These fluffy mashed potatoes are creamy buttery and delicious topped with melted butter and chives. Sour cream and plenty of butter give them their signature creamy texture! I use yukon gold potatoes, but russet potatoes are a great substitute. The perfect side dish for Thanksgiving or other special holiday meals!

Grab a Potato Masher…

Because there’s less than 2 weeks to Thanksgiving, and that means we’re making the ultimate side dish: MASHED POTATOES!!! Not just any mashed potatoes either, we’re making my secret ingredient sour cream mashed potatoes. Just wait until you serve these… people go CRAZY over them and might fight over leftovers.

A lot of people love garlic mashed potatoes, but I think my secret ingredient mashed are even better. The secret ingredient? Horseradish, which adds a ton of flavor to this famous side dish, and will have people begging you for the recipe. Trust me, I’ve made these for the last 8 years and we never have leftover mashed potatoes.

Which is actually kind of sad, because I sure do love leftover mashed potatoes. I should probably double the recipe this year and treat myself. I think I’ll double the green bean casserole and pumpkin pie while I’m at it.

The Ingredients

• Potatoes: I love Yukon gold potatoes for this recipe, but in a pinch, russet potatoes work great! I will note that I find Yukon gold potatoes give an extra creamy texture. While russet potatoes tend to make extra fluffy mashed potatoes. But both options are delicious!
• Salt and Pepper: You’ll add salt to the cold water for boiling the potatoes, which infuses the potatoes with flavor. Then you’ll add salt and pepper again for seasoning.
• Whole Milk: I don’t suggest subbing low fat milk or using plant based milks in this recipe. The reason is that plant based milks (and reduced fat milks) won’t give the potatoes the right texture and flavor.
• Heavy Cream: Aka whipping cream, gives the mashed potatoes an extra rich flavor and creamy texture.
• Butter: I like to use unsalted butter, so that I can control the amount of salt added. But salted butter will work. You’ll add melted butter to the mashed potatoes recipe, and then have the option of adding more melted on top. I recommend doing both, for that classic creamy buttery taste and texture!
• Sour Cream: Again, I suggest using full-fat sour cream here. It adds a ton of flavor and helps create an extra creamy texture. In a pinch, plain full-fat Greek yogurt could work. But it will change the taste and texture a bit.
• Horseradish: Aka the secret ingredient to my favorite mashed potatoes! While the horseradish won’t make your potatoes taste spicy or overwhelmingly like horseradish. It does add a magical flavor that people just go crazy over! And it makes the potatoes pair great with lamb, steak, turkey, etc.
• Chives: This ingredient is optional, but I love topping the melted butter with chives. The chives add a pop of color and texture. And the taste goes great with the creamy potatoes and subtle horseradish flavor.

Cut the Potatoes

• This recipe calls for 5 pounds of yukon gold potatoes. You can use russet potatoes instead, but I’d recommend peeling them, if you do make this switch.
• If you’re using yukon gold potatoes, you don’t need to peel them. Which will save you a good amount of time. But you will need to wash them and then chop them into 1-inch pieces. This can consume up to 20 minutes of your time. So you’ll want to factor that in time wise.
• I don’t suggest chopping the potatoes too far in advance, as they can turn brown when exposed to air. Unless you use the little trick below which is great for time saving.
• Cut the potatoes then submerge them in a bowl of cold water. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Then use as directed below in the mashed potatoes recipe!

Cook Until Fork Tender

• Once you chop your potatoes, you’ll place them in a large pot of salted water.
• Bring the water to a rolling boil and cook the potatoes for about 15 minutes.
• You want to test the potatoes starting at around 12 minutes. They should be soft and fork tender.
• Just take care to not over cook the potatoes, which can cause gluey mashed potatoes.

Jump to the recipe below for the full ingredient list and recipe!

What to Serve with Mashed Potatoes?!

While the answer might seem obvious (turkey, duh!). I wanted throw a few more options out for you:

• Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb
• Beef Stew (This is my favorite pairing for mashed potatoes)
• Beef Chili (Don’t knock it till you try it!)
• Caesar Salad
• Lemon Garlic Salmon
• Green Beans
• Stuffing
• Pan-Seared Scallops (We make scallops and mashed potatoes almost every Valentine’s day… so romantic!)

At the end of the day, you can pair mashed potatoes with almost anything! Or make the mashed potatoes the main course, and go crazy with the toppings. My aunt made a mashed potato bar for our engagement party and it was a huge hit! She put the mashed potatoes in a large dish and surrounded it with bacon, a variety of cheeses, scallions, cubed ham, chives, and more!

Can I Make these in Advance?

Yes, you can absolutely make these in advance and reheat before your meal. I like to reheat my mashed potatoes in a double boiler, over medium heat, stirring often. This gently reheats the mashed potatoes and helps prevent them from getting gluey or loosing their fluffy creamy texture.

These might be a little more work than instant pot mashed potatoes or one pot mashed potatoes, but I promise they’re worth it! if you’re making these for a side dish this Thanksgiving, let me know how they turn out in the comments section below!

More Potatoes Recipes:

• Mashed Potato Casserole
• Broccoli and Cheddar Twice-Baked Potatoes
• Easy Scalloped Potatoes
• Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Toasted Marshmallow Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes