This Instant Pot Garlic Mashed Potatoes recipe creates a velvety, smooth and creamy potato. It's a quick and easy recipe that uses just a few pantry staple ingredients- but that's all you need to create delicious mashed potatoes!
Table Of Contents
Making my no drain Instant Pot garlic mashed potatoes is incredibly easy. There's no big heavy pot of water and messy stove top to clean up. You need only your pressure cooker and a potato masher.
The garlic cloves cook right with the potatoes and then they're both mixed with butter, salt, pepper and milk to make flavorful and creamy mashed potatoes. Or you can use air fried roasted garlic or slow cooker garlic confit instead of raw garlic.
You can use the same no drain, one pot method to make mashed sweet potatoes and Instant pot mashed cauliflower (or crockpot mashed cauliflower). These simple side dishes are always crowd pleasers, which makes them great for both weeknight family dinners and fancy holiday gathering alike.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- There is no draining necessary! The potatoes are steamed in just enough water for the pot to come to pressure so you don't need to lift a heavy pot over the sink or chance making a mess on the counter.
- Made entirely in one pot. The garlic and potatoes are cooked together, then mixed with butter, milk, salt and pepper right in the inner pot.
- It's made with just 5 simple ingredients that you likely already have in your kitchen.
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Ingredients
- Potatoes: my preference is for Yukon gold potatoes because they have a high starch content and a natural buttery flavor. Russet potatoes, other varieties of golden potatoes and red potatoes can be used too but will give you slightly different overall textures and flavor.
- Garlic: use whole garlic cloves. If fresh garlic cloves aren't available, you can use garlic powder. ½ teaspoon of garlic powder equals about 1 medium sized garlic clove. If you have roasted garlic, that is a great substitution for added garlicky flavor.
- Butter: good old fashioned unsalted butter is the best, but margarine and plant-based butters are acceptable substitutes.
- Milk: to make a rich and creamy mashed potato, whole dairy milk is my preference but any type of milk works. You can also use heavy cream or a plant-based milk.
- Salt and pepper: use my recipe as guide and increase or decrease the amounts as you'd like for your taste preferences.
- Water: we use just a cup of water to steam the potatoes. You can substitute the water with chicken broth if you'd like.
Tools Needed
- Electric pressure cooker: depending on how many servings you make, any size pressure cooker will do. As written this recipe works in 6, 8 or 10 quart cookers.
- Potato masher: to mash the cooked potatoes to a perfect texture. For extra smooth potatoes, use an immersion blender.
- Vegetable peeler: if you choose to peel the potatoes.
Step-By-Step Instructions
STEP 1: Wash and dry the potatoes. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the skins. Remove skin from garlic cloves. Put the whole potatoes, garlic cloves and 1 cup of cold water into the inner pot of the pressure cooker.
STEP 2: Close and seal the lid. Set to pressure cook or manual on high for 10 minutes. If you've chopped the potatoes, see notes for cook time.
STEP 3: Quickly release the pressure when done cooking. Use the potato masher or immersion blender to mash to the texture you'd like. Add the milk, butter, salt and pepper to the pot. Continue to mix until butter is melted and potatoes are smooth. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if desired.
Serve topped with optional herbs of choice.
Tips For Using The One Pot Method
- Only use 1 cup of water to steam the potatoes. If you cover them completely with water you will need to drain them.
- If you want the cook time to be less than 10 minutes, cut the potatoes into halves or quarters.
Variations
- Make vegan/dairy-free: use plant based milk like soy or oat milk and a plant based butter alternative.
- Make cheesy: throw in some delicious cheddar cheese to make cheesy mashed potatoes.
- Add bacon bits: make loaded garlic mashed potatoes by adding bacon bits as a topping or to the entire pot.
Mashed Potato Toppings
To make over-the-top Instant Pot garlic mashed potatoes, consider these optional toppings:
- extra pats of butter
- fresh herbs, like chives, parsley and oregano
- crispy bacon bits
- sour cream
- shredded cheese, such as cheddar or pepper jack
What To Serve With Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Instant Pot garlic mashed potatoes are a fantastic side dish for most dinners all year round. They are great for holiday dinner sides on Thanksgiving and Christmas too.
Mashed potatoes are a classic served with:
Garlic mashed potatoes pair well with simple vegetables like:
Recipe FAQs
No. You can pressure cook the potatoes whole to eliminate the extra time it takes to chop them. But you can certainly cut them into halves or quarters if you'd like. The smaller you chop the potatoes, the less pressure cooking time they will need. For whole potatoes, pressure cook for 10 minutes on high. For halved potatoes, cook for 8 minutes and for quarters, cook for 5 minutes on high.
Yes! You can leave the skins of potatoes entirely on or peel them roughly so there are a few bits of skins in the end product. The more skin you leave on, the less smooth and more chunky and texturized the resulting mashed potatoes will be.
Normally when pressure cooking starchy foods like potatoes, a partial or full natural release works best to prevent lots of hot starchy liquid from spraying out of the vent and making a big mess. But since we are only using a small amount of water in this recipe, there isn't any liquid left at the end to spray out of the vent. A quick release is the best type of pressure release for this specific recipe.
Keep mashed potatoes in the fridge for up to one week in an airtight container. They can be frozen in freezer safe storage bags or containers for up to 6 months. This makes garlic mashed potatoes great for make ahead holiday dinner planning.
Recipe
Instant Pot Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Equipment
- pressure cooker
- potato masher
- vegetable peeler
Ingredients
- 2.5 lbs potatoes Yukon gold prefered
- 6 garlic cloves
- ⅓ cup milk
- 6 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper plus more to taste
- fresh herbs such as chives, oregano or parsley for serving
Instructions
- Wash and dry the potatoes. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the skins. Remove skin from garlic cloves. Put the whole potatoes, garlic cloves and 1 cup of cold water into the inner pot of the pressure cooker.
- Close and seal the lid. Set to pressure cook or manual on high for 10 minutes. If you've chopped the potatoes, see notes for cook time.
- Quickly release the pressure when done cooking. Use the potato masher or immersion blender to mash to the texture you'd like. Add the milk, butter, salt and pepper to the pot. Continue to mix until butter is melted and potatoes are smooth. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if desired.
- Serve topped with optional herbs of choice.
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