Get perfect mashed potatoes every time with our Instant Pot diced potatoes recipe! We are steaming your favorite potatoes including Russet, Yukon Gold, and red potatoes in the pressure cooker to make velvety mashed potatoes and other types of potato recipes.
Or, serve the Instant Pot cubed potatoes without mashing for a WHOLE LOTTA YUM dinner side like potato salad that is ready in under 30-minutes.
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Instant Pot Cubed Potatoes
Making Instant Pot cubed potatoes is the first step in all of our pressure cooker mashed potato recipes because we know that this tried and true method for boiled potatoes will yield perfect results each and every time.
And, if your end goal is NOT to mash, we show you how to reduce the cooking time and make something like potato salad or a side of loaded potatoes with your favorite baked potato toppings instead.
Velvety and smooth, mashed potatoes are a delicious side for just about any dinner, but traditional methods can often leave room for error as the results of boiling cubed potatoes are not always consistent.
Luckily, our Instant Pot cubed potatoes come out perfect every time so we can add butter and milk to create perfectly mashed potatoes each and every time including Instant Pot mashed potatoes and Instant Pot colcannon.
Why You'll Love These Cubed Potatoes!
- With our Instant Pot diced potatoes recipe, you will have perfectly cooked, velvety cubes of cooked potato that are ready to make a variety of potato side dishes.
- Quick and easy, our cubed potatoes are ready in under 30-mintues, making this a side dish that is easy for even the busiest of weeknights.
- As-is, pressure cooker diced potatoes are healthy and work for vegan, gluten-free, Whole30, and paleo lifestyles too.
- The whole recipe needs just 2 ingredients!
Ingredient Notes
** 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!
- water - always add 1 up 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.
Equipment
A Pressure Cooker - This is the Instant Pot model that we used.
How to Cook Diced Potatoes in Instant Pot
Making Instant Pot cubed potatoes is such a simple recipe, that you are going to wonder why you ever bothered with that cumbersome pot of boiling water.
We are going to start with cubed potatoes, add them to the pressure cooker, and let it work its magic, then follow up with a quick release to reveal perfectly boiled potato cubes that are ready for your dinner or other recipes that call for boiled potato cubes.
Step 1: Prep the Russet potatoes by washing, peeling, and cubing them into 1 ½" pieces.
Step 2: 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.
Step 3: Pressure cook the potatoes for 5 minutes on high (for mashed potatoes or do 4 minutes for potato salad), the pot will take about 10+ minutes to come to pressure beforehand. After the pressure cooking has finished, do a Quick Release of the pressure. Remove the potatoes from the Instant Pot.
The Instant Pot diced potatoes will be very soft and ready to use for another recipe like mashed potatoes!
Recipe Tips
- You can use the rack that came with your pressure cooker if you don't have the steamer basket, you just want to make sure to keep the potatoes out of the water so they don't get soggy during cooking.
- The recipe as written is intended to make potato cubes soft enough to get pureed into a dish like mashed potatoes. If you want to serve these as a steamed and cubed side dish, just cook them on High for 4 minutes until cooked through and they will still hold their shape.
- For best results, be sure to cut the potato cubes as uniformly as possible.
- 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.
- Mashed potatoes are so easy to make with these Instant Pot cubed potatoes! Just mash the pot potatoes in a bowl with a fork, add 4 oz butter, and combine until the butter is melted, add ⅔ whole milk or half & half; season to taste with salt and pepper.
Common Questions
It depends on your end goal. If you are planning on turning the Instant Pot boiled potatoes into mashed potatoes you don't need to add salt to the water. But, if you will be serving potatoes as a cubed side dish then, yes, you should add a little salt to the water.
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.
Yes, you can buy either canned or frozen diced potatoes to make Instant Pot cubed potatoes, but we do not recommend that you purchase fresh potatoes already cut since they brown easily once they are cut.
How long you cook the potatoes depends on what you're doing with the finished recipe. If you're making mashed potatoes, you'll want to cook the potatoes on high for 5 minutes before doing a quick release of the remaining pressure.
For potato salad, you'll cook the cubed potatoes for 4 minutes before doing a quick release of the remaining pressure.
More Instant Pot Potato Recipes
Looking for more potato recipes?
- Instant Pot sweet potatoes (cubed)
- Sweet potato casserole Instant Pot recipe
- Instant pot loaded potato soup
- Mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot
- Instant Pot colcannon with bacon
- Pressure cooker scalloped potatoes
- Instant Pot steamed potatoes
- Instant Pot German potato salad
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Instant Pot Diced Potatoes
Make mashed potatoes even easier by making super soft and velvety diced potatoes in a pressure cooker that are perfect for mashing! Cut 1 min from the cooking time to serve them as a side dish loaded with baked potato toppings or to use for 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, the pot will take about 10+ minutes to come to pressure beforehand. Do a Quick Release of the remaining pressure.
- The Instant Pot diced potatoes will be very soft and ready to use for another recipe like mashed potatoes!
Notes
- The recipe as written is intended to make potato cubes soft enough to get pureed into a dish like mashed potatoes. If you want to serve these as a steamed and cubed side dish, just cook them on High for 4 minutes until cooked through and they will still hold their shape.
- Yukon Gold or red potatoes can be used instead of Russet potatoes.
- 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.
- Mashed potatoes are so easy to make! Just mash the pot potatoes in a bowl with a fork, add 4 oz butter, and combine until the butter is melted, add ⅔ whole milk or half & half; season to taste with salt and pepper.
- You can use the rack that came with your pressure cooker if you don't have the steamer basket, you just want to make sure to keep the potatoes out of the water so they don't get soggy during cooking.
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!