Silky Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Prep 15 min
Total 40 min
Servings 4

Without a doubt, mashed potatoes are a quintessential side dish at just about every holiday—especially Thanksgiving. You can bet a hearty scoop of these garlic mashed potatoes will perfectly complement all that turkey and gravy. Butter and milk make these spuds extra smooth and silky, but the garlic is the real star of the show in the recipe. Instead of chopping up the garlic, this recipe calls for six peeled cloves (talk about easy) that go in right into the boiling water with the potatoes. The garlic will become tender and soft as it cooks making it super easy to seamlessly mash into your taters. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to enhance the flavors and you’ve got yourself a creamy, buttery and extra garlicky bowl of mashed potatoes.

By Betty Crocker Kitchens

Updated March 13, 2020

Ingredients

6

medium boiling potatoes (2 pounds)
6

garlic cloves, peeled
1/3

cup milk
1/4

cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2

teaspoon salt
1/8

teaspoon pepper

Steps

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1

Scrub potatoes. Leave skins on, if desired, or peel thinly and remove eyes. Leave whole or cut into large pieces.
2

Heat 1 inch water (salted if desired) to boiling; add potatoes and garlic. Cover and heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cook whole potatoes 30 to 35 minutes, potato pieces 20 to 25 minutes or until tender; drain. Shake pan gently over low heat to dry potatoes.
3

Mash potatoes in medium bowl until no lumps remain. Add milk in small amounts, beating after each addition. (Amount of milk needed to make potatoes smooth and fluffy depends on kind of potatoes used.)
4

Add butter, salt and pepper. Beat vigorously until potatoes are light and fluffy. If desired, dot with butter or sprinkle with paprika, chopped fresh parsley, watercress or chives.

If you’re not into garlic, go ahead and leave it out. The potatoes will still be heavenly!
Just a bit of potatoes left over? Use them to add thickness—and flavor—to your next vegetable soup.
Look for nice, firm potatoes that don’t have green spots or “eyes” growing out of them. These are signs potatoes are fresh. If you want creamy potatoes, be sure to peel them, as the grainy texture of the peel will not lend to overall creaminess.
The best way to cook potatoes for mashing is to cut them up into bite-sized chunks and place them in a pot of cool water straight from the tap. When the water and the potatoes both come up in temperature at the same time, your potatoes will cook more evenly, adding to a good, overall texture.
Boil the potatoes until tender enough to be pierced through with a fork. Then drain them in a colander, getting as much liquid out as possible, and return them to the pot. Turn the heat up under the potatoes just slightly and let them dry out until they get an almost chalky texture to them. The less water you have in the potatoes before mashing them, the creamier they will turn out in the end.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 Serving

Calories: 305
Calories from Fat: 110

% Daily Value

Total Fat: 12 g
Saturated Fat 7 g
Cholesterol: 30 mg
Sodium: 400 mg
Potassium: 810 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 48 g
Dietary Fiber 4 g
Protein: 5 g

% Daily Value*:

Vitamin A: 10%; 10%
Vitamin C: 20%; 20%
Calcium: 6%; 6%
Iron: 14%; 14%

Exchanges:

3 Starch; 1 1/2 Fat;

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Our mashed potato mantra is: keep it simple. This perfect recipe — yes, we’re willing to go there — includes only four ingredients and 15 minutes of hands-on work. There’s no peeling of potatoes and the the rough chop makes for quick work. While the simple ingredient list and light-touch treatment of the the potatoes might lead you to believe this recipe will end up bland and watery with only tough bites of skin for texture, nothing could be further from the truth. Butter gives the dish an extra silky texture and richness, while the garlic gives the dish pep. So next time you’re looking for a garlic mashed potatoes recipe, give this five-star dish a try or keep exploring our mashed potato recipes. If you really want to up your game, check out Betty’s directions on how to make mashed potatoes