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Brown Butter Garlic and Herb Mashed Potatoes is a delicious recipe to be enjoyed year round but especially during the holidays! It’s creamy, buttery, and herby – perfect combo!
For more mashed potato recipes, make my twice baked mashed potatoes and cheesy mashed potatoes!
Brown Butter Garlic and Herb Mashed Potatoes is the mashed potato recipe you’ve been looking for but couldn’t find! Well, it’s here. Finally.
This recipe is SO good and very simple. The combination of brown butter and sour cream, garlic, and Lots and lots of garlic truly make this recipe INCREDIBLE. In addition, there’s a bit of onion powder and tons of fresh herbs.
When you combine these into one with beautiful golden potatoes, a flavor explosion happens. Also, these are super easy to make. Which other than the flavor, is the best part.
The Best Mashed Potatoes Ever
Do you typically make mashed potatoes for the holidays? It’s funny because so many people do. In my home, mashed potatoes was always more of a side for casual dinner and we saved sweet potato casserole for big holiday dinners.
Since Hubby and I are staying home, I’ve been experimenting with different foods. I made these potatoes in preparation of Thanksgiving. I just wanted to see if I could make mashed potatoes taste a bit better. If ever there is such a thing. Anyway, I achieved it. A rich and creamy mashed potato recipe that I would be proud to serve at a holiday dinner.
In developing this recipe, I began researching the best potatoes for mashed potatoes. I usually use russet potatoes for mashed potatoes. However, it’s never for any particular reason. So I decide to go down a rabbit hole on this one and do a mashed potato experiment.
In comparing Russet potatoes and golden yukon potatoes, I noticed that russet potatoes are a bit drier than golden yukon. With the russet potatoes, I had to use more of everything. More butter, more sour cream, but salt etc. It soaked everything up! The russet potatoes did get pretty fluffy, I was pleased with them. But I knew that they could be better.
Then I went on to try yukon gold potatoes. THESE mashed potatoes got SO. Freaking fluffy. They were light and airy and just so perfect in texture. Also, they mashed well and didn’t take as long to boil. As far as taste is concerned, they were creamy and smooth. All components that you want in mashed potatoes.
At this point, I think that I found a winner, but wanted to be sure. I then mixed together half yukon gold and half russet potatoes. It was good, but a bit too starchy. I’m not sure what went wrong here or why but I just wasn’t a fan. Perhaps the Four Level Food Scientist can assist. lol
So there you have it. Yukon gold potatoes was a clear winner. This is where the experimenting stopped and the eating began.
How to make Mashed Potatoes
For this recipe, I decided to remove the skins of the potatoes. Partly because I recently was gifted a potato peeler and was excited to use it. Im saying this to note that you can either leave the skin on or remove it – your choice! It’s delicious either way!
- In a huge pot, bring water to a rumbling boil. Add a bunch of salt. Don’t worry about the potatoes being too salty, they won’t! Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender.
- Drain the water and then mash! If you have a potato ricer, I highly recommend using that over the potato masher. If you don’t have one, don’t worry! A masher works just fine, it’ll just be a bit lumpy. The ricer just yields a smoother texture to the potatoes.
- Brown butter and add to the mashed potatoes along with parsley, rosemary, thyme, and chives. Also add in sour cream and heavy cream, salt, pepper, and onion powder. (I also like to add red pepper flakes but that’s just me. I only put the added red pepper flakes on my plate, never in the whole bowl) Mix to make sure that everything is combined and you’re done!
Enjoy with my chicken fried steak, garlic butter steak bites or garlic butter wings!
More Mashed Potato Recipes
Thanksgiving
Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes
Thanksgiving
Red Skin Mashed Potatoes
Thanksgiving
Cheesy Mashed Potatoes
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Brown Butter Garlic and Herb Mashed Potatoes
Equipment
- Pot
- Mixing Bowl
- Potato Masher
- Skillet
Ingredients
- 8-10 Yukon Gold Potatoes, small to medium in size
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 stick salted butter
- 4 cloves garlic, diced
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- Salt and Pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Bring large pot of water to a boil (enough water to completely submerge potatoes) Liberally salt water, about 1 tablespoon. Boil potatoes until fork tender.
- In a separate pan, brown 1 stick of salted butter over medium low to medium heat. When butter is properly browned, it will be bubbly and brown on top. When it gets to this point, remove the butter from the heat. Add garlic to brown butter and set aside.
- Once potatoes are fork tender, Drain water from potatoes and use a potato ricer or potato masher to mash the potatoes. Add brown butter, sour cream, heavy cream, onion powder, and salt and pepper. Then add chopped herbs. Mix thoroughly and taste to see if more salt or pepper are needed.
- Garnish with parsley and chives.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
do you need to peel the potatoes first?
only if you want to!
These were a BIG hit in my house!! My daughter has never really liked mashed potatoes (I know?!), but she ate multiple helpings and requested them again. Had them tonight as a matter of fact. So creamy! Flavor combinations were perfect. Thank you!!
I’m so happy to hear that your family enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for letting me know! 🙂
Can this recipe be made ahead of time? And if so, what temperature and time would be best to reheat? thank you in advance!!
Hello! Yes, this recipe can be made up to three days in advance of when you would be serving it. You can reheat it in the microwave or in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 25-30 minutes.
Using brown butter and sour cream made the mashed potatoes perfect. I had it with a salmon steak and it was just what I needed. DELICIOUS.
This was the easiest mashed potatoes recipe I’ve found, especially for it to be so delicious. The browned butter and thyme added a touch that we all loved!