Chive Mashed Potatoes

While I said in my past few posts that I cannot get through Thanksgiving without my Traditional Bread Stuffing or my Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Shallots & Pancetta, I am serious when I say that I CANNOT make it through Thanksgiving without my Chive Mashed Potatoes! They are so creamy and it’s the best vehicle to transport gravy!

My Tips for the Best Mashed Potatoes

The Type of Potato Matters

First off, the type of potato matters. The best types of potatoes for mashed potatoes are russet or Yukon gold potatoes. Russet potatoes have a really high starchiness and are light and fluffy in texture when cooked. These types of potatoes are typically used for baked potatoes (also delicious!). Alternatively, Yukon gold potatoes are excellent as they are creamy in texture but they are a bit dense when cooked. To get the best of both worlds, my Chive Mashed Potatoes recipe uses both types of potatoes.

How to Properly Boil Potatoes

The way you cook the potatoes is also important. I don’t want to tell you how to boil water here….but I am.

To ensure that the potatoes cook evenly, place them in a pot of cold water, making sure they are covered by at least an inch of water, and then bring the entire contents of the pot up to a boil. If you toss potatoes into a pot of boiling water, not only does the temperature of the water become reduced, it results in unevenly cooked potatoes. Not what we want here! Additionally, it is important to add salt to the pot as the potatoes come up to a boil. The salt helps flavour the potatoes as they cook so that you don’t have bland potatoes in the end. For every pound of potatoes, I use two teaspoons of salt.

Warm Your Milk and Butter

Once the potatoes are cooked through, drain them off very well and return them back to the hot pot that they were cooking in. The heat from the pot helps evaporate the leftover water on the potatoes so that the potatoes don’t get too mushy once mashed. At this point you can go ahead and add your butter and milk. Many people add butter and milk straight from the fridge and then proceed to mash the potatoes, but it’s actually better to add them separately to the pot and to add them already pre-warmed. It seems like extra work- but trust me, it’s so worth it! You can easily pop them into separate dishes and blitz them in the microwave, or you can heat them in separate pots on the stove. My secret technique (to help save on dirty pots) is to add the cold butter to the hot pot before I re-add the cooked potatoes. The pot is still super warm and melts the butter instantly. Then when I add the hot potatoes back in, I can get straight into mashing these two ingredients together. I add the milk to the pot in one go once I have about half of the potatoes mashed.

Avoid the Food Processor

The technique to mashing the potatoes is another important key to great mashed potatoes. I have seen many folks add the potatoes to a stand mixer or a food processor for fast and easy work. But what’s fast and easy isn’t always the best. Mashing, or I guess creaming, the potatoes in a food processor or stand mixer is a big no-no since these machines rapidly rip through the potatoes which allows more starch to be released, resulting in a gummy or gluey texture. Again, not what we want…and we don’t want to dirty any more dishes LOL! It is best to use a traditional hand masher or even a fork as this mashes through the potatoes but doesn’t release as much starch, resulting in much fluffier mashed potatoes.

Enhance with Other Flavours

Once your potatoes are mashed, you can fold in any ingredients you like. Maybe some shredded cheddar cheese, or some bacon, or maybe some sour cream some cream cheese? The sky is the limit when it comes to mashed potatoes! For my Thanksgiving menu, I went for a classic Chive Mashed Potato. I love chives and I have a TON growing in my garden, so I felt like I should use them. I also just happen to love the mild onion flavour that it gives the potatoes. It’s just perfect for Thanksgiving!

If you have hung in with me until the end here, I congratulate you. Making mashed potatoes seems easy, but a few little tricks will transform the average mashed potato into something extraordinary! Let me know in the comments below if you already knew these tricks or if you learned something new!

Get the Recipe: Chive Mashed Potatoes

Chive Mashed Potatoes

Melissa

Chives are a great addition to a traditional mashed potato recipe. The mild oniony flavour of the chives adds a subtle yet delicious flavour to the potatoes and it still tastes delicious covered in gravy!

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes
• 1 pound russet potatoes
• 4 teaspoons salt
• Water to boil potatoes
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/8 cup salted butter
• 1/4 cup chives chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Use a vegetable peeler to peel all the potatoes. Chop the potatoes into large chunks and add them to a pot with water to prevent browning and oxidization. Once all the potatoes are peeled and chopped, dump out the water and then re-fill the pot with cool water until the potatoes are fully covered.
• Next, add the salt to the pot. Place the pot on the stove and bring it to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the potatoes for 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Use a sharp knife to test the doneness of the potato by inserting it into the enter of a potato- it should easily slide right through the center of the potato.
• In the meantime, heat the butter and milk in separate pots on the stove until warmed through and set aside. Remove the pot from the heat and strain the potatoes using a colander. Return the potatoes to the pot on the stove over low heat. Add the butter and salt and pepper to taste and use a potato masher to mash the potatoes. Once half of the potatoes are mashed, add the milk and continue to mash until smooth. If you don’t have a potato masher, you can use a fork (I highly do not recommend putting them in the food processor since the potatoes will be really gummy).
• Once the potatoes are mashed and you are satisfied with the seasoning, fold in the chopped chives using a rubber spatula. Mix everything together until the chives are evenly distributed throughout the mashed potatoes.
• Add the potatoes to a serving bowl and top with a pat of butter and some extra chives for garnish. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Keyword chive mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes, thanksgiving recipe, thanksgiving side dish

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