Want to make mashed potatoes that have plenty of flavor on their own, no gravy needed? Replace the milk with buttermilk and give your next batch of mashers a little tang!
📋 What's New In This Post (1/23/25) - Highlighted the best tools to use to make making mashed potatoes easier and better.
Each Has Their Own Take on Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes may not have a long list of complicated ingredients but people everyone has their own idea on how mashed potatoes should be made.
I love them as sorts of ways, chunky, smooth, creamy, smoky, cheesy, etc. I would love to try out everyone's different methods in pursuit of the greatest mashed potatoes ever.
Each Thanksgiving I make sure to look out for another mashed potatoes recipe to try. It's become a family tradition. One year, I selected Bobby Flay's Mashed Potatoes with Buttermilk. I have never tried buttermilk in my mashed potatoes and figured I couldn't go wrong with adding it and sharing my experience with you.
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Ingredients
Here is Bobby's list of ingredients for his buttermilk mashed potatoes.
- 4 pounds Gold potatoes peeled & diced
- 8 tbsp butter diced
- 2 ⅓ - 3 cups buttermilk
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- kosher salt to taste
- 2 chopped green onions optional
Notes
Below you will find my cooking notes for this recipe.
I followed the recipe almost perfectly with one exception, I am not really the biggest green onion fan. It always drive me nuts when you order something and they dump green onions all over it. But I do not think that this omission disqualifies me from telling you what I thought of the texture of the potatoes and the flavor with the buttermilk in it.
I didn't even need close to the amount of buttermilk called for. If I would have added even the low estimate I would have had soup.
💡 Top Tip - This is super important, never dump all your milk into your mashed potatoes, add it a bit at a time until you have it right. It's a lot easier to add more than to take away!
I had the same issue when I tried Bobby's Smoked Paprika Mashed Potatoes. That one I wasn't as careful with and ended up with more potato soup than mashed potatoes. Just slowly add the buttermilk until it's the consistency you want.
The recipe calls for you to warm up the buttermilk mixture. This is important because then you aren't adding cold dairy to your hot potatoes, especially if you are going to serve them immediately. If you are going to re-heat them it's not as vital but it's still best practice for getting everything to incorporate well.
I love the flavor the buttermilk brings to the party. It's a simple replacement for just using milk, yet add so much more flavor. Just as buttermilk does with pancakes and biscuits. Sometimes I skip it when I don't have any on hand, but when I do go for it I was always satisfied that I did.
🧰 Tools That Will Help You Make These
The recipe calls for you to run the potatoes through a food mill. This helps make for smooth potatoes and allows you to remove the skins if you don't want to peel the potatoes and who likes to peel them.
If you want to buy a food mill I would suggest the Oxo Food Mill. I have used a couple different types and I think this one is by far the best. It comes apart which makes it easy to clean, why was never the case with the other food mills I have used.
Running the potatoes through the food mill will produce a better texture than just using a regular potato masher. You are less likely to overwork the potatoes making them gummy.
You can also use a potato ricer (read my post on why to use a potato ricer). It takes more hand strength than a food mill does but will work very well too.
Another tool you can use is a hand mixer to whip the potatoes. I first tried that out when I was making Alton Brown's Whipped Potatoes and it works well but it's really easy to overwhip them so you need to keep the whipping to no more than a 1 minute.
If you have none of these, then use a potato masher. It will take the longest and requires the most work. It's harder to get smooth mashed potatoes with just a potato masher.
Other Ingredients to Try with Mashed Potatoes
This is only the beginning of how I mess with my mashed potatoes to try and find different flavors. I have entire post on Different Classic and Creative Ways to Make Make Mashed Potatoes. You will see how I add caramelized onions to mashed potatoes, use purple potatoes for mashed potatoes, and how to make them in the Instant Pot. You can try replacing buttermilk with the milk called for in those recipes.
🏆 Most Searched for Mashed Potato Recipe - How to Make Mashed Potatoes from Baked Potatoes
Bobby Flay's Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 pounds Gold potatoes peeled & diced
- 8 tbsp butter diced
- 2 cups buttermilk do not add all at once!
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- kosher salt to taste
- 2 chopped green onions optional
Instructions
- Peel and cut the potatoes into 2-inch cubes
- Add the potatoes to a large pot. Add enough water to just cover.
- Bring to a boil, then simmer until potatoes are fork tender. Drain the potatoes.
- In a small pan, mix together the butter and the buttermilk. Just heat to a bare simmer.
- Run the potatoes through a food mill or potato ricer if you have either or use a potato masher to mash them.
- Slowly add in the warm buttermilk mixture. Stop and stir, you may not need all the buttermilk, so never add it all at once.
- Season to taste. Add chopped green onions if using.
Nancy Hoge
Where is the recipe ?????
Eric Samuelson
I am sorry, the recipe card was missing. I fixed the issue. Thanks for bringing this to my attention 🙂