Creamy Gold Mashed Potatoes
These mashed potatoes are full of flavor and deliciously creamy!
Choosing a potato
What they should have called it when Babe decided to marry me, lol. The first great thing about this recipe is that you can easily swap in russets instead of the Yukon gold, depending on whether flavor or texture is more important to you.
Russets will give you a lighter than air, fluffy mash, while the Yukon gold potatoes will end up more dense and luxurious. But what the golds lack in fluffy texture, they make up for in flavor. They have a naturally buttery rich flavor that is delicious on its own, and only elevated when you add all the yummy fix-ins.
Russets tend to be a little bland without seasoning, but again, we’re adding plenty of that later on.
Building flavors
Start out by roasting plenty of garlic. As it softens and caramelizes in the oven, the harshness of the raw garlic mellows out into creamy, savory goodness. After the cloves are a rich, medium golden, squeeze the root end of the bulb so that the softened cloves slip out of the skins and into a small bowl. They should easily smash into a paste.
Along with the garlic, there’s plenty of herbs to give these mashed potatoes even more flavor. If you’re making them around Thanksgiving or Christmas, you’ll likely have them in the fridge already. Fresh chives lend a good onion flavor and actually work really well with the garlic, along with some minced rosemary, sage and thyme.
Preparing the dairy mixture
There’s nothing really wrong with adding cold milk and butter to your mashed potatoes right out of the fridge. It’s kind of like using a box cake mix. Are the results going to be crowd pleasing and sufficient? Of course! But can you do better with a little extra time and care? Absolutely!
I recommend using heavy cream for these mashed potatoes, but you can easily sub in half and half or whole milk. Use unsalted butter and full fat cream cheese, mostly softened to room temperature. It isn’t the end of the world if they’re still cold, it’ll just take longer for them to smooth out into the cream as it warms up.
By melting the heavy cream, butter and some cream cheese together and letting the garlic and herbs steep while the potatoes boil, you do two things. First, you bring the dairy as close as possible to the same temperature as the hot potatoes, allowing them to combine more efficiently with less stirring/folding. And mixing as little as possible keeps the finished potatoes from being gluey.
Second, you’re giving the dairy a chance to infuse with the garlic and herbs for a better flavor. It actually works really well on the work flow side of this recipe. After you place the potatoes over the heat, you can start warming/melting the dairy. The dairy will be ready before the potatoes, so you can easily let it rest and stay warm while you finish boiling the potatoes.
Chicken stock vs. water?
Using chicken stock to boil the potatoes instead of water will give the potatoes even MORE flavor. And the bonus? The stock will have starch from the potatoes after boiling, so you can use it to naturally thicken up a gravy or sauce!
If you’re not wanting to use stock/broth, salted water is totally fine. Use 3 TB to 1/4 cup of salt for 8 cups of water. Don’t add any additional salt to the chicken broth, as most of them have plenty already.
Mashing the potatoes
For the fluffiest potatoes, use a ricer to do the job. The only drawback of a ricer is that you’ll need to do several passes to get all the potatoes done. It really creates the perfect texture, though.
You can also use a food mill or hand masher to get similar results to the ricer, but stay away from electric mixers. Even on the lowest setting, the beaters can turn the potatoes into glue. I promise that it’s worth the extra time to mash manually.
Once all of the potatoes are mashed, let them rest in the pot they boiled in for about 5 minutes. This evaporates any extra moisture out of them that could turn gluey when you mix in the cream. Carefully fold the warmed dairy/garlic/herb mixture into the potatoes until they’re smooth and completely combined.
Serve these right along side the green bean casserole or rolls!
Print
Mashed Potatoes with Roasted Garlic & Chive
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour + 30 minutes
- Yield: approx. 8 cups mashed potatoes
- Category: Sides
- Method: Stovetop, Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These mashed potatoes are ultra creamy and super flavorful!
Ingredients
To roast the garlic:
- 2 heads of garlic
- 2–3 tsp olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
To make the dairy mixture:
- 1 cups heavy cream (can also use half and half or whole milk
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed, room temperature preferred
- 8 oz full fat cream cheese, cubed, room temperature preferred
- 1/3–1/2 cup fresh minced chives (1/2 ounce)
- 2 tsp fresh minced rosemary
- 2 tsp fresh minced sage
- 2 tsp fresh minced thyme
- 1 TB salt
- 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
To boil the potatoes:
- 8 cups chicken stock or broth (can also use vegetable broth)*
- 5 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes.
Instructions
Roast the garlic:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the thin, papery outer layers of the garlic bulbs until you can see the individual cloves. Be sure to keep all the cloves connected to the root.
- Use a sharp knife to slice off the top 1/2 inch of the bulbs and create cut ends on each of the cloves.
- Set the cut bulbs onto a few squares of tin foil and carefully wrap up the sides of the bulb like a tulip. Leave the top open so you can add the oil and seasoning.
- Drizzle the teaspoons of olive oil onto the cut end of the bulbs and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Close the top of the tinfoil and place the wrapped garlic onto a baking sheet.
- Roast the garlic for 45 minutes, or until the cloves are soft, medium golden and fragrant. Your house will smell AMAZING!
- Once the garlic is done, remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly before using.
Mix & melt the dairy:
- Combine the heavy cream, butter, cream cheese, chives, rosemary, sage, thyme, 1 TB salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a small saucepan.
- Squeeze the warm garlic cloves out into a small bowl (they should easily slip out of the paper skins when you squeeze from the root end) and use the back of a cereal spoon or fork to smash them into a paste. Add the roasted garlic paste to the saucepan.
- Place the saucepan over medium low heat and stir occasionally until the butter and cream cheese have completely melted and there are no lumps, about 7-8 minutes. Do not let the mixture boil.
- Once everything has melted and combined, shut off the heat and cover the saucepan with a lid to keep the mixture warm. This allows the chive and garlic to infuse with the dairy as the potatoes are boiling.
Cook the potatoes:
- Give the cubed potatoes a quick rinse in a colander. Add them to a large pot (I used a 12 quart stock pot) together with the chicken stock and place the pot over high heat.
- Once the potatoes are boiling, reduce the heat to medium high and continue boiling for 20-25 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork tender. Carefully drain and reserve the chicken stock (if desired.**) Let the potatoes rest in the colander to dry for 5 minutes.
- Pass the potatoes through a ricer or use a hand masher to create a fluffy, mashed texture. I just mash my potatoes back into the pot I boiled them in.
- Once the potatoes have been riced/mashed and are the right texture, stir the warmed dairy mixture a few times and pour it evenly over the potatoes. The dairy might be much thicker at this point. If stirring doesn’t loosen it up enough to pour, add a tablespoon of the chicken stock from the potatoes OR a tablespoon of cream/milk and whisk well. Use a spatula to gently fold everything together until the potatoes are creamy.
- Serve immediately. Store any leftovers sealed in the fridge, after they have cooled a bit. To reheat, add a splash of cream and warm for 45 seconds to 1 minute in the microwave. Gently stir in the cream and enjoy for up to a week!
Notes
*You can also just use water. If using water, add 3 TB salt before proceeding with the recipe.
**The leftover chicken stock will have lots of starch from the potatoes, and can be used as a natural thickener for gravies and soups!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 cup
- Calories: 264
- Sugar: 1.9 g
- Sodium: 1780.4 mg
- Fat: 13 g
- Saturated Fat: 7.7 g
- Trans Fat: 0.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 33.8 g
- Fiber: 3.2 g
- Protein: 4.7 g
- Cholesterol: 35.1 mg
