Learn how to make perfectly cooked velvety smooth Instant Pot diced potatoes for either mashed potatoes or for making potato salad in less than 30 minutes. Our easy technique works for either Russet, Yukon Gold, or red potatoes.
Instant Pot cubed potatoes are so easy!
We're sharing our tried and true simple method for cooking potatoes in an Instant Pot whether you want to make mashed potatoes (we share our easy recipe below!) or potato salad. This will honestly be a game changer.
Once we started cooking diced potatoes for recipes in our Instant Pot, we've never gone back to boiling them on the stove. It's been so helpful in freeing up valuable stovetop space, especially during the holidays.
We use this same cubed technique for cooking sweet potatoes for sweet potato casserole or we cook them sliced for quick and easy scalloped potatoes (literally the fastest scalloped potatoes ever!)
Ingredients list
** Please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post for the exact quantities **
- Russet potatoes - washed, peeled, and cubed into 1 ½" chunks. Yukon gold or red potatoes will work too! Peeled Russet potatoes are most common for making mashed potatoes, Yukon Gold or red are great for potato salads since they're firmer and hold their shape well.
- water - always add 1 cup of liquid to the bottom of the pot for cooking under pressure, you of course could use other types of liquid such as chicken broth if preferred.
Cubing tips
To dice potato cubes, start with medium-sized russet potatoes, red potatoes, or Yukon gold potatoes and cut them lengthwise into 4 sections and then cut each of the sections into 1 ½ chunks. Peeling the potatoes is optional depending on what you're using them for.
Kitchen tools
A Pressure Cooker - This is the Instant Pot model that we used.
Diced potatoes cooking time
If you're just wondering how long to cook these, here's the quick answer!
- Mashed Potatoes: 5 minutes on High, do a QR
- Potato Salad: 4 minutes on High, do a QR
How to cook diced potatoes in the Instant Pot
Step 1: Prep the potatoes by washing, peeling, and cubing them into 1 ½" pieces.
Step 2: Pour 1 cup of liquid into the bottom of the pot. Insert a vegetable steamer basket and add the potatoes.
Step 3: Pressure cook for 5 minutes on high for mashed potatoes or 4 minutes for potato salad. Do a quick release of the remaining pressure and remove them from the pot.
These will be very soft and ready to use in another recipe like mashed potatoes!
Our easy mashed recipe
You might already have a family favorite recipe, but if not, here's an easy and simple one that used about 2.5 lbs of potatoes.
- Mash the cooked potatoes with a fork
- Add 4 oz of butter and combine until it melts.
- Add up to ⅔ cup whole milk or half n half, combine, and then season to taste with salt and pepper.
We also have a richer fancy version or an Irish version with bacon and kale.
Recipe notes
- Keep the potatoes out of the water so they don't turn out soggy. If you don't have a steamer basket, you can use the rack that came with your pressure cooker.
- The recipe is written for making potatoes soft enough to puree into mashed potatoes. If you want to serve these as a steamed and cubed side dish or for potato salad, just cook them on High for 4 minutes until cooked through and they will still hold their shape.
- You can cook up to 5 lb at a time, you'll still just need to use 1 cup of water.
- Make sure to cut them a uniform size so they'll all be cooked through.
More pressure cooker potato recipes
- Instant Pot sweet potatoes (cubed)
- Instant pot loaded potato soup
- Instant Pot steamed potatoes
- Instant Pot German potato salad
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Instant Pot Diced Potatoes
Cook cubed potatoes in a pressure cooker the easy way for either mashed potatoes or potato salad.
Ingredients
- 2-3 lb Russet potatoes, washed, peeled, and cubed into 1 ½" chunks.
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Prep the Russet potatoes by washing, peeling, and cubing them into 1 ½" pieces.
- Add 1 cup of water to the bottom of the pressure cooker and insert a vegetable steamer. Place the diced potato cubes into the Instant Pot and close the lid.
- Pressure cook the potatoes for 5 minutes on high for mashed potatoes or pressure cook for 4 minutes if you're making potato salad, the pot will take about 10+ minutes to come to pressure beforehand. Do a Quick Release of the remaining pressure.
- The cubed potatoes will be very soft and ready to use for another recipe!
Notes
- Yukon Gold or red potatoes can be used instead of Russet potatoes. Russet are great for mashed potatoes, Yukon gold or red work well for potato salad.
- You can cook up to 5 lb of potatoes at a time with this method, you'll still just need to use 1 cup of water.
- Keep the potatoes out of the water to prevent them from getting sticky. Use a steamer basket or the rack that came with your unit.
Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 330Total Fat 0gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 49mgCarbohydrates 73gFiber 8gSugar 4gProtein 9g
Barb says
Hi there, just wondering if you've ever tried this. Slice potatoes, cook but not fully, freeze them, then pan-fry later from frozen/partially thawed.
I usually parboil sliced potatoes on stove top in pot of boiling water for about 3 minutes, ice bath, then cool. But was thinking about using my Instant pot instead of the stove top. But not sure how long it would be in the Instant Pot to get to that degree of 'doneness'. Thanks
Barb
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Barb! I haven't ever tried that but it's super clever!! I'd try pressure cooking them for maybe just 1-2 minutes to see if it gets you a similar degree of doneness. That's just a guess!