Brown Butter Parmesan Mashed Potatoes (Easy & Ridiculously Good!)
Regular mashed potatoes are already pretty fabulous, so naturally we’re going to mess with them 😉
These Brown Butter Parmesan Mashed Potatoes take everything we love about classic creamy mashed potatoes and add nutty brown butter, freshly grated Parmesan and just enough garlic to make everyone wonder why the potatoes are suddenly the best thing on the plate. Browning the butter takes about five extra minutes, which is dangerously close to effort around here, but the payoff is absolutely worth it!
Ingredients
- 3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for the cooking water
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Chopped fresh chives, optional
Instructions
- Add the potatoes to a large pot and cover them with cold water by about an inch. Salt the water generously.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce to a steady simmer and cook for 15–20 minutes, until the potatoes are completely fork-tender. This is not the moment for al dente potatoes. Save that nonsense for pasta 😉
- While the potatoes cook, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
- Continue cooking the butter, swirling the pan occasionally, until it foams and the little milk solids at the bottom turn golden brown and smell wonderfully nutty, about 4–6 minutes. Watch it closely toward the end. Brown butter and burned butter are separated by approximately one distracted email.
- Reduce the heat to low, add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds.
- Pour about two-thirds of the brown butter mixture into a small bowl and set the rest aside for drizzling over the finished potatoes.
- Warm the milk in the same saucepan. No need to dirty another one because we have standards 😉
- Drain the potatoes really well, then return them to the hot pot for a minute or two so any lingering moisture can steam away.
- Mash the potatoes until mostly smooth.
- Add the warm milk, sour cream, Parmesan, garlic powder, salt, pepper and the larger portion of brown butter.
- Gently stir everything together until creamy and glorious. Taste and adjust the salt because potatoes can absorb seasoning like it’s their full-time job.
- Spoon into a serving bowl and drizzle that reserved brown butter all over the top.
- Finish with extra Parmesan and chopped chives if you’re feeling fancy!
Variations
- Extra crispy: Flip halfway through roasting, and you can also broil for a minute or two at the very end. (But watch them carefully as they go from “golden” to “scorched” in seconds;)
- Use Yukon Gold potatoes. They’re naturally buttery and creamy, which means we’re starting several steps ahead before adding an irresponsible amount of actual butter 😉
- Start the potatoes in cold water. It helps them cook evenly instead of giving us potatoes that are falling apart outside and weirdly crunchy inside.
- Get the potatoes really tender. If a fork doesn’t slide through effortlessly, keep cooking them. Lumpy potatoes caused by undercooking are an entirely avoidable tragedy.
- Don’t overwork them. Mash until smooth and then put the weapon down. Aggressive mixing releases too much starch and turns beautiful mashed potatoes into wallpaper paste.
- Warm the milk! Cold milk cools everything down and doesn’t incorporate nearly as nicely. Thirty seconds in the microwave works too. We’re not precious about this.
- Grate the Parmesan yourself. It melts much better than the shelf-stable powdery stuff and gives us considerably more Parmesan fabulousness! Here is why you should never use pre-shredded cheese!
- Brown the butter properly. Once you see golden specks at the bottom and it smells nutty, you’re there. If those specks turn black, we have crossed over into a different recipe 😉
- Want them extra decadent? Swap some or all of the milk for half-and-half.
- Making them ahead? Prepare the potatoes, refrigerate and gently reheat with another splash of milk. Save the reserved brown butter for the top right before serving.
- Hosting a holiday dinner? Double the recipe. Nobody has ever looked at a Thanksgiving table and complained about an alarming surplus of mashed potatoes.
- Extra crispy: Flip halfway through roasting, and you can also broil for a minute or two at the very end. (But watch them carefully as they go from “golden” to “scorched” in seconds;)
These Brown Butter Parmesan Mashed Potatoes would be ridiculous underneath our French Onion Chicken, where they can soak up every last bit of that caramelized onion sauce. Frankly, that sauce deserves somewhere fabulous to live!
They’re also excellent alongside Honey Garlic Pork Chops, Garlic Butter Steak Bites or our Hot Honey Salmon. Basically, anytime there’s sauce left on the plate, these potatoes have volunteered for cleanup duty 😉
In the mood to pair them with some easy comfort food? They are also are a great pair with this Creamy Garlic Parmesan Pasta, these Ultra-Crispy Oven Baked Boneless Chicken Thighs and this delightfully easy Cheesy Baked Macaroni with Beef!
