Easy Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes (No Peeling or Cutting!)

Learn how you can cook mashed potatoes in a slow cooker or Crock Pot, without having to peel potatoes beforehand using whole Yukon Gold potatoes - so no cutting required. After a 4 hour cook time, you will use a potato masher and hand mixer to smooth out the potatoes.

An Easy Way to Cook Mashed Potatoes for Thanksgiving

I learned in my early years that stove and oven space is very limited on Thanksgiving Day. Many fights can break out over trying to fit all the dishes on the stove top or in the oven. So I came up with a blog post on how you can use your slow cooker to save Thanksgiving. That year I explored as many ways as I could to use a slow cooker to do the job that you normally use a stove top or oven for.

One of the top things on that list was mashed potatoes. Something I don't like about making mashed potatoes is having to peel the potatoes. I have a blog post totally dedicated to not peeling potatoes.

What the slow cooker allows is for you to just dump your potatoes into the slow cooker, unpeeled and whole. You give them a long enough cook time (4 hours on high) and you end up with perfectly softened potatoes that are ready to make mashed potatoes from. Plus they are already in a vessel you can serve them in and keep them warm in. This is a great way to reduce stress on Thanksgiving Day.

You can make these potatoes any time of the year, even on a hot summer day when you don't want to be boiling anything in your kitchen.

Let me show you how I do it and help make putting together a big batch of mashed potatoes without much trouble.

Why This Recipe Works

The gentle heat of a slow cooker is enough to cook the potatoes all the way through. You only need a little bit of water at the bottom so that the potatoes don't stick to the bottom and burn. The beauty of cooking the potatoes this way instead of in water is that they don't become waterlogged. That means you end up with potatoes with a better texture and a more pronounced flavor.

The recipe also calls for fresh garlic cloves. Since you are cooking it for so long you only need to peel the garlic cloves, you don't need to chop them at all.

This is also a great recipe if you like your mashed potatoes with the skins in them. Some people do and some people don't. It is personal preference.

Don't want the peels in your finished mashed potatoes? You can take the extra effort to use a potato ricer or food mill, or even a sieve to remove the skin. Just do this when the potatoes are done cooking before you mash and whip them.

Since you are cooking the potatoes in a big vessel like a slow cooker, you are able to get out a hand mixer to smooth out the potatoes. You can make them smooth or chunky, your choice. If you use a potato ricer you will get them smoother.

What Potatoes are the Best for the Slow Cooker?

If your goal is to not have to peel anything, my suggestion would be using either Yukon Gold/gold/yellow potatoes or red potatoes. It will also work with purple potatoes. These are fun because they are purple inside and out so you have purple mashed potatoes. They may be unconventional for the Thanksgiving dinner table, but certainly would turn some heads.

When to Start Them on Thanksgiving Day?

If you are making these potatoes on Thanksgiving Day, make sure to start them about 5 hours before you plan to eat your meal. The potatoes will take 4 hours to cook on high and you will want to give yourself some time to mash them and add your milk and butter. You can keep them on warm so you don't need to do them at the very last moment.

How to Know When the Potatoes Are Done?

The potatoes should give easily when pressed with a fork or mashing them with a potato masher. You could also use a thermometer to check the temperature of the potatoes. If the potatoes have reached 200 degrees they are done and ready to be mashed and whipped.

💡 Tip - Halfway through cooking, mix the potatoes up, so that they cook more evenly. Often the ones on the bottom get more heat, so they finish faster.

Eric Samuelson

Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes (No Peeling or Cutting!)

Learn how to make mashed potatoes in the slow cooker without having to peel them or cut them beforehand.

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 4 lbs Yukon gold or any yellow potato
• 1 large head garlic cloves separated and peeled
• 1 to 1 ½ cups whole milk
• 6 tablespoons salted butter cut into pats
• ¼ cup water

Method

 

1. Clean and dry your potatoes. You don’t need to cut or peel them.
2. Separate the garlic cloves and peel the skins off.
3. Add the potatoes to the slow cooker along with the garlic.
4. Place the lid on the slow cooker.
5. Set the slow cooker to HIGH for 4 hours.
6. Open the lid, and with a potato masher start breaking up the potatoes.
7. Add in all of the butter and ½ cup of the milk to start.
8. Begin whipping the potatoes with a hand mixer. Add more milk as needed to get your desired consistency.
9. Try not to overwhip the potatoes as they could get gummy. When it appears they have enough liquid, whip them for about 30-60 seconds.
10. You can keep the potatoes set to warm for 2 hours.