Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes
Sous vide mashed potatoes are creamy, fluffy, delicious potatoes that free up a burner and your hands during supper prep. The secret to their texture? Cooking the potatoes in butter and a sealed bag so there’s no water to dilute the flavor.
Craving The Recipe Details?
What it is: Yukon gold potatoes cooked sous vide with butter and dill, then mashed with cream and green onions until smooth and fluffy.
Why you’ll love it: No waterlogged potatoes, and no babysitting a pot that’s looking to make a mess. They’re rich, creamy, buttery, and ready when you are!
How to make it: Slice potatoes, seal in a vacuum bag with butter and dill, cook for about an hour. Mash the potatoes with more butter, cream, and green onions.
There’s nothing quite like a plate of homemade mashed potatoes. They’re comforting, hearty, and oh-so-satisfying, especially when paired with a braised cross rib roast!
The trouble is that mashed potatoes have a way of demanding attention at exactly the wrong time. There’s a pot to watch, potatoes to drain, and a last minute scramble to get everything on the table while it’s still hot.
That’s where sous vide comes in handy. I can get the potatoes prepped and sealed, let the water bath do its thing, and turn my attention to the rest of dinner. No boiling over, no draining a heavy pot, and no precious stove top space tied up with a bubbling pot perched on the edge of disaster.
They’re perfect for holiday dinners and special occasions but easy enough to be an every day kind of recipe, too!
This sous vide mashed potatoes recipe is dedicated to attention.
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Key Ingredients
Potatoes: Choose fresh, medium-starch yellow potatoes for this recipe. My favorite is Yukon gold – their buttery flavor and dense, creamy texture make them ideal for mashing, and they hold up well to a long, hot cook.
Cream: As a coffee fanatic, I always have fresh cream in the house and as a disciple of the No Carb Left Behind movement, I like to use cream in my mashed potatoes. 18% table cream, Half and Half or Light Cream gives the smoothest mash.
Pick The Right Potato
I’ll admit, I am a Yukon gold devotee, but here’s how the two compare:
- Yukon gold potatoes have a barely golden flesh and a slightly buttery taste and texture which makes them the perfect tater for mashing. Yukon gold potatoes result in a more creamy, dense mashed potato.
- Russet potatoes are high starch potatoes that basically fall apart during the cooking process. They mash up light and fluffy and absorb milk and butter beautifully. Russet potatoes have a very mild flavor.
I love the red-skinned potatoes in my next level mashed potatoes, but with the sous vide treatment, Yukon golds win every time.
Variations + Substitutions
- Richer mash: Swap some of the cream for full fat sour cream.
- Lighter, fluffier mash: Use russets, or a mix of half russet and half Yukon gold.
- No cream?: Whole milk works fine in a pinch!
- Skip the dill: It’s optional, so leave it out for a more plain mash.
How To Make Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes
- Step 1: Preheat your sous vide water bath to 194°F. I fill mine with hot tap water to give it a head start, since 194°F is pretty hot!
- Step 2: Meanwhile, peel and slice 6 Yukon Gold potatoes into approximately ½” slices.
- Step 3: Add the potato slices, 1/4 cup cubed, unsalted butter, and 1 tablespoon dried dill to a vacuum seal bag.
- Step 4: Spread the contents into a flat even layer for even cooking. Seal the bag.
- Step 5: Once the water bath reaches temperature, add the bag, and cook at 194°F for about 60 minutes. They’re done when they break apart when gently squeezed.
- Step 6: Cut the corner of the bag and pour the contents into a large, flat-bottomed stainless steel bowl or casserole dish. Add the remaining 1/4 cup butter.
- Step 7: Mash until the large chunks are gone.
- Step 8: Add up to 1 cup of cream, ¼ cup at a time, until the potatoes reach the consistency you like.
- Step 9: Stir in 3 sliced green onions and salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
Expert Tips
- Get a head start. This is a high temperature cook and the prep is quick, so filling the water bath with hot tap water saves you waiting around for it to heat.
- Bag it right. I prefer vacuum seal bags here. An hour at this temperature can be hard on zip-top bags. See FAQs for more information.
- Keep it flat. A flat, even layer of potatoes cooks more uniformly, with no firm spots in the middle of the bag.
- Put the mixer down. Potatoes mashed to oblivion with an electric mixer turn gluey. Use a masher or ricer until the chunks are gone, then use cream for smoothness.
Why This Recipe Works
No water means more flavor. Boiled potatoes soak up water. Here they cook in their own moisture and butter, so the mash tastes like potato!
Precise temperature means perfect texture. The sous vide treatment cooks the potatoes evenly with no mushy edges or hard centers.
Butter infuses from the start. Cooking some of the butter in the bag seasons the potatoes all the way through, and the rest goes in for richness at the end.
Sous Vide Mashed Potato FAQs
Yes. Layer the potatoes in a gallon freezer ziplock bag, then lower it into a sink with 2-3″ of cool water, holding the zipper above the surface and let the water push the air out of the bag. Seal it, dry off, and slide into a second bag, repeating the process. The double bag helps to prevent failure, as zip-top style bags are not intended for this purpose and can fail in high heat.
Alternatively, you can use a silicone Stasher bag.
Absolutely! Seal each batch in their own bag to ensure the cook time remains the same.
Leftover sous vide mashed potatoes can be stored un-mashed in their bag or mashed in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
If you have extra, they can always be frozen in a freezer-friendly container – I do recommend using high-fat dairy if you plan on freezing the potatoes, they tend to thaw better with higher fat content.
One of the best parts of sous vide mashed potatoes is that you can make them ahead of a big holiday dinner. Slice and seal the potatoes a few hours ahead and keep the bag in the fridge until you’re ready to cook. Or cook them up to 4 days ahead, mash, and reheat one of two ways:
1. Add them to a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 2-minute intervals, stirring between, until hot throughout
2. Add the mashed potatoes to a covered baking dish and heat in a 350f oven until heated through – usually 30 minutes.
If you find the reheated potatoes a bit dry, feel free to add a splash of milk, however, there is enough liquid and fat in this recipe that I’ve always found they reheated super creamy and delicious!
Hands-Off-Ish
This is not a “hands-off” recipe in the true sense of the word. It’s more like a “hands-off when your hands are needed elsewhere” kind of recipe, and I think that’s the best kind. Here’s the top three reasons I make potatoes this way:
- Frees up your schedule. I slice and seal the potatoes ahead, park the bag in the fridge for a couple of hours, then drop it in the preheated water bath when it’s time. On Thanksgiving, when every burner is spoken for, this is a lifesaver!
- No diluted flavor. No boiling water means creamier, more flavorful mashed potatoes.
- Your water bath has room for more. Toss in an extra bag of potatoes for leftovers later in the week, add a bag of carrots, beets, or cauliflower (just adjust the time as this cook temperature is higher)
More Sous Vide Favorites
If you tried this Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Printable Recipe
Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 6 medium Yukon gold potatoes
- ½ cup butter, cubed and divided
- 1 tablespoon dried dill, optional
- 3 green onions, sliced
- 1 cup cream
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat sous vide water bath to 194°F.
- Meanwhile, peel and slice 6 medium Yukon gold potatoes into approximately ½" slices.
- In a vacuum seal bag, add the potatoes, about ¼ cup of cubed butter and 1 tablespoon dried dill, if using. Try to keep the bag as flat and uniform as possible to avoid undercooked spots. Seal the bag.
- Once the water bath reaches temperature, place the potatoes in the water bath. Cook the potatoes at 194°F for~60 minutes. You'll know they're done when they break apart when gently squeezed.
- Remove the potatoes from the water bath, cut the corner of the bag and dump the contents into a large flat bottomed stainless steel bowl or serving dish.
- Add the remaining butter and mash the potatoes until the large chunks are gone. At this point, add up to 1 cup of cream, ¼ cup at a time, until the mashed potatoes reach the desired consistency.
- Add 3 sliced green onions, and mash until completely combined before adding salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve hot.
Notes
Don’t have a vacuum sealer:
Simply bag the ingredients in a freezer ziplock bag, and submerge in water to remove the extra air, seal. Then repeat with a second bag.Expert Tips
- Get a head start. This is a high temperature cook and the prep is quick, so filling the water bath with hot tap water saves you waiting around for it to heat.
- Bag it right. I prefer vacuum seal bags here. An hour at this temperature can be hard on zip-top bags. See FAQs for more information.
- Keep it flat. A flat, even layer of potatoes cooks more uniformly, with no firm spots in the middle of the bag.
- Put the mixer down. Potatoes mashed to oblivion with an electric mixer turn gluey. Use a masher or ricer until the chunks are gone, then use cream for smoothness.
