The Frozen Shortcut You Need For The Easiest Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes

The Instant Pot is a multi-functional appliance worth investing in, saving you time, energy, and wasted nutrients by pressure-cooking food in mere minutes. Instant Pot mashed potato recipes often place raw chunks of potatoes in the pot, cover them with water, and pressure cook them for just eight to 12 minutes before mashing them with milk and butter. But there's an even faster way to make Instant Pot mashed potatoes. Using frozen hash browns or home fries is the shortcut you need for the easiest Instant Pot mashed potatoes.

Frozen potatoes like diced hash browns or shredded hash browns are precooked and pre-chopped, speeding up the preparation and cooking process without sacrificing flavor. While hash browns and home fries normally require pan-frying or roasting to get a crispy exterior, steaming them from frozen with a tiny bit of water will not only cook them but also make them mushy and streamline the mashing process.

To make the easiest Instant Pot mashed potatoes, dump a 2-pound bag of frozen hash brown potatoes into the Instant Pot with a cup of chicken broth or vegetable broth. Set your pressure cooker to high and cook for 5 minutes. Then, carefully release the steam and remove the lid, adding butter and half and half or milk, salt, and pepper before mashing with this masher. It'll only take a minute or two to mash the steamed potato cubes.

Frozen potatoes are the key to the quickest Instant Pot mashed potatoes, but not just any frozen potatoes will do. Make sure that the frozen potatoes you buy are just potatoes with no additional fat; frozen french fries or tater tots won't work for mashed potatoes. While broth is optimal for the most flavorful mashed potatoes, you can use water. You can also blend a spoonful of Better Than Bouillon in a cup of hot water for a better broth substitute.

While butter and milk are basic mashed potato ingredients, there are plenty of other delicious additions to bring Instant Pot mashed potatoes to the next level. Tasting Table even has an Instant Pot mashed potatoes recipe that uses butter, parmesan cheese, sour cream, and mayonnaise for a tangy, nutty, and dairy-rich taste with an almost whipped consistency. You can make the recipe by swapping Yukon gold potatoes for a bag of frozen potatoes.

For a savory and aromatic profile, stir in garlic granules or diced green onions and shredded cheddar cheese. Swapping heavy cream for sour cream will bring a tangy complement to the earthiness of potatoes, but you can also use Greek yogurt for the same tanginess plus added protein. Butter is key to mashed potato's comforting taste, so be sure to use a high-quality product like Kerry Gold. There are also plenty of great vegan butters and plant-based creams to make vegan-friendly Instant Pot mashed potatoes.