Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes

Making mashed potatoes in your Instant Pot (or other electric pressure cooker) is a game changer! No potatoes boiling over on the stove, no waiting forever for potatoes to be tender. It’s totally hands off and perfect every time. Mashed potatoes have never been easier!

I absolutely love mashed potatoes. When I was a kid, there was a time that I claimed them as my favorite food. I would beg my mom to buy packets of instant mashed potatoes so that I could make them anytime.

I still love mashed potatoes, but long gone are the days of enjoying instant mashed potatoes from a packet. I am a mashed potato snob. The texture has to be just right. I hate it when they are gummy or grainy. I want ’em smooth, but thick and creamy.

I have experimented at length with how to make the best mashed potatoes. It’s popular to mix the cooked potatoes in a stand mixer, or mix up with an immersion blender or hand mixer. But every time I do that, I end up with gummy mashed potatoes that are sticky and weird. And it’s just not that hard to mash them by hand! So grab your potato masher and work that rotator cuff. It’s worth it.

Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes

Many recipes for mashed potatoes cooked in a pressure cooker will have you use less water, and then mash the potatoes without draining. In my experience, this leads to mealy mashed potatoes. Again, it doesn’t take much extra effort to just give them a quick drain in a colander, and the results are well worth it.

Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes are a game changer! Not only are they hands-off, no fuss, and perfect every time, they can also sit on the keep warm function for quite awhile. This simplifies your timing planning for dinners like Thanksgiving and Christmas where you’ve got a lot going on.

Still afraid of your Instant Pot? Try these no-fail recipes: Instant Pot Chicken Taco Soup, Instant Pot Shredded Pork Tacos, Instant Pot Pepperoncini Pork Tacos, Instant Pot French Dip Sandwiches, and Instant Pot Fiesta Chicken!