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This Chunky Garlic Mashed Potatoes recipe is such a perfect Thanksgiving side dish! Full of garlic, butter and sour cream flavor, it’s an easy and totally irresistible recipe. Get ready to make the best mashed potatoes ever.
Looking for more Thanksgiving side dish ideas? Check out my Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows and Classic Green Bean Casserole.
An Easy Chunky Garlic Mashed Potatoes Recipe
We’ve officially hit November, so now my attention has turned to Thanksgiving and I’m pretty excited about it. This is the beginning of my favorite season and time of year. It’s going to be even more fun with a couple kiddos that can kind of interact and start to understand it a bit. Such fun!
Of course, one of the best things about this time of year is all the good food. When it comes to Thanksgiving, potatoes are a must. We love the mashed potatoes, the Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows and Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole. I literally make them all for Thanksgiving and would never pass any of them up. Bring on ALL THE POTATOES!
When it comes to mashed potatoes, I dream of all the garlic, butter, salt and pepper that my little heart desires. They are all packed into these chunky garlic mashed potatoes, along with sour cream. I love the full flavor that sour cream adds. It’s like that extra something special and definitely adds to the creaminess.
How to make Chunky Mashed Potatoes
To get started making mashed potatoes, you’ll boil your potatoes. Add them to a pot with cold water and salt (which adds flavor) and then boil them until they are fork tender. Don’t over boil them.
When fork tender, drain the potatoes and then pop them back into the hot pot so they stay warm while also drying out. Wet potatoes are the enemy of a mashed potato and can lead to gumminess, so we want to avoid that.
Once dry, mash your potatoes to your desired level of chunkiness.
Now I took all the skin off my potatoes, but if you link a chunky mashed potato with the skin in there, feel free to leave it on.
While the potatoes are boiling and getting mashed, you’ll want to have your butter and garlic mixture heating up and staying melted and warm.
Combine the butter, milk, sour cream and one garlic head that’s been peeled and mashed in a small saucepan and let it melt and stay warm. When you’re ready to add it to the potatoes, remove the chunks of garlic and then stir it in. The warm mixture added to the warm potatoes ensure that everything stays warm. Warm potatoes mash better, which helps keep them from getting gummy.
The final step is to add salt and pepper to your potatoes. You can add as much or as little as you like, but they do really enhance the flavor of the potatoes so I wouldn’t be too skimpy.
And that’s it! You’ve got excellent Chunky Garlic Mashed Potatoes ready for any occasion, but especially Thanksgiving! They are sure to be a hit.
Which potatoes are best for mashing?
High starch potatoes like Russets or Yukon are great for mashing because they break down more easily. In these chunky mashed potatoes though, Red potatoes are also a tasty option. They are lower starch potatoes, so they hold their shape well and since we leave these potatoes chunky, you won’t need to worry so much about over mixing them. You could even use a mix of a couple kinds of potatoes for a nice blend.
How to avoid gluey mashed potatoes
- Cut your potatoes into small chunks before boiling them so they cook evenly and are easier/quicker to mash.
- Don’t over boil the potatoes. It can lead to stickiness.
- The number one problem that leads to gluey potatoes is too much water. To avoid that, be sure to allow your potatoes a few extra minutes after draining them to dry. They will still be very hot and steamy, so it won’t take long. You can also help speed things up by patting them dry.
- Don’t over mix. This goes back to number 1 as well. Smaller chunks mash more quickly, so you don’t over work your potatoes, which can make them gummy. We don’t have to do a ton of mashing for these chunky potatoes, but it’s still good to keep this in mind.
- Add your milk, sour cream and butter when it’s warm. It keeps the potatoes nice and hot for working with.
More great side dishes:
Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows
Classic Green Bean Casserole
Deviled Eggs
Three Potato Salad
Mom’s Amazing Baked Beans
Garlic Herb Cream Scalloped Potatoes
Chunky Garlic Mashed Potatoes
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings
- Category: Side dish
- Method: Stove
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Chunky Garlic Mashed Potatoes recipe is such a perfect Thanksgiving side dish! Full of garlic, butter and sour cream flavor, it’s an easy and totally irresistible recipe. Get ready to make the best mashed potatoes ever.
Ingredients
- 5 pounds potatoes, peeled or unpeeled and cut into cubes*
- 1 cup (224g) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
- 3/4 cup (173g) sour cream
- 1 garlic head, mashed
- 3 tsp salt, divided, plus more to taste
- 1/2 tsp pepper, plus more to taste
Instructions
1. Add potatoes to a large pot and cover with cold water. Add 1 teaspoon of salt.
2. Bring to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until fork tender. How long they need to cook will really depend on how big your chunks are.
3. While potatoes cook, melt butter in a small saucepan and add milk, sour cream and garlic. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes, then remove garlic chunks. Keep warm and melted until potatoes are ready.
3. When done cooking, drain the potatoes well, then place back into hot pot over the warm burner (with the burner off) and allow to sit for about 5 minutes, until dry.
4. Mash potatoes with a potato masher until partially mashed, but still chunky, then add garlic and butter mixture. Stir together and mash a little more, until desired level of smooth versus chunky is achieved. Do not over mash or mix.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste. I start with 2 teaspoons of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and add more as needed. Feel free to adjust it.
6. Serve potatoes warm.
Notes
High starch potatoes like Russets or Yukon are great for mashing because they break down more easily. In these chunky mashed potatoes though, Red potatoes are also a tasty option. They are lower starch potatoes, so they hold their shape well and since we leave these potatoes chunky, you won’t need to worry so much about over mixing them. You could even use a mix of a couple kinds of potatoes for a nice blend. Smaller cubes are nice because they not only cook faster, but mash easier so you don’t have to do as much mashing and end up over mashing.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 497
- Sugar: 2.8 g
- Sodium: 623.1 mg
- Fat: 26.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 59.2 g
- Protein: 9.4 g
- Cholesterol: 68.9 mg
Definitely going to make these for Thanksgiving this year! They sound so good!! Thank you for putting this recipe out early enough before menus get finalized!
Certainly! I hope you enjoy them!
Sorry, Lindsay- I am responding to your pumpkin bread recipe- I have to say, it is hands down the BEST pumpkin bread I have ever tasted !!! My husband went crazy over it, and he is hard to please. I did find I had to bake it longer than 70 minutes, maybe cuz I used fresh pumpkin?? Doesn’t matter to me, it was awesome.
On the other hand, I tried your Mocha chocolate chunk cookies, and really did not care for them. I did use just espresso powder, not actual coffee, and the cookies were dark, not at all like yours, nor did they taste like coffee. Do you think the powder was the difference? I really did not think it would matter that much, but I guess it did?? Anyway, in general, any recipe of yours that I try is great, the cookies not so much.