Making your mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot is the BEST way to get rich, creamy, and delicious potatoes on your table quickly and easily! While the pressure cooking is perfectly softening your Russet potatoes, you are warming up butter and heavy cream to add, along with sour cream and seasonings to make a classic dinner side dish that is a WHOLE LOTTA YUM!
Instapot Mashed Potatoes
This is our family mashed potato recipe that we've been eating at all family gatherings for many years. It's super easy to memorize and easy to adapt to an Instant Pot. No more cumbersome large pot of boiling water and guessing when your mashed potatoes are done. With just one cup of water in the bottom of your pot, you'll have perfectly cooked potatoes ready for mashing!
We add lots of butter to the mashed potatoes so adding extra butter or toppings technically isn't even necessary! Considered these pre-seasoned pressure cooker mashed potatoes ready to eat straight from the pot.
Mashed potatoes in the instant pot are a great side dish for a simple weeknight dinner or for your holiday table. Naturally gluten-free, instapot mashed potatoes are also sugar-free. Vegan adaptions are also listed below.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Just one cup of water is needed in the pot, no dealing with a large pot of boiling water!
- The potatoes are perfectly seasoned and won't need extra butter or seasoning
- This makes a perfect batch of pressure cooker mashed potatoes in about 30 minutes!
- Using your pressure cooker frees up your stovetop and means you can walk away to focus on other holiday dishes or family dinner sides.
Let us help you create a holiday dinner to remember by pairing your mashed potatoes in the instant pot with these great options; air fryer turkey breast, fall roasted vegetables, and cauliflower broccoli salad.
Ingredient Notes
- Russet potatoes - peeled and quartered
- butter
- half n half - or whipping cream
- sour cream
- sea salt
- black pepper
Variations
Potatoes - we do prefer Russet potatoes for mashed, but you can use any potato variety that you prefer including Yukon Gold or Red. If you opt for red potatoes, leave some of the skins on to create a visually appealing and tasty change.
Seasoning - Salt and pepper are standard, but feel free to include garlic, chives, or parsley as well.
Equipment
A Pressure Cooker - This is the Instant Pot model that we used.
Diet Adaptions
- Vegan- Use vegan butter in place of regular butter, skip the sour cream, and omit or substitute the heavy cream.
- Whole30 & Paleo- Skip the butter or use ghee and use coconut cream in place of the heavy cream.
Step by Step Instructions
Your pressure cooker is doing most of the work for your mashed potatoes in the instant pot, but you will have to melt the butter and warm the cream while the potatoes cook. From there, it's mix to combine and serve.
Prep Ingredients
Wash and peel the potatoes, then cut them into evenly-sized cubes.
Add one 1 cup of water to the bottom of the pot. Insert a trivet in the bottom OR use a pressure cooker steamer basket.
Pressure Cook
Add the peeled potato chunks to the Instant Pot and close the lid. Be sure to check that the valve is set to pressurize.
Using the manual settings, turn your Instant Pot to Manual High for 10 minutes. (Some models might call the manual setting Pressure Cook.)
While your potatoes cook, on low in a small pot, melt the butter and add the half-and-half.
Heat it until warm but do not let it come to a boil.
When the Instant Pot is done cooking, do a quick release of the remaining pressure and drain any remaining liquid left in the bottom of your pressure cooker.
Combine
Either in your Instant Pot or in a large bowl, combine the cooked potatoes and the warm butter and half-and-half mixture, plus the sour cream, salt, and pepper.
Mash using either a stand mixer, hand mixer, or potato masher until your mashed potatoes in the instant pot are the consistency you are looking for.
Adjust the seasonings and add more salt and pepper if desired.
Serve warm and enjoy!
Optional garnishes include MORE butter, salt and pepper, chives, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, or bacon crumbles.
Recipe Tips
- For even cooking be sure your potato chunks are as uniform as possible.
- Using a pressure cooker steamer basket makes it even easier to get the potatoes out of the pot to drain the extra liquid.
- Keep your mashed potatoes warm until dinner is ready by setting your Instant Pot to keep warm. They will be fresh-tasting for up to 30-minutes.
- If you are serving a large crowd, you can cook up to 5lb of potatoes in a 6 qt model! Just add a little more of the butter, half-and-half, sour cream, and seasoning after the potatoes cook.
Common Questions
Mashed potatoes are best served with meat! We love pairing our mashed potatoes in the instant pot with air fryer turkey breast or air fryer pork chops.
You can use the warm feature of your instant pot to keep your mashed potatoes warm for 1-2 hours on low. You may need to add additional liquid.
Yes, if you have an 8+ qt pressure cooker.
More Instant Pot Holiday Recipes
Looking for more Instant Pot recipes?
- Pressure cooker scalloped potatoes
- Pressure Cooker Spaghetti Squash with Garlic Parm Sauce
- Instant Pot Steamed Broccoli
- Instant Pot Cabbage and Bacon
Come connect with us on Instagram! Be sure to tag us (wholelotta.yum) when you make a recipe. You can also find us on Facebook, and Pinterest.
Mashed Potatoes in the Instant Pot
The BEST mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot that'll become your new favorite holiday mashed potato recipe. With sour cream and butter mixed in, you won't need to add toppings. Delish!
Ingredients
- 3 lb Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
- ½ cup butter, 1 stick
- ½ cup half n half
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Wash and peel the potatoes, then cut them into cubes.
- Add one 1 cup of water to the bottom of the pot. Insert a trivet in the bottom OR use a pressure cooker steamer basket as we did in the photo.
- Add the peeled potato chunks to the Instant Pot.
- Put the lid on your pressure cooker. Using the manual settings, turn your Instant Pot to Manual High for 10 minutes. Some models might call the manual setting Pressure Cook.
- While your potatoes cook, on low in a small pot, melt the butter and add the half-and-half. Heat it until warm, do not let it come to a boil, you're just making it warm.
- When the Instant Pot is done cooking, do a quick release of the remaining pressure.
- Drain any remaining liquid left in the bottom of your pressure cooker.
- Add the warm butter and half-and-half mixture, plus the sour cream, salt, and pepper.
- The pressure cooker mashed potatoes can be mashed directly in the pot either by hand or using an electric handheld mixer. You, of course, can transfer all of the pot contents to a stand mixer if you have one and prefer that method to mix the mashed potatoes.
- Adjust the seasonings and add more salt and pepper if desired.
- Serve warm and enjoy! Optional garnishes include MORE butter, salt and pepper, chives, and sour cream.
Notes
- Yukon Gold, Russet, or red potatoes can be used in this recipe
- For a richer flavor, you can use whipping cream instead of half-and-half.
- To cut the fat in the recipe, swap milk for cream and use less butter.
- Up to 5lb of potatoes can be cooked in a 6 qt pressure cooker at a time! Just add a little more of the butter, half-and-half, sour cream, and seasoning after the potatoes cook.
- Using a pressure cooker steamer basket makes it even easier to get the potatoes out of the pot to drain the extra liquid.
- Change up the flavor by adding garlic salt or other seasonings
- Mashing the potatoes right in the bowl makes for less mess and the potatoes can be dished up straight from the pot
- Keep the potatoes warm for up to 30 minutes in the pressure cooker by keeping the Warm button on.
- The recipe was adapted from Ina Garten's mashed potato recipe.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 314Total Fat 16gSaturated Fat 10gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 44mgSodium 274mgCarbohydrates 38gFiber 4gSugar 3gProtein 5g
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