Best Ever No-Fuss Mashed Potatoes | Best Mashed Potatoes Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why do restaurant mashed potatoes taste better? ›

Instead of regular milk, pro chefs generally use a generous helping of buttermilk and plenty of half-and-half or (even better) heavy cream in their potatoes. If you think the bartenders up front are pouring heavy, they've got nothing on the cooks in the back who are in charge of the mashed potatoes.

Sour cream is much richer than milk and it could make your potatoes too rich (per The Kitchn). Adding a touch of sour cream to your potato recipe can add a bit of richness and some zip without taking away from the texture you may be desiring when making mashed potatoes.

Sour cream adds a little bit of tangy flavor and a boost of richness to mashed potatoes. It's a fun change from the standard milk or cream and butter combo usually flavoring mashed taters. You can even try your hand at making homemade sour cream from heavy cream!

Don't overmix the potatoes! For mashed potatoes that are smooth without being gummy, a potato ricer is your best bet. It gently presses the potato into fine pieces, so all that's left to do is add your liquid and a pat or two of butter.

Also, Russets cook and break down much faster than other types of potatoes, which means that they require less “mashing.” This, in turn, produces less starch, and that's exactly what's going to help us get that awesome fluffy consistency.

Restaurants prepare the potatoes ahead by boiling and mashing just the potato, then just before serving, it is mixed into boiling cream (or milk or even broth or a combination thereof) to reheat it and make it nice and creamy.

Most restaurants use fresh potatoes for their mashed potatoes. Sure, there are budget buffets and fast food joints that use dehydrated potato flakes but that's why they are the bottom feeders of the culinary world.

Instant mashed potatoes are convenient for busy food establishments like KFC — the only thing employees need to do is add water and mix. The peeling, cooking, and mashing, has already been done. The downside to instant mashed potatoes is that they aren't as fluffy and tend to be bland.

People are often accustomed to placing their taters on a baking sheet with parchment paper or wrapping their spuds in foil. But one of the reasons why restaurant baked potatoes taste so good is because kitchens know that using wire racks or oven grates allows all sides of the spuds to be exposed to hot air.