New Meal Monday: Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes

In my opinion, when it comes to a Thanksgiving, the best parts of the meal are the side dishes – mashed potatoes, stuffing, bean casseroles, homemade cranberry sauce… My mouth is watering just thinking about it! We thought as Thanksgiving approaches, we would share one of our favorite side dish recipes.

The first is a recipe for slow cooker mashed potatoes that my husband and I been making for our family Thanksgiving the past several years. We found the recipe a few years ago we finally convinced my mother-in-law to let us contribute to dinner and were tasked with bringing mashed potatoes. Potatoes are my husband’s all-time favorite food (ask him about it, he’ll tell you all the ways he loves potatoes!*) so we felt excited and started searching for a recipe.
We love to ski, and about a week or so before Thanksgiving there was talk of a snow storm coming in and Thanksgiving morning could be an early season powder day on the slopes. Being the powder-hounds we are we were determined to find away to get some fresh powder runs in the morning before Thanksgiving dinner. The one flaw to our plan was how we were going to have time to cook the potatoes and ski!? Missing the first storm of the year was not an option, so we got creative and found a slow cooker recipe that would allow us to prep the potatoes in the early morning, cook them while we ski, and then just transport them up to my in-laws!.

Aside from getting our car stuck in the snow on the way up to the mountain (that’s a story for another day!) our plan worked great! We were able to peel potatoes in the morning, set up the crock pot, and dive through some Turkey Day powder turns. The potatoes came out great and each year our family asks for them again. So if you are looking for super tasty mashed potatoes that can cook while you do other things (like ski!) this is a great recipe!
Here is what you’ll need:

  • 5 lbs of Russet Potatoes
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1.5 cups chicken broth
  • ¼ cup butter, cut into small cubes
  • 1 ¼ cup light sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/3 cup milk, warmed
  • 2 ounces cream cheese

Here’s how you do it:

  1. Peel and cube potatoes – aim for about 12 cubes per potato
  2. Put potatoes, chicken broth, and butter in slow cooker, cook on HIGH for 4.5 hours
  3. Roughly mash potatoes, then add garlic, salt, pepper, cream cheese, milk and sour cream and finish mashing
  4. You can keep them warm in slow cooker until you are ready to enjoy!

 

*Luke here...seriously, what's not to love about potatoes! You can eat them french fried, home fried, baked, twice-baked, mashed, smashed, in various flavors of chips, the list goes on...