Made with an entire head of roasted garlic, this is truly the best roasted garlic mashed potatoes recipe you’ll find! Velvety smooth and loaded with flavor, you will find yourself craving these extra creamy mashed potatoes again and again.
Why I Love These Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Wanna guess what makes mashed potatoes (and just about everything else) a million times better? Roasted garlic, of course! If you want to seriously step up your game this year at the holiday table, show up with this roasted garlic mashed potatoes side dish and get ready to receive the most compliments. You could even bring some roasted garlic cauliflower mash for those low-carb loved ones in your life! Here’s what makes this garlicky mashed potatoes recipe the very best:
- Roasted Garlic Flavor: We’re not just adding minced garlic to these potatoes. We’re roasting the garlic first, which softens the taste and ensures every single bite of these potatoes is filled with garlic flavor.
- Smooth Creamy: This garlic mashed potato recipe results in the smoothest, creamiest texture, thanks to the addition of butter and heavy cream.
- Holiday Favorite: These garlic mashed potatoes make the perfect addition to almost any dinner table, from a Thanksgiving or Christmas feast to a casual weeknight dinner. They pair well with turkey, ham, steak, chicken, pork, and so much more!
Looking for more potato sides? Check out my duchess potatoes, make ahead mashed potatoes, and Instant Pot mashed sweet potatoes!
Key Ingredients
Below you will find helpful notes for key ingredients used to make this recipe for roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Scroll down to the recipe card below for the full ingredient list and exact amounts!
- Garlic: You’ll need a whole head of garlic that’ll roast to caramelized perfection! Don’t peel it.
- Olive Oil: Any other neutral oil (like avocado oil) works just fine.
- Potatoes: I find that Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes work best for these garlic mashed potatoes because they yield the creamiest results. You could also try small red potatoes if you’ve got some of those.
- Seasoning: Salt and pepper are my simple go-to seasonings. I like to really let the flavor of the roasted garlic shine without any competition. However, feel free to sprinkle in anything you want!
- Heavy Cream: You can also use evaporated milk.
How to Make Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Making garlic mashed potatoes isn’t all that different from making your regular classic mashed potatoes! Below is a quick recipe overview, but please scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions and to watch the step-by-step video.
- Roast the garlic: Remove the papery outer layers of the head of garlic, but don’t fully peel it. Cut 1/4 inch off the top of the head. Coat in oil and wrap in foil. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, then let cool.
- Cook the potatoes: Cook the potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain, then return to the stove over low heat for just a few minutes.
- Mash the potatoes: Add heavy cream, butter, and roasted garlic to the potatoes. Mash until your desired consistency is reached – make it totally smooth or leave some chunks!
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Chef’s Tips & Variations
- Don’t Over-Mash the Potatoes: You want them to be nice and smooth, but over-mashing them can make the texture sticky or gummy.
- How to Mash Potatoes: Some people like to use an electric mixer and some people prefer to do it by hand with a potato masher or a fork – either will work, so it’s really up to you!
- Add Room Temp Heavy Cream: Cold cream mixed with hot potatoes will do funky things to the texture of your potatoes – its best to let the heavy cream come to room temperature, or at least warm up a little before you add it.
What to Serve with Garlic Mashed Potatoes
- Chicken: My personal favorite is this chicken fried chicken!
- Turkey: You can serve these mashed potatoes with your Thanksgiving turkey, or just your weeknight turkey and gravy recipe.
- Barbecue: Anything that goes on the grill and gets slathered in barbecue sauce will go well with these mashed potatoes.
- Green Bean Casserole: Mashed potatoes and this green bean casserole are a duo that you don’t want to miss out on.
- Fish: Grilled fish goes especially well with mashed potatoes.
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
- Storing: The best way to store these mashed potatoes is to refrigerate them in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
- Reheat: When you want to reheat them just put them in the microwave, or use the oven, covering the mashed potatoes with some aluminum foil until they reach the desired temperature.
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 pounds potatoes, russet or Yukon Gold, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
- Salt
- ⅓ cup heavy cream, or evaporated milk
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- Salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Remove any loose, papery, outer layers of the head of garlic, leaving the full head intact with all cloves still connected.
- Cut the top 1/4 inch off the top of the head of garlic to expose the tops of the cloves of garlic. Thoroughly and generously coat full head of garlic in olive oil and wrap in foil.
- Bake garlic in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Open foil and check if he cloves feel soft and are beginning to brown. If they aren’t, cook an additional 10 minutes and check again.
- Once garlic is soft, remove from oven and let cool. In the meantime, bring a large stock pot of salted water to a boil.
- Add potatoes and cook for about 15 minutes, until fork tender. Drain potatoes and return to the stove over low heat to dry for 1 to 2 minutes. (This step removes excess water from the boiled potatoes and keeps your potatoes extra creamy in the end!)
- Add in the heavy cream, melted salted butter and squeeze in the roasted garlic into the mashed potatoes and mash until desired consistency. (Toss the leftover outside of head of garlic once you have squeezed out the roasted cloves!)
- Taste the mashed potatoes and add salt and pepper, to taste as needed!
Notes
Video
Nutrition
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Can someone tell me how many serving this recipe makes.
Hi Sandra! This recipe serves 6 good sized servings! The yield is always listed in the recipe card right above the recipe name. Hope this helps!
Amazing!! I’m going to make these again, for sure!!
While we’re at it,
How about baking several head of Garlic and Freezing for future batches of Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
That will save a step
Is there a difference between heavy cream and whipping cream?
Both will work in this recipe! However, here is the answer to your question: “According to the labeling standards of the Food and Drug Administration, heavy cream is a cream with no less than 36% milk fat. It may also be called heavy whipping cream (1). In contrast, whipping cream has a slightly lower milk fat content, 30–36%. It may also be called light whipping cream.”
Thank you. I am definitely making these this year!