Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes

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We love mashed potatoes here. Did I say love them? Yes ok just wanted to be sure that we are on the same page! I make them with a lot of meals even tho they were a bit of work. You have the boiling, making sure they are fully cooked and the draining of the potatoes. Ok, they are worth it but what if I told you that you could skip all of the above? Wouldn’t that be amazing? You betcha it would! That is why I only make Instant Pot mashed potatoes now.

Want to make your holiday dinner easier? These go perfect with prime rib! When I make these with beef, I use low sodium beef broth instead of water but the choice is yours.

Are you ready for easy?

Making Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes

There is so little to be done here and you can actually time the rest of your meal out. After the first time of making them, you will know the exact time. I will give you an estimate but it is possible your pressure build time might vary slightly from mine.

Prepping the Potatoes

I have used a few different potatoes here and the best for mashed is the russet potato. I love red skin potatoes and when I make them mashed I leave the skins on, but sometimes they are waxy when mashed. Russet will be your best texture.

Peel and cut the potatoes. I added the jalapeno to the picture so you can judge the size of mine:

Mine are not all perfectly sized but about the same size. If you decide to make red skin potatoes, you can leave the skins on.

Cooking the Potatoes

This is the easiest part. Add potatoes to the Instant Pot’s inner pot. Place directly in, do not use a rack. Add your liquid – either broth or water. It is up to you if you want to add butter now or wait – we usually add it after we cook them but that is just habit from years of making mashed potatoes on the stove.

We like to add garlic so we add chopped garlic now but that is optional. If you want to add other spices, you can do that now too. Place the lid on and set the vent to sealing. Press pressure cook/manual (depending on the model Instant Pot you have) and set the time to 6 minutes.

Once it is done I do a slow release. A slow release is shown in this video and takes a little patience to find the right spot and once you get it, it will take about 5 minutes to release the pressure. Less mess this way too for when you have a lot going on. You will see that I am toggling back and forth until it stays at the right spot to release just a little pressure at a time.

Once the pin drops, carefully remove the lid. You will see here that all the liquid is absorbed so there is no draining required – yay 🙂 They actually look perfect when you first pop the lid, I was trying to stir it a little to show no liquid so they started to break apart.

Mashing the Potatoes

I keep the potatoes in the inner pot of the Instant Pot and mash them right in the pot. Add in the butter (if you didn’t already) and milk. You can mash or whip them in there – whipping would be using a hand mixer. Transfer to a serving bowl and enjoy!

You might find you want to add just a little more milk or butter, it is a starting point. If we are making it with gravy, we use 4 tablespoons of each. If no gravy, we use about 5 tablespoons of each.

See how easy Instant Pot mashed potatoes are! What are you going to make with them?