Every Christmas Eve when my dad’s side of the family gathers together, my grandma makes the creamiest mashed potatoes you’ve ever tasted. The secret? cream cheese. When she sent me this recipe clipped from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, I knew these were the potatoes I wanted to make for my Christmas Eve dinner.
ingredients.
- 5 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
- ½ T. olive oil
- 1 T. minced garlic
- 1 8-oz package cream cheese, cut into quarters
- 1 tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. black pepper
- ½ c. chicken stock or broth
directions.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Put potatoes in a large stockpot with water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes break apart easily with fork, about 9 to 12 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft – about 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat.
- Drain potatoes and return them to the pot. Add garlic and oil mixture, cream cheese, salt and pepper. Mash potatoes. Stir in chicken stock.
- Place in casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes.
So this was the basic recipe. I jazzed it up a bit by adding half and half when mashing in order to make the potatoes a bit creamier and shredded romano cheese to give it some more flavor. As a topper I added butter (I swear that’s what my grandma does to her potatoes), paprika and additional shredded romano cheese before baking.
The mark of a good mashed potato is when you don’t need to drown it in gravy. I’m happy to say these mashed potatoes stand on their own.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 