“Is butter a carb?” That quote kept running through my head as I was making (and devouring) these super fluffy Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes. It’s one of the best movie lines EVER and the perfect example of what not to ask yourself while eating this side dish. Don’t even let yourself think about whether you should or shouldn’t be eating them. Just enjoy every living moment of it. They’re buttery, rich, and fluffy like my classic mashed potatoes but full of garlic-herb goodness.
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that we make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
See this recipe in my Easy Thanksgiving Dinner for Beginners meal plan.
Ingredients for Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes
Here’s what you’ll need to make this garlic herb mashed potatoes recipe:
- Russet Potatoes: These are my top choice because they have a light and fluffy texture. You can use red potatoes or Yukon gold potatoes, but they’re a little denser rather than fluffy.
- Salt: Add some salt to the water when boiling the potatoes to flavor them as they cook.
- Butter: A must for a rich and creamy taste.
- Whole Milk: Helps to create a smooth texture.
- Garlic and Herb Seasoning: I use my all-purpose garlic herb seasoning to quickly season the potatoes. It’s a mix of dried herbs, garlic powder, and onion powder and adds the best flavor. I’ve also included the measurements for this seasoning in the recipe card below.
To garlic-herb or not to garlic-herb…
The garlic herb seasoning is completely optional but highly recommended! You could also replace it with roasted garlic or use a completely different herb and spice blend. Prefer to use fresh garlic? No problem. Sauté some minced garlic in the melted butter for a minute before you add and warm the milk.
How to make this recipe fluffy not gluey:
It’s all about rinsing your potatoes. Not once, but twice. You know when you’re peeling and dicing your potatoes everything gets that milky-powdery white stuff all over it? Or when you boil your potatoes it gets that white skin on top of the water? That’s potato starch, which will make your dish heavy and gluey in texture, rather than light and fluffy. Rinsing those starches off of the potatoes before cooking and after cooking will give you the lightest and fluffiest garlic herb mashed potatoes you’ve ever eaten.
How to Freeze
If you’re the type that likes to cook ahead and fill your freezer with quick, ready to reheat food, this recipe is perfect! Simply let your garlic herb mashed potatoes cool, then scoop them out onto a lined baking sheet in 1 cup portions (or whatever size portion you prefer), freeze them until solid, then pop them in a freezer bag for long term storage. It can be quickly reheated in the microwave for a quick side to any weeknight meal.
What to Serve with Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes
This recipe is the perfect comforting side dish to serve with a classic “meat and potatoes” meal. Try pairing it with:
- Creamy Mushroom Chicken with Crispy Onions
- Bratwurst and Sauerkraut
- Classic Homemade Meatloaf
- BBQ Cheddar Baked Chicken
- Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin
- Honey Mustard Pork Chops
- Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy
- Balsamic Chicken and Mushrooms
- Cheddar Cheeseburger Meatloaf
- Baked Beans
- Glazed Pork Chops
Pictured with green beans and Cheddar Cheeseburger Meatloaf.
Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes
Servings 6 1 cup eachIngredients
- 2.5 lbs. russet potatoes ($0.87)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 4 Tbsp butter ($0.72)
- 1/2 cup whole milk ($0.16)
All-Purpose Garlic Herb Seasoning
- 1 tsp dried parsley ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp onion powder ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- freshly cracked pepper ($0.02)
Instructions
- Peel and cut the russet potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Place the cubed potatoes in a colander and rinse well with cool water.
- Place the rinsed potatoes in a pot and add enough water to cover the potatoes by one inch. Season the water with 1/2 tsp salt. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil over high heat. Boil the potatoes until they are VERY tender, about 7-10 minutes.
- Drain the cooked potatoes in a colander, then rinse briefly with hot water.
- Add the butter, milk, and garlic herb seasoning o the pot used to boil the potatoes. Stir and heat over low until the butter has melted and the milk is hot.
- Once the milk is hot, add the potatoes back to the pot, turn off the heat and mash with a potato masher. Once the potatoes are mostly mashed, use a hand mixer to briefly whip the potatoes until they are light and fluffy. Taste the potatoes and add salt to taste, if needed, then serve.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Looking for a dairy-free recipe? Try my Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes.
How to Make Garlic and Herb Mashed Potatoes – Step by Step Photos
Star with about 2.5 lbs. of russet potatoes. Don’t kill yourself trying to get exactly 2.5 lbs., just estimate half of a 5 lb. bag. While you can use other types of potatoes, russet will give you the lightest fluffiest texture with this method.
Peel and dice the potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Rinse them really well with cool water.
Place the potatoes in a pot and add enough cool water to cover the potatoes by one inch. Season the water with 1/2 tsp salt. Place a lid on the pot and bring the salted water up to a boil over high heat.
Let the potatoes boil until they are VERY tender. This should take about 7-10 minutes. You can test them with a fork to see how tender they are. They should just about fall apart when you pierce them with your fork. Drain the potatoes in a colander and rinse again briefly with hot water.
To the pot you used to boil the potatoes, add 4 Tbsp butter, 1/2 cup whole milk, and the garlic herb seasoning (1 tsp dried parsley, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1/2 tsp dried basil, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp onion powder, 1/4 tsp salt, and some freshly cracked pepper). Stir and heat these together over low until the butter is fully melted and the milk is hot.
Once the milk is heated, add the drained potatoes back to the pot and begin to mash them up.
Once they’re mostly mashed, switch to a hand mixer to whip them to their final fluffy cloud-like state. Because you’ve rinsed off most of the starches, the whipping does not make them gluey, it makes them awesome.
Give the potatoes one final taste and add more salt, if needed. Pile a big scoop on to a plate, add a little extra butter if you’re feeling like a rebel, and dig in!
If you have extras (or just want to pace yourself), let it cool completely, then scoop single portions onto a lined baking sheet. Freeze them flat like this until solid, then transfer them to a freezer bag for long-term storage. Then you’ve got homemade garlic herb mashed potatoes ready for a quick reheat any night of the week!
I made this but I nearly doubled the seasoning in the herb butter (and added chives.) We used cashew milk and added a bit more butter. Everyone raved about it.
These were SO good. I don’t tolerate milk well, so I subbed oat milk; it did feel a little lacking in richness at the end, so I added 2 more tablespoons of butter, and it was perfect. I also added a head of roasted garlic and some more salt to taste. This will definitely be my go-to mashed potato recipe now!
Can I use fat free milk instead of whole milk? Just realized that’s all I have!
Yes, but add a touch of butter to make up for the fat content. XOXO -Monti
Great recipe but, uhh….4 tablespoons of butter cost a bit more than $0.72. 😂👍
Hi Mark! We’re in Nashville. We get Kroger brand butter for about $1 a stick, so 4 tablespoons are about 50 cents. Try the store brand! It’s excellent. XOXO -Monti
I was looking for a nice side for the Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin recipe, and I have to say that these are the most delicious mashed potatoes I’ve had in a very long time. The spice blend really complimented the mash. I will make this again for sure!
I make Gatlic Mashed Potatoes (a little differently than yours) throughout the year with many of our meals, but the rest of our Thanksgiving feast always remains the same. Everyone enjoys & looks forward to their ‘favorite’ sides, which are ONLY served at Thanksgiving at our house. Thanksgiving is an easy holiday for me to deal with, and everyone is super well-fed & happy. I do however, change-up the dessert every year with some new & ‘Shmancy’ one which I found on a baking blog that past year. Happy Thanksgiving to you & your family, Beth!
Oh wow, these are GOOD – really, really good. Fluffy herby deliciousness.
For some reason, the potatoes tasted a little watery. Perhaps I overcooked it, or rinsing it made it watery. It lacked creaminess. I had to add a lot of fat to make it better. It was decent, but I probably won’t make this again.
ok… really two rinsings to get the “starch” off… you lost me. That starch is what makes a potato a potato, that “white” stuff is the cellular lysate as you cut through the potato. If you wanna rinse that off, you might as well as just cook the skins, that white stuff is the STARCH of the potato!
The potatoes are fluffy because of the delicious amounts of butter and other molecules that are in it that interrupt the bonding between the potatoes polysaccharides. Look at your melted butter and whole milk… liquid, now look at your potatoes. Mush… liquid in mush makes… you got it liquidier mush. Now whip liquidier mush whaddaya get? Small air particles embedded in the matrix of the potato/fat mixture. Voila. fluffy potatoes.
Rinse… lul
Would soy milk work in this recipe instead of whole milk?
I wouldn’t recommend soy as it’s pretty watery. You could use coconut milk.
I use almond milk and it works just fine.
can I substitute margarine for the butter?
Yes you certainly can!
I never leave comments on recipes, but this came out so well that I had to. Both my husband and I loved it. Your recommended spice blend works perfectly with the mashed potatoes. The only thing I changed was to use the whipping cream I had on hand instead of while milk. Thank you for a great recipe! :)
Super easy to make, definitely my new go to recipe for mashed potatoes. Loved the seasoning suggestion too
Is there anything I could do to prep these ahead of time and store overnight (save on thanksgiving day work). Wondering about pre-dicing and storing in water or something similar?
Hi Clare! You could make the entire dish a day or two ahead. And then warm them up in the slow cooker or oven the day of. They’ll be fine!
I wish I could find 5lb bag of potatoes for $1.74
Have you looked for a discount grocer in your area?
Can I use heavy whipping cream instead of whole milk?
Yes that would be delicious!
I made the recipe and let me tell you the entire pot was finished in 5 minutes!!!!! So yummy thx Beth
Making these tonight to have with steak! I’m using fresh basil & parsley :)
Yum! We had these with dinner tonight and we all enjpyed them. I started the potatoes boiling, but then had to go take care of the baby. My husband took over and finushed them. As we were eating he said, “these potatoes of mine turned out really good”
Tried these mashed potatoes with 2% milk and they were fabulous! Love this site. I shared a picture of the first dish I made (Seafood Rice Skillet) on Facebook last week and got 54 likes and loves and 36 comments. I shared the link to Budgetbytes and the recipe, and many said they wanted to give it a try, too.
Thank you for sharing!! :)
THESE ARE THE BEST.
There is no better comfort than a big bowl of mashed potatoes, and these are the best ones I’ve ever cooked. Thank you for these.
These look like they’d work wonderfully for your Loaded Mashed Potato Bowls. They even make the right amount. Seems like something to try next weekend, though we may do red potatoes, skins on, to be a little lazier (and get some added nutrition).
These were a BIG hit!! I was a little nervous making them for the first time for Thanksgiving with (sometimes hard-to-please) relatives, but everyone loved them – what a difference that second rinse makes! . (slight modification -discovered at the last minute that I don’t have a working hand mixer, so just mashed ’em and fluffed a little with a fork – still got rave reviews!)
Have you (or anyone) tried this recipe with almond milk? I’m planning to try this recipe for thanksgiving this week but my mom is lactose intolerant and insists on ruining everyone potatoes by insisting I use a milk substitute instead of whole milk. We have unsweetened almond milk in the house. Still ok?? Also, should the butter be salted or unsalted? Thanks!
I used salted butter. :) I’m really not sure about the almond milk, though. It definitely won’t be nearly as creamy as the whole milk I used, but it will still help provide moisture, so there’s that.
I often make mashed potatoes vegan. I think the most creamy non dairy solution is a vegan mayonnaise substitute such as vegannaise. That with some veggie stock and some almond or other non dairy milk substitute works great!
I’ve never attempted to freeze my leftover potatoes (if there is any), my boys n I r big on potatoes of almost any way I prepare them as we r from Alabama, ima bonafide southern cook to the core lol so I reckon my question is when using reheated frozen mash do they get at all watery like the nasty 1s n tv dinners?
If there is a little water separation you can just stir it back in. It’s just water. :)
Does the milk need to be whole milk? I only happen to have low fat on hand will this make a difference?
It will definitely be less creamy with low fat milk.
What do you think of freezing the entire batch to re-heat in the oven for Thanksgiving dinner? (so I have one less thing to make that day)
By the way, Beth, I just love your blog. At least half of the meals I cook for my family of five here in Minnesota are your recipes! You keep us healthy and save us the money of eating out more often! My favorite recipe is the Bacon and Spinach Pasta with Parmesan made with kale and white beans.
Hmm, I’ve never tried to reheat mashed potatoes in an oven before, so I’m not sure how that would go. Ovens tend to dry things out a bit when reheating, and you’d definitely need to stir often. Some people also have texture issues with frozen/reheated potatoes, so I suggest testing a small amount first. I’ve never noticed any issues like that, but have gotten a few comments over the years, so just make sure before the big day. :)
First time making mashed potatoes without a box, and what a difference! Recipe was very easy, with an opportunity to cook another recipe while the potatoes are on auto-pilot. No need for gravy. If you pair this dish with the Garlic Herb Baked Chicken like I did, you can use the same spices and they complement each other perfectly.
I used your seasoning mix on some tiny potatoes I cooked in the Instant Pot the other night. My daughter loves potatoes and garlic so I ditched the onion powder in exchange for more garlic. I stirred the entire batch of seasoning and a couple tablespoons of butter into the potatoes coating them all. She loved them! So did I. I imagine she’d love these potatoes too.
I stick the leftovers in the fridge–it’s guaranteed we will eat them up in a couple of days. One thing fora which I like to use leftover mashed potatoes is potato “pancakes.” Just form leftovers into patties and fry them in a dab of butter–it only takes a couple of minutes to brown them on both sides and they are perfect sides for just about anything, ie your meatloaf. A couple of browned potato patties, a green veggie and some reheated meatloaf will be a perfect later in the week dinner. When reheating just the mash, I add a little extra milk and stir them in a saucepan.
“If you have extras, (or just want to pace yourself),”
Best. Line. Ever.
I laughed too hard at this. We would never have mashed potato leftovers in my house by choice!
LOL, story of my life. A lot of my portioning is just in effort to pace myself. 😅
Does your double rinse method still work if you leave the skins on?
It should, yes. :)
I had no idea you could freeze mashed potatoes! Does the texture change at all? This might change my life 😀
I don’t notice any texture changes in potatoes that I freeze, but I have had people over the years comment that they don’t like the texture of potatoes after they have been frozen. So, I don’t know if they are doing something different, if I’m just not noticing it, if it’s something about the way they are being cooked, or if perhaps it’s a certain variety of potato that is causing the problems. But I personally have never noticed any texture changes. :)
Looks great, I’m going to try them the next time I make mashed potatoes. I didn’t know about the double rinsing. I recommend rinsing and cooking with filtered water so they don’t taste like chlorine.
By the way, chilling or freezing starching foods like potatoes, rice, or pasta is the best way to make them healthier. Research shows that chilling them turns the starches into resistant starches, which don’t cause blood sugar spikes. Who knew that leftovers could be so healthy!