These Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes are so easy to make — and turn out deliciously creamy and fluffy every time! Done in under 30 minutes in your Instant Pot, our mashed potatoes will save you time and free up precious stove space whether you’re making them for Thanksgiving, or a weeknight dinner.
Table of Contents
- This recipe is…
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes Recipe Ingredients
- Recipe Variations and Modifications
- How to Make Mashed Potatoes in the Instant Pot
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes Recipe Tips
- How to Serve
- How to Store and Reheat
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More of Our Best Veggie Recipes
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes Recipe Recipe
This recipe is…
We’ve always been fans of using the Instant Pot for hearty main dishes like for Honey Mustard Chicken and Potatoes, Chicken Tikka Masala, or French Onion Pot Roast. But one summer, in a very hot Texas kitchen, we fell in LOVE with using the Instant Pot to make potatoes too. Not only does making mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot yield whipped spuds that are perfectly creamy and fluffly every time, bit it cooks them up without heating up the kitchen or taking up valuable real estate on the stovetop.
Plus, mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot don’t need babysitting, so there’s no need to stand by the stove keeping watch over the potatoes and checking their doneness. Just set the timer, and move on to other things without worrying about overcooking. These tasty spuds are special enough to add to your Thanksgiving spread, yet easy enough to serve for dinner on a weeknight.This easy mashed potato recipe is also great to make when you’re hosting a large dinner since it allows you to make the potatoes in advance and keep them warm until they’re ready to serve, without taking up any extra space on the stove.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Deliciously fluffy and creamy mashed potatoes every time!
- Your Instant Pot does all the cooking, so no babysitting is required!
- Only 15 minutes of prep
- A great way to create more space on the stovetop for your Thanksgiving feast
Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes Recipe Ingredients
It only takes 5 ingredients to whip up these perfect mashed potatoes! Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
- Potatoes – the star of the show is 2 pounds of Yukon gold or russet potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
- Butter – you’ll need 1/4 cup of butter
- Heavy cream – just 1/4 cup of milk or heavy cream makes these taters so rich and creamy
- Salt – 2 teaspoons of coarse sea salt seasons these spuds
- Pepper – lastly, you’ll need 1/4 teaspoon of cracked black pepper
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Variations and Modifications
We’ve given you a classic (but oh-so-good) mashed potato recipe here, but you can easily jazz them up with some of the ideas below:
- For Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes: Substitute full-fat coconut milk for the heavy cream, and ghee or your favorite dairy-free butter substitute for the butter.
- For Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes: Slice a bulb of garlic in half, rub it with 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, then wrap it in foil and bake at 400 F for 30-40 minutes, until the cloves are soft. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its papery skins, then mash and stir into the potatoes for a rich, garlicky mash.
- For Cheater Garlic Mashed Potatoes: Add 1 teaspoon garlic powder to your mashed potatoes – this will give you great garlic flavor without the work of roasting!
- For Loaded Mashed Potatoes: Replace the cream in the recipe with sour cream, then stir in 2-3 slices of crumbled bacon, 3/4 cup shredded cheese, and 1 tablespoon of sliced chives for truly decadent potatoes.
- For Lightened Up Mashed Potatoes: Replace the cream with a flavorful stock or bone broth – this will add a ton of flavor to your potatoes!
How to Make Mashed Potatoes in the Instant Pot
See how quickly these easy mashed potatoes come together!
Step 1: Dice the potatoes into 1-inch cubes.
Add the potatoes to your Instant Pot and cover with 1 inch of water and set the Instant Pot to cook for 9 minutes.
Step 2: When the timer goes off, release the pressure, then drain the water from the potatoes and add them back to the Instant Pot.
Mash the potatoes.
Step 3: Add the butter, cream, salt, and pepper, and stir to combine. (See? It couldn’t be simpler!)
Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes Recipe Tips
Here are a few of our best tips for making mashed potatoes:
Get a strainer insert. This one isn’t a must-have, but using a silicon strainer insert like this one makes this recipe even easier!
Salt the water. Have you ever had the experience of making mashed potatoes and feeling like you can’t get enough salt into them? The trick here is to salt the water first. This flavors the potatoes while they’re cooking so you won’t have to add much salt after the fact.
Cut the potatoes evenly. We call for dicing the potatoes into 1-inch pieces, by making sure they are uniformly cut, you’ll ensure that all of the potato pieces cook evenly.
Quick-release the pressure on the Instant Pot. For this recipe, you want to make sure you perform a quick-release on the Instant Pot. If you let the pressure release naturally, the potatoes will overcook and absorb too much water.
How to Serve
Serve these mashed potatoes warm from the Instant Pot (you can keep them warm there until you’re ready to serve). We think they’re perfect on their own, but they look extra enticing with some fresh green chives for garnish.
How to Store and Reheat
Store these spuds in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Reheat in the microwave, or add a little more liquid and warm them in the Instant Pot.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are a lot of varying opinions out there about which type of potatoes make the best-mashed potatoes, below are our personal favorites!
Yukon Gold – these potatoes are our top choice for mashing potatoes. They absorb less water than other varieties of potatoes, meaning your mashed potatoes will taste richer. They also naturally have a lovely, buttery texture that you won’t find in other potatoes.
Russet Potatoes – Russet potatoes are a close second to Yukon gold potatoes. They still produce a nice, fluffy mash, but have less flavor and absorb a bit more water.
Red Potatoes – red potatoes are less starchy than Yukon gold and russet potatoes, meaning that the resulting mashed potatoes won’t be quite as creamy and fluffy.
Whether or not you peel your potatoes is totally up to you. Yukon gold potatoes have a really thin skin, so leaving it on doesn’t actually take away from the creamy texture of the mashed potatoes. Russet potatoes, on the other hand, have a much thicker skin, so if that kind of texture bothers you, feel free to peel them ahead of time.
You can add your potatoes straight into the Instant Pot’s inner pot – no steam rack needed.
You’ll just want to cover the potatoes with about an inch of water, so just add water until you’ve done that.
There’s also a lot of debate about the best way to mash potatoes! If you want the smoothest, creamiest consistency possible, we recommend using a potato ricer. This takes a little bit more work, but will effectively get rid of all of the lumps in your mashed potatoes. Personally, I prefer a more home-style mashed potato, and use a masher with multiple holes in it like this one. This gives the result of a mostly smooth mash with just a few lumps.
You can also whip your potatoes with an electric mixer for a fluffier texture, just be sure not to overbeat! Also, never put potatoes in a food processor or blender – your result will be gluey, stuck-together potatoes.
Nope! One of the best things about the Instant Pot is that you don’t have to adjust the cook time even if you are cooking more potatoes. Just note that the pot will take a bit longer to come to pressure the more you add to it.
More of Our Best Veggie Recipes
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Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Yukon gold or russet potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup milk or heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt, plus more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Place the potatoes and salt in the Instant Pot and cover with 1 inch of water. Press the ‘manual’ button and set to cook for 9 minutes.
- Once the timer goes off, immediately release the pressure and drain the water from the potatoes.
- Add the potatoes back to the pot and mash with a potato masher, then stir in the butter, cream, and pepper. Taste the potatoes and add more salt, if needed.
Recipe Notes
- For dairy-free mashed potatoes: substitute full-fat coconut milk for the milk and ghee or your favorite vegan butter for the butter.
- It will take the pot about 15 minutes to come to pressure
- If you want to double the recipe, you do not need to adjust the cook time for the potatoes.
Nutrition
So simple. And so good!
Awe yay! We are so happy you enjoyed it, Jessica!
I’m not sure what I did wrong, maybe using the steamer basket? It took forever (I cooked the entire chicken marsala recipe and it’s still not done) for my instant pot to “preheat”. I was so worried the potatoes were going to be mush! I turned it off after 18 minutes without getting up to pressure, did a manual release, and the potatoes were done, just enough. I didn’t use cream, just butter salt and pepper.
Maybe there was too much water?
Anyway, they were awesome, as was the chicken marsala!
Hi Karen! My Instant Pot sometimes has a hard time getting up to pressure too. I typically try to push the lid down and see if that helps (sometimes it’s just not tight enough on the Instant Pot). I’m glad they were done enough to make the mashed potatoes, though!
I have the duo nova instapot and there isn’t a Manual button! What do I do?? This is new for me and I’m not sure I love the instapot! Not user friendly directions and so many recipes say Manual. Want to do mashed potatoes this way for thanksgiving. Thanks
Is there a “pressure cook” button, Kristy? Manual and pressure cook do the same thing!
Yes there is! Thanks!!
Of course!!
I made these for Thanksgiving and the result was great. I loved that this was a hands off recipe on a busy cooking day. I used Yukon Gold and went back and forth about peeling them. I didn’t and they were fine; the skins were visible but were not tough so it didn’t impact the end result. I think next time I will peel them. I used Vital Farms butter & full fat coconut milk. Excellent!
So glad you enjoyed them Carrie!
Adjust cook time if you cut the recipe in half?
It’ll be the same cook time!