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This Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes recipe is incredibly easy to make (no draining required), perfectly creamy and fluffy, and always so delicious!
So many of you have made and loved my favorite stovetop mashed potatoes recipe. But for those of you looking to put your pressure cookers to work this Thanksgiving (or any day of the year), I’ve been testing out various methods for how to make mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot and have finally landed on a good one to share with you today!
These Instant Pot mashed potatoes are made with the same list of ingredients that I always use to make my mashed potatoes perfectly creamy, fluffy and flavorful — including two types of potatoes (Yukon Golds and Russets, for optimal texture and flavor), cream cheese and milk (to make them extra creamy), a generous amount of butter (because…mashed potatoes), however much garlic you prefer (to make yours more or less garlicky), and sea salt and pepper to season.
But instead of boiling and then draining a huge stockpot full of water to cook your potatoes on the stovetop, the Instant Pot makes it easy by doing everything for us with the push of a few buttons! No draining required! All the potatoes need are 6 minutes of high pressure-cooking, followed by a quick release. Then to eliminate some of the excess water that remains, simply use the “Sauté” function to briefly boil off about half of the remaining liquids, and then mash the potatoes right there in the same pot with all of your favorite creamy mix-ins until they reach your desired level of chunkiness or smoothness.
This method is one-pot cooking at its best and even a step easier than the stovetop version. So if you own a pressure cooker, I highly recommend giving Instant Pot mashed potatoes a try!
Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes Ingredients:
Before we get to the full recipe below, here are some quick notes about the ingredients you will need to make this Instant Pot mashed potatoes recipe:
Potatoes: I always like to use a 50/50 blend of Yukon Gold and Russet potatoes when making mashed potatoes, so that you get the perfect blend of buttery and creamy + fluffy and starchy flavors and textures. But feel free to use whatever kind of potatoes you prefer.
Garlic: This recipe is written with a mild amount of garlic. So if you would like to make garlicky mashed potatoes, I recommend doubling the amount. (Or alternately, you could roast some garlic in the oven while the potatoes pressure cook and add it in later.)
Cream cheese: My go-to ingredient to make mashed potatoes perfectly tangy and creamy.
Butter: Also a must. Feel free to add in more if you would like your potatoes to be even more buttery.
Milk: I typically make my potatoes with whole milk, which makes them plenty creamy. But if you would like even richer mashed potatoes, feel free to add in your desired amount of half and half or heavy cream instead.
Sea salt and black pepper: I can’t stress enough how important it is to generously salt and pepper your mashed potatoes! If they taste bland, you definitely need more salt.
Toppings: If you would like to sprinkle some fresh herbs on your potatoes as a garnish (or mix them in), you can’t go wrong with some chopped fresh chives (or green onions) or fresh parsley.
How To Make Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes:
Full instructions are included in the recipe below, but here is a basic overview plus a few important tips for how to make mashed potatoes in the instant pot:
Prep the potatoes. In order to avoid unevenly-cooked potatoes, I recommend slicing them into 1-inch-thick chunks so that they will cook uniformly.
Pressure cook. We will cook the potatoes in the Instant Pot, along with garlic and a cup of water, on high pressure for 6 minutes, followed by a quick release.
Boil off the excess water. Instead of draining all of the excess water from the pot, simply press the “Sauté” button on the Instant Pot, which will quickly bring the water to a simmer and help it to boil off. I recommend boiling off about half of the water, in order to retain some of its nutrients and prevent the potatoes from accidentally burning on the bottom of the pan. Hit “Cancel” to stop the boiling.
Add remaining ingredients. Then immediately add in the cream cheese, butter, warm milk, and salt (I recommend starting with 2 teaspoons, and then you can always add more), and mash until your desired texture is reached. If the potatoes seem too dry to your liking, you can add in extra milk as needed.
Season. Don’t forget to give the mashed potatoes a taste and add however much extra salt and black pepper that you think they need.
There are endless variations that you can make with this basic Instant Pot mashed potatoes recipe, so please feel free to customize yours to taste! For example, you could…
Add gravy: If you’re love mashed potatoes and gravy as much as I do, you’ve gotta try my favorite mushroom gravy! It’s easy to make, naturally vegan, and full of the best, rich, savory flavors.
Add extra garlic: As mentioned above, the amount of garlic included in this recipe is pretty mild. So if you want to make (extra) garlic mashed potatoes, feel free to double or triple the amount of garlic added to this recipe. Or, feel free to roast a head of garlic in the oven while the potatoes are cooking to stir in afterwards.
Add extra herbs and/or seasonings: Feel free to also add in whatever other fresh herbs or seasonings you love! I’m often love adding in some fresh parsley, rosemary, sage or thyme. Or I also love adding in some Cajun seasoning (or Old Bay) to give the potatoes a more zesty kick.
Add cheese: To make cheesy mashed potatoes, add in whatever shredded or soft cheeses you love best. I’m partial to a good sharp cheddar, but Parmesan, smoked gouda, goat cheese, or blue cheese are also great options.
Add bacon: To make bacon mashed potatoes, fry up some diced bacon on the stovetop while the potatoes are pressure cooking to stir in once they are mashed and ready to go.
Make them vegan: To make vegan mashed potatoes, sub in vegan butter, plain plant-based milk (such as oat milk), and vegan cream cheese (or you can omit the cream cheese entirely).
Use sweet potatoes: To make mashed sweet potatoes, just swap in sweet potatoes in place of Yukon Golds or Russets.
5 pounds potatoes (I use half Yukon Gold, half Russet potatoes)
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces
1 cup whole milk, warmed
fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
toppings: chopped fresh chives, green onions, and/or parsley
Instructions
Prep the potatoes. Cut the potatoes (peeled or unpeeled) into evenly-sized chunks, about an inch or so thick, and transfer them to the bowl of your Instant Pot. Add the garlic and 1 cup of cold water.
Pressure cook. Cover and set the lid to “Sealing.” Pressure cook on high heat for 6 minutes, followed by a quick release.
Boil off the excess water. Once the pressure has released, carefully remove the lid. Press the “Sauté” button, and let the remaining water in the bottom of the pot boil off for about 3 minutes, until about half of the remaining water has evaporated. (You can push the potatoes to one side of the pot to keep an eye on the water level, and also to ensure that the potatoes on the bottom of the pot do not accidentally burn.) Press “Cancel” to stop the Instant Pot from cooking.
Add remaining ingredients. Immediately add in the cream cheese, butter, warm milk, and 2 teaspoons salt. Use a potato masher to mash everything together until the potatoes reach your desired level of smoothness and the ingredients are evenly combined. If the potatoes seem too dry, add in extra milk until they reach your desired level of creaminess.
Season. Taste the potatoes and season with extra salt (I usually add in quite a bit more) and black pepper as needed, to taste.
Serve. Serve warm, garnished with any toppings that sound good.
Wondering if putting the potatoes on the instant pot lifter would be good to keep the potatoes from burning while boiling off the excess water? Thanks, Marilyn
Do you ever peel your potatoes before making mashed potatoes? I have one picky kiddo who doesn’t like the skin so I’m wondering if peeled potatoes would change the cooking time at all.
Thanks for this! I have been enjoying your recipes! How far in advance can you make these? Are they okay to sit in the Instant Pot for a couple of hours or so before serving?
Worked wonderfully! I saw you post this recipe on IG this week, and kept it in the back of my mind—so glad I did! Fast, delicious, easy! I used creamer potatoes from Costco and was still delicious. ?
This was hands down the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had! I would give it a 10 star if I could. I used 5 lbs Yukon gold potatoes (not the mix), and opted for light cream cheese, but it was delightful. Made it for thanksgiving this year and it was such a big hit it was requested for Christmas! this will be how we make mashed potatoes from now on!! LOVE LOVE LOVE.
Really amazing. I used chicken broth instead of water and half and half instead of milk (because it was all I had, reduced the amount). Kept the skins on. Yukon gold. Absolutely delicious and so easy!!
Used salted butter. Combined with the 2tsp of salt in the recipe, we found it was perfectly seasoned with a pinch of pepper.
Using 8 qt instant pot, I added the water first then added rinsed potatoes. Didn’t get a burn notice, also the water level was so low at the end, no point in sautéing to boil any off.
Peeled the Russets and left the skin on the Yukons for a nice presentation.
This recipe easily cuts an hour of annoying, messy boiling off the prep time with the IP.
Kim —
Did you use 1 cup of water in your IP or 2 cups?
Thanks.
I never made mashed in the instant pot before. WOW. I didn’t “saute” as long as I should have so the potatoes were a little wet but my family and guests really like them tha way, so go figure. This is a definitely a keeper/
The mashed potatoes were certainly in the top five mashers that I have eaten. Only changed to milk & heavy cream.
HOWEVER, this recipe is a total nightmare in its design. Before you can find the instructions, the ingredients,
quantities of each, one must get through Instant Potatoes and other recipes before you get the subject Mashed Potatoes. It took me a good 20 minutes to search and find the quantities needed for each ingredient. Lets put this information first.
Fantastic recipe! I made this for Thanksgiving dinner and they were a hit. I used a mix of russet and yukon gold. Saute function worked well to cook off the extra water. I thought I had 5 lbs of potatoes, but once I measured them on a scale realized that it was only 4 lbs. I had already made the full amount of milk/butter and my advice would be that if you have less than 5 lbs as written in the recipe, that you add the warmed milk/butter gradually, not all at once. I added almost all of it before I realized what I was doing and it looked like mashed potato soup at first! I kept mashing and stirring and it quickly thickened up to very, very creamy potatoes. The flavour was outstanding. I read on a different site that you can leave them in the Instant Pot for up to 3 hours on warm, which I did. They didn’t burn or develop a skin. They were exactly like fresh. This is my go-to for mashed potatoes from now on. My Instant Pot is a 6 litre, I used 1 cup of water and followed the recipe exactly.
Is this something you can make ahead or best eaten right away?
Wondering if putting the potatoes on the instant pot lifter would be good to keep the potatoes from burning while boiling off the excess water? Thanks, Marilyn
That would work too, although mine never burned while boiling off the excess water (it boils off quite quickly).
Does it matter what size instant pot?? I would think yes. Please & thanks!!
I tested this recipe using a 6-quart IP, but it should also work with an 8-quart.
Does the water amount stay the same if I use less potatoes?
Yes, I would recommend the same amount so that your Instant Pot doesn’t register a “burn” warning.
Do you ever peel your potatoes before making mashed potatoes? I have one picky kiddo who doesn’t like the skin so I’m wondering if peeled potatoes would change the cooking time at all.
Sure, you can if you’d like! It won’t change the cooking time. :)
Thanks for this! I have been enjoying your recipes! How far in advance can you make these? Are they okay to sit in the Instant Pot for a couple of hours or so before serving?
Worked wonderfully! I saw you post this recipe on IG this week, and kept it in the back of my mind—so glad I did! Fast, delicious, easy! I used creamer potatoes from Costco and was still delicious. ?
So delicious! I used buttermilk instead of milk and added mashed roasted garlic cloves. So good! Will use this recipe time and time again.
Such an easy and delicious recipe. I substituted the cream cheese for sour cream and it was so yummy. 5 stars!
This was hands down the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had! I would give it a 10 star if I could. I used 5 lbs Yukon gold potatoes (not the mix), and opted for light cream cheese, but it was delightful. Made it for thanksgiving this year and it was such a big hit it was requested for Christmas! this will be how we make mashed potatoes from now on!! LOVE LOVE LOVE.
Really amazing. I used chicken broth instead of water and half and half instead of milk (because it was all I had, reduced the amount). Kept the skins on. Yukon gold. Absolutely delicious and so easy!!
Used salted butter. Combined with the 2tsp of salt in the recipe, we found it was perfectly seasoned with a pinch of pepper.
Using 8 qt instant pot, I added the water first then added rinsed potatoes. Didn’t get a burn notice, also the water level was so low at the end, no point in sautéing to boil any off.
Peeled the Russets and left the skin on the Yukons for a nice presentation.
This recipe easily cuts an hour of annoying, messy boiling off the prep time with the IP.
Did you use 1 cup of water in your IP or 2 cups?
Thanks.
Can you double this recipe? Would it work in a 8qt instapot? Also would the cooking time change? Thank you
I never made mashed in the instant pot before. WOW. I didn’t “saute” as long as I should have so the potatoes were a little wet but my family and guests really like them tha way, so go figure. This is a definitely a keeper/
The mashed potatoes were certainly in the top five mashers that I have eaten. Only changed to milk & heavy cream.
HOWEVER, this recipe is a total nightmare in its design. Before you can find the instructions, the ingredients,
quantities of each, one must get through Instant Potatoes and other recipes before you get the subject Mashed Potatoes. It took me a good 20 minutes to search and find the quantities needed for each ingredient. Lets put this information first.
Fantastic recipe! I made this for Thanksgiving dinner and they were a hit. I used a mix of russet and yukon gold. Saute function worked well to cook off the extra water. I thought I had 5 lbs of potatoes, but once I measured them on a scale realized that it was only 4 lbs. I had already made the full amount of milk/butter and my advice would be that if you have less than 5 lbs as written in the recipe, that you add the warmed milk/butter gradually, not all at once. I added almost all of it before I realized what I was doing and it looked like mashed potato soup at first! I kept mashing and stirring and it quickly thickened up to very, very creamy potatoes. The flavour was outstanding. I read on a different site that you can leave them in the Instant Pot for up to 3 hours on warm, which I did. They didn’t burn or develop a skin. They were exactly like fresh. This is my go-to for mashed potatoes from now on. My Instant Pot is a 6 litre, I used 1 cup of water and followed the recipe exactly.
These were super tasty! I didn’t have cream cheese so I put in some Boursin cheese. Will surely be making these again. Thanks