾ cup milk, preferably whole.
- Bring water and chicken stock to a boil in a large stock pot.
- Peel potatoes and cut into 1″ chunks
- When water and stock are boiling, add in prepped potatoes.
- Cook until potatoes are soft to the touch and crumble with light pressure, about 8-10 minutes.
- Drain potatoes and immediately transfer to large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add all other ingredients to bowl.
- Mix with a whisk, a hand mixer, or a stand mixer with a whisk attachment.
- Continue mixing until there are no lumps and potatoes are light, fluffy, and airy.
- Serve immediately.
Make without a stand mixer. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can still make amazingly delicious, light, and airy mashed potatoes!
- Using a hand potato masher or large slotted spoon, break potatoes down by pushing on them.
- When potatoes are mashed, but aren’t entirely lump-free, slowly add in cream, sour cream, and butter while still mashing.
- When creams and butters have been added, use a whisk and whip potatoes for 2-3 minutes, until fluffy, light, and lump-free!
- If any lumps remain, press on them with the back of a fork to break them down, then re-whip with a whisk.
If you’re looking for lump-free mashed potatoes, you’re in the right place! I’m sharing the best easy tips for perfect spuds without lumps!
-Use warm milk. Milk that has been warmed mixes better, so you don’t overwork potatoes.
-Pick the right potatoes. For this recipe, I am a strong advocate of boiler potatoes, the smaller, light yellow potatoes that are a bit bigger than a fist and smaller than russet potatoes with a thin, smooth skin.
-Use a handheld mixer or stand mixer for lightning quick super-smooth mashed potatoes – simply add ingredients and cooked potatoes in a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer with a whisk attachment, and blend to smooth. Using a stand or hand mixer will cut this recipes time down to around 20 minutes if potatoes are prepped properly before cooking.
-Work quickly after draining water from potatoes as the potatoes will need moisture to keep it from drying out and firming up.
FAQs
Mashed potatoes can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days in an airtight container.
Too much mashing will cause thick, glue-like potatoes – mash quickly to prevent overworking potatoes to keep them light, creamy, and rich.
Using warm milk helps it mix in better, so you don’t need to overmix potatoes.
Other Potato Dishes You’ll Love
If you love these delicious mashed potatoes, you’ll love these other delicious mashed potato dishes on my site, like Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes, Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes, Leftover Mashed Potato Soup, and Ham Potato and cheese Casserole!
More Potato Recipes:
You can find the rest of our Thanksgiving recipes here!
The Best Creamy Mashed Potato Recipe
If you love the best creamy mashed potato recipe as much as I do, please leave it a five star review and help me share on facebook and pinterest!
Only have 30 minutes to get dinner on the table? Sign up for my 30 minute dinner plans direct to your inbox!
Find and shop my favorite products in my Amazon storefront here!
Best Creamy Mashed Potato Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 large boiler potatoes, peeled
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 3 cups water
- 2 tbsp garlic powder
- 3 tbsp celtic sea salt
- 2 tbsp fresh cracked pepper
- 4 tbsp butter
- ½ cup heavy cream, warmed
- ½ cup whole milk, warmed
- ½ cup sour cream
Instructions
- Bring water and chicken stock to a boil in a large stock pot.
- Peel potatoes and cut into 1" chunks
- When water and stock are boiling, add in prepped potatoes.
- Cook until potatoes are soft to the touch and crumble with light pressure, about 8-10 minutes.
- Drain potatoes and immediately transfer to large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add all other ingredients to bowl.
- Mix with a whisk, a hand mixer, or a stand mixer with a whisk attachment.
- Continue mixing until there are no lumps and potatoes are light, fluffy, and airy.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Your recipes are extraordinary! Your page layout and photos are amazing! I cannot imagine the time and care that you put into your site to gift to the rest of us! Thank you!!
Whomever is proofreading your work should be as thoughtful as you! I only pointed out the following oversight so you get the service you so much deserve.
Recipe: Butter (4 tbsp) – Butter imparts a creamy, rich taste with a slightly sweet and smooth texture that adds a luxurious mouthfeel to dishes.
Heay cream (1/2 cup) – Heavy cream has a rich, velvety texture with a mildly sweet and buttery taste, adding a lush richness to recipes.
Whole milk (1/2 cup) – W
Thank you for all that you do~
Sincerely,
Tricia
Thanks for pointing that out I have fixed it.
It’s so great
Glad you liked them!
I can not eat eggs