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My beautiful sister Olivia’s birthday was last week, and Olivia loves comfort food.  Also, she’s super duper skinny, so when she’s home from college I try my darndest to fatten her up.  We had these potatoes with blackened chicken last weekend, and I’m pretty sure she went back to school a few ounces heavier.

Mashed potatoes are so easy to make and can be flavored with lots of different things, but I really like this plain version.  Here’s what I used, for 8-10 servings.

  • 6 medium to large russet/baking/idaho potatoes
  • 1 cup half and half or milk
  • 1/2 stick butter
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • salt
  • pepper
  • fresh parsley (optional)
  • fresh or dried chives (optional)
I make my mashed potatoes thick and chunky and leave the skins on because 1. they taste good, 2. I don’t want to peel them, and 3. I want to.  You’re welcome to peel your potatoes if you’d like!
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First, scrub the potatoes to get off all the dirt and cut them into 1-inch cubes.
Then, put all the potatoes into a really big pot.
Cover the potatoes with water, and turn on high heat to bring to a boil.
While the potatoes are heating up, add lots of salt to the water – at least 2 tablespoons.  Then, cover the pot (or prepare to wait all day) and bring the potatoes to a boil.  Once the water is boiling, take off the lid so the pot doesn’t boil over.
Let the potatoes boil for 10-15 minutes until they are fork tender.  While they’re boiling, ask your boyfriend to chop up some parsley stems because you hardly have any leaves leftover but the stems will still taste really great.  Or, chop up some parsley and discard the stems like a normal person.
Then, ask the same boyfriend to drain the potatoes in a colander so you can drink wine and take pictures.
Put the potatoes back in the pot, and keep the burner on low heat while you add the rest of the ingredients.
Yum.  Now add the butter, sour cream, half and half, parsley, and chives.  Use a potato masher or wooden spoon to combine everything together.
Potato mashers are cheap and allow you to mash to the consistency you want – it’s a great tool!

Mashing potatoes is hard work, man.

Awesome face.  Once the ingredients are combined, taste and determine if you need more salt and pepper – you probably will!  I also added some more butter, but that was really just for my sister.  If you like thinner mashed potatoes you can add more milk here as well.

And that’s it!  Make sure they taste great and serve these with anything you like.  These travel really well, so you could make them up to two days in advance then reheat them in a 350 oven for an hour or over the stovetop.  When you reheat them, add a little more milk and they’ll be good to go!