Everyone has their own secrets for making what they claim to be the most delicious mashed potatoes. However, these secret recipes usually start after the potatoes are peeled and boiled and are ready to be mashed. It typically tends to be that you peel and rinse the potatoes, boil them in water until fork-tender, and mash or whip until you’ve got your desired consistency. Most people like to mash their potatoes with milk, butter, and spices to make a dish that’s packed with flavour.
However, I’ve just found out about infusing the potatoes with flavour right from the beginning of the cooking process, so I thought I’d give it a try. Instead of boiling my potatoes in water, I used chicken stock. The idea behind this is that the potatoes will absorb all the amazing flavours of the broth as they cook.
While I did decide to add milk and butter to the potatoes when mashing to enhance the creaminess, I gave the potatoes a taste after cooking, and they picked up the deliciousness from the stock.
Usually, after cooking, the potatoes would taste bland, and I’d need extra butter and milk to make them silky smooth, but not this time.
If you want a more dramatic flavour profile, I’d recommend adding chopped onions, garlic and bay leaves to the water. Just make sure you remove the bay leaves before mashing.
Whenever I make mashed potatoes, I always roughly follow Michelin-trained chef Poppy O’Toole’s ultimate method and make slight changes each time.
Ingredients (serves two to three)
- Four to five Maris Piper potatoes
- 75g salted butter
- 50ml of milk
- Two chicken stock cubes in 500ml of water
Method
Once the ingredients had been weighed out, I peeled the potatoes and sliced them into 1cm thick rounds. It’s important to slice them into rounds so that they’ll cook more evenly.
Next, I prepped my chicken stock and let it cool down before popping in the potatoes, so that they cook more evenly. While I would usually add salt to the water, I didn’t need to as the stock had enough salt in it.
I made sure to let the potatoes simmer, not boil, as this will also help them cook evenly.
After 23 minutes, the potatoes were ready—I could tell that they were ready by poking a knife into them. If the potato slides straight off, you are good to go.
I then drained the potatoes off and left them to dry in their own steam for around three to five minutes. I placed a tea towel over the top when steam drying.
Once drained, I melted the butter and milk and poured it in before mashing the potatoes. If you’re after a creamier texture and want to put in the effort, pass the potatoes through a sieve. Alternatively, a potato ricer gives similar results.
I enjoyed the mashed potatoes with a three-ingredient chicken recipe I’ve been making non-stop recently.