Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes.
As your resident drama queen, I find it pertinent to tell you that these are the best mashed potatoes ever.
I know. Ugh. How annoying is THAT?!
You don’t have to agree. Different strokes for different folks. And since I’m deep in the throes of brownbutteraholicism, my own thoughts may be skewed.
But here’s the deal. This whole browning butter thing? It allows you to use LESS. Yes. Less butter. Not that I have any idea why on Earth you’d want to use less, or why you should use less, but the clothes hanging in my (and your!) closet will agree: this can be good.
Kind of cruel. But good.
I’ve only told you this about a bazilion times over the last few weeks, but brown butter is where it’s at. It deepens the flavor of dishes like something I’ve never had before, and I can easily compare it to adding a bit of bacon grease for flavoring or dissolving anchovies in your parmesan garlic sauce before tossing in a cup of penne.
Which, uh… can I just tell you that last night I did that very thing? I made some pasta with a lot of anchovies and didn’t tell anyone until after they ate it. That.was.awesome.
Even if they did want to pie me in the face. Like sixty times.
Then… then I made a bunch of these cute mini double chocolate donuts with tons of equally as cute rainbow sprinkles and glanced at Mr. How Sweet claiming “look what I made!” as I watched him shove the plate to the side (!)… then I whined and complained that I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t going to eat any so I strategically placed the plate in front of his face while we putzed about and yes… nearly 20 minutes later the entire plate of donuts was gone, as was not only a can of diet Coke but also a diet Mountain Dew. And then I threw another tantrum because he ate alllllll the donuts without saving me any.
What. Ever.
Oh… uh, see this little beater?
Yeah. It’s partner decided to fly off the handle one day (um… literally) last week and nearly take my eye out. So now I’m mixing certain things with one beater attached to my hand mixer. It makes me batty.
So really… brown butter is just… that something something that makes other somethings amazing. It’s like the cinnamon crust on a holiday almond, the chunky belted wrapped around the waist of a cute dress, the extra glitter in your MAC Dazzleglass, the tight t-shirt missing from Gerard Butler’s body and the pretzel m&m’s hiding in that bowl of trail mix. None of those things are truly necessary to make each fabulous, but that leeeetle extra tweak makes the end result extra delicious. You know it’s true.
I guess the whole moral of this story is that if you go three more seconds without brown butter in your life, I’m really going to have to reevaluate our relationship? And I just don’t feel like doing any extra work this Monday.
Browned Butter Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 pounds of yukon gold or russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup of milk, whole will taste best, but 2% tastes great too!
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Peel and chop potatoes, then add to a large pot. Fill with cold water – stopping just as the water reaches about an inch about the potatoes. Heat over high heat and let come to a boil, then cook for 25-30 minutes, or until fork tender.
- When potatoes have about 5 minutes left, add butter to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Whisking continuously, cook until little brown bits appear on the bottom of the pan, then remove immediately from heat.
- Drain potatoes, then add back to the pot, turning the heat to low. Mash with a potato masher to break up the chunks, then add in butter, milk and salt. Mash some more, or use a hand mixer to whip potatoes until creamy. At this point, taste and see if you desire any more flavoring (salt, pepper, additional brown butter, etc).
- Garnish with fresh sage and serve.
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
I guess I’m also a sageaholic. Oh well. At least my addictions can be fried.
151 Comments on “Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes.”
You’ve opened me up to a whole new world of possibilities for mashed potatoes!
Thank you, Jessica!
Oh my… I LOVE brown butter. I never thought of putting it in mashed potatoes…
So, I’m making your sangria chicken for dinner tomorrow and these would go PERFECTLY wtih it. What could be better than sangria & brown butter??? Plus, I’m thinking of making your s’mores brownies along with that delicious marshmallow vodka hot chocolate……good thing I have the whole day off…..I guess I’ll be spending it all in the kitchen lol
That sounds like such a delicious meal!
o.m.g you’ve just taken mashed potatoes to a whole new level!
Totally.cracking.up!
Ummmm did someone say brown butter? Hellz yes!
Mmmm I love browned butter! Looks yummy!
Seriously dude! Everytime your blog pops up on my bloglovin I nearly have a heart attack. and say “Are you ef’in kidding me???” – superb. Su-perb.
PS. no need to apologize for your -aholics… we all got em.
Brown butter certainly sounds pretty good to me. These are the things I never think of when cooking for myself! I really need to work on adding more flavor!
I love your brown butter obsession–it is fueling my own!
You have completely converted me to brown butter…I can’t believe I had never heard of it before your cookie post. But, oh my, they were sooo tasty!
I just made these, and I must say brown butter adds a whole new flavor that I never imagined. So good, I’m never going back to regular old mashed potatoes. Thanks for sharing!
So excited that you made them already!!!
i absolutely love mashed potatoes. i don’t know if it’s the carbaholic in me or what, but i.love.them. i almost fainted when i saw these mashed potatoes with browned butter. amazing! these will be made on thanksgiving for sure. you’re awesome!
Darling, I love you, lord knows how much time I have wasted at work drooling over your recipes and have even tried my hand at many of them, most of them turning out fabulously. Actually scratch that, ALL of them have worked really well.
Especially the hot fudge peanut butter stuffed cupcakes. Seriously? I made those for a coworkers birthday and I had every woman in my office asking me to marry them. It would have been nice if the men asked instead, well maybe not, because none of them are particularly attractive.
But I digress, you’re missing a very important ingredient in your mashed potatoes. In fact, I think if it’s a sin if you don’t include this ingredient in some form or another. A sin against your health; as it is full of antioxidants, a powerful natural antibiotic, and can even help with blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and considering the amount of butter that we’d all like to use don’t you think that’s important?
That’s right. It is.
Roasted Garlic, it’s good for all that AILs you. (If you know even a little bit of French you’ll find that HILARIOUS!)
Wow these look delicious! No thanksgiving table is complete without mash potatoes, These may have to take the place of plain old mashed potatoes!
this looks amazing, you are a genius. would never have thought of adding browned butter, ever!
yum!
wow…using brown butter sounds delicious. great idea and love the sage garnish!
You have sold me on the browned butter! I LOVE the extra perfect touches!!
Can I please please add to that candied cherries in cocktails and mustard in veggie burger sandwiches and saurkraut on hot dogs!?! Interestingly all of those things are also extras that taste amazing on their own (yes I hang around the bar at cocktail bars stealing cherries… and what?!).. im guessing its the same for brown butter!?
ps – im sorry for dragging your name through twitter mud by replying to your pom and eggs instagram as thinking it said porn. I had a gin & tonic with sunday lunch, but its still no excuse!!!
Since I still want to be your friend, I guess I’m going to have to make these. I’m sure it will score some points with Meeker. And Adrienne. She loves butter. And potatoes. Can you blame her?
Are you sure she is not my child?
Mmmm….browned butter with mashed potatoes. I might have to try this little technique this year…I bet they taste extra rich. Wonder how these taste drowning in gravy???
Probably even better.
While these potatoes look divine, I’m really stuck on that anchovy pasta recipe you mentioned. Care to share? I have some anchovy haters in my life I’d like to trick :)
Didn’t really use a recipe, but sauteed some garlic, shallots, anchovies in olive oil and butter, then added penne, smoked sea salt and some crushed chili peppers!
I was thinking about making brown butter sweet taters the other day…this may push me over the edge to actually do it! I will also be using sage in an upcoming recipe, thanks to you!! I always forgot how much I love it…so thank for the [constant, hehehe] reminder! :)
You must, you must! I used some brown butter in my sweet potato casserole (only time I’ve tried it with sweets) and it was SO GOOD.
Wow, these look as smooth as silk! I’ve never used a hand mixer on my potatoes before, but these photos may convince me.
I’m all aboard with your “brownbutteraholicism”! Keep it coming :)
Have been looking for a good mashed potato recipe for T-day and I believe this is IT!
These look SO good! I have to try these out :)
whew, i am relieved to see that you included sage. too much to add bacon? that would make the dish truly yours.
how about a sage biscuit or bread? or sage compound butter? will you find a way to wear sage? :) a brown butter perfume? :)
This comment made my day. Seriously.
saw the post today. I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!!!! way to go. i can’t wait to make this. except my family won’t accept a different stuffing for thanksgiving. (not the family recipe) maybe i will take it to the in-laws for thanksgiving at their house. the only edible dish there is always my own. i can’t help it, i am a food snob. i read too many food blogs i guess. ha ha. happy turkey day.
making these for Thanksgiving. duh
What a great idea! I love brown butter recipes. I might make these this year for Thanksgiving. I’m always looking for something new to serve at Thanksgiving.
I love your site- your writing style is so fun!
Anyway, these potatoes look delicious. My favorite “Thanksgiving side dish” has always been the mashed potatoes, so I’m going to make these this year. It will be my contribution to the meal. Thanks for sharing this one!
Uhhh, these look freaking amazing. **Adding to list of Thanksgiving recipes**
This actually gave me an idea to make Brown Butter Peanut Butter cookies. I haven’t checked your recipes to see if you have done it yet, but that’s what I’m currently making. I didn’t have any potatoes. Haha.
haha I was gonna mention something about the use of sage again, then you mentioned it in the last line! But there’s nothing wrong with that. And there’s obviously not a thing wrong with butter (or bacon grease- I save all of mine and cook with it when I’m out of butter!)
You have a Kitchen Aid hand mixer don’t you?! Mine did the same thing – gotta love it. I’ve been using it for about 10 yrs now with one beater always falling out.
LOVE THIS recipe… will definitely be using for TGiving!
I love this recipe because it takes a classic recipe and gives it a twist. Super great idea!
I agree with you on “fried” addictions – especially sage ;)
Shocker, but I am yet to try making mashed potatoes. If only I replaced my broken hand-held mixer.
You’re doing crazy things with these mashed taters!
I’m going to try this. Sounds awesome. I especially like that you feed unsuspecting people anchovies… people can be such haters…. and they really don’t know what they are talking about. I get a secret giggle out of feeding a friend goat cheese. She likes feta and not goat cheese…. ah, c’mon on, really???
OMG! You have no idea! Give me bacon and sage and you win my heart!
This is really bad. I have never had brown butter.
I know, I know.
I should hang my head in shame!
I am dying over those mashed potatoes right now! I want to dive in face first!
Wanna go go shopoing for bigger clothes with me? We can eat potatoes before and after.
Look like we will be having mashed potatoes tomorrow night for dinner. Probably nothing else. Who needs anything else when you have brown-butter potatoes?!
These look fantastic and I adore brown butter – there’s something about the flavor that can’t be duplicated!
I think I may be a sagetarian as well, especially when it’s in the company of browned butter!
Love this idea!
I’m loving all the sage! I need to get some ASAP!
I adore mashed potatoes. When I was pregnant with my first all I wanted to eat was mashed potatoes. Ironically, she doesn’t like them now.
oh my gosh. DELICIOUS!
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My mom always makes a corn starch cookie (melting moments) with an awesome brown butter frosting. LOVE!!! These potatoes look awesome and since my husband is a mashed potatoe-aholic I’ll have to try them soon!