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!

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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.

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

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:

Greek Potato Salad

Loaded Nacho Fries

Funeral Potatoes

Scottish Tattie Scones

Cheesy Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Loaded Baked Potato Casserole

You can find the rest of our Thanksgiving recipes here!

The Best Creamy Mashed Potato Recipe

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