Make your holiday dinners easier with these delicious make-ahead mashed potatoes, flavoured with sour cream and cream cheese. These mashed potatoes can be made several days ahead and refrigerated, or frozen for up to one month.
There are only a few things that are constants at our family Thanksgiving celebration. The turkey and stuffing, of course, my Mom’s pumpkin pie and these make-ahead mashed potatoes. Not only are these absolutely delicious potatoes, but they are made to be made ahead!
As most of us have discovered, regular mashed potatoes are not something that’s easily made ahead, as they have a tendency to become mealy, crumbly, gluey or just plain un-delicious when made ahead and reheated.
These make-ahead mashed potatoes are enriched with cream cheese and sour cream, where the added fat helps preserve the creamy texture of the mashed potatoes, without any worries or last-minute potato boiling and mashing.
Ingredients and substitutions
A few notes about the key ingredients …
Potatoes – Russet baking potatoes are recommended for the best results. Be sure to boil the potatoes until tender and use an electric mixer (or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment) to ensure fluffy and smooth potatoes.
Sour cream – Full-fat sour cream is highly recommended! While lower-fat sour cream will technically work, it has a higher water content and may make the potatoes. looser.
Cream cheese – As with the sour cream, I highly recommend using full-fat cream cheese here.
How to make make-ahead mashed potatoes: step-by-step
This is a visual summary of the steps to make this recipe. Scroll down to the Recipe Card below for the complete list of ingredients and instructions.
Step 1: Start with a 5 lb. bag of Russet (baking potatoes).
Step 2: Peel and rinse the potatoes.
Step 3: Cut the potatoes into chunks.
Step 4: Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender.
Step 5: Drain in a colander.
Step 6: Add the potatoes to a stand mixer (or a large bowl with an electric mixer) and add the cream cheese, sour cream, butter and seasonings.
Step 7: Mix together until smooth and creamy.
Step 8: Spoon into a buttered casserole dish.
Step 9: Cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month.
Recipe tips!
- If you would like perfectly smooth mashed potatoes, run the cooked potatoes through a potato ricer before mixing with the seasonings.
- While these large-batch, make-ahead potatoes are perfect for holiday meal-planning, they are also great for doing some meal prep. After mixing, simply portion into meal-sized portions and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator and reheat covered in the microwave or a 300F oven to serve.
Making ahead, storing and freezing
- This potato casserole can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated, or can be made up to 1 week ahead and frozen! Be sure to take it out of the freezer and pop it into the fridge a day ahead (it takes a surprisingly long time to thaw).
- On the big day, just remove the casserole from the fridge about 30 minutes ahead, then pop in the oven for 45-50 minutes and serve. No fuss, no muss, and a big batch of delicious potatoes to grace your holiday table.
- Store left-over potatoes in the fridge for 2-3 days.
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Get the Recipe: Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 5 lbs Russet (baking) potatoes
- 12 oz full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature (1 1/2 standard blocks)
- 3/4 cup full-fat sour cream
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoons fine table salt, to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Peel and halve or quarter 5 lbs Russet (baking) potatoes, depending on how large they are. Place in a large pot of cold, salted water. Bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until tender. (Be sure to use a knife to test several potatoes to ensure they are tender. The knife should pass through the potato easily.) Drain the potatoes into a colander and let stand for a few minutes to dry the potatoes. .
- Using a large bowl and an electric mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the potatoes together with the 12 oz full-fat cream cheese (at room temperature (1 1/2 standard blocks)), 3/4 cup full-fat sour cream, 1/2 cup butter (melted), 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg and 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoons fine table salt (to taste) (start with 1 teaspoon of salt and add more as needed, to taste. I usually use about 1 1/2 teaspoons).
- Spoon into a buttered 9×13-inch baking dish. Cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 week. To thaw, thaw in the refrigerator for about 24 hours, then let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before reheating.
- To reheat: Preheat in a 300F oven, covered with foil for about 30 minutes or until heated through. If desired, you can switch the oven to broil for a few minutes at the end of heating to brown up the top of the potatoes a bit.
Notes
More potato recipes to love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress-free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
I absolutely love the idea of a make ahead option. Id like to give this recipe a try. However, what if my oven is fan assisted? What should/can I do differently?
Hi Shân, typically the only adjustment needed is to reduce the oven temperature by 20F. The baking time should remain similar, but always good to watch it near the end of cooking in case it is cooking more quickly.
Hi…this recipe looks wonderful! I have a logistics question for you…will there be room in the oven for the turkey roasting pan, the stuffing casserole pan, and this pan of mashed potatoes? Thanks for any ‘same day co-ordination of getting everything heated at the same time’ tips!
Hi Anne, in short, no. So you’d need either cook the turkey earlier and get it out of the oven to make room for the side dishes OR heat the side dishes in the microwave (which I never love myself). For an average sized turkey, you could put it in the oven early morning (7-ish) and it would be out of the oven by noon. You can make the gravy while the sides are in the oven and you’re good to go. Another option is to cook the turkey the day ahead. I’ve done this many times, when it’s just too much to do the turkey on the day. I let cool a bit, then wrap and cover with a damp tea towel and refrigerate. Next day I slice and heat briefly on the plate. Hope that helps a bit :)
These mashed potatoes look incredible, so perfect for the Thanksgiving meal!
Thanks so much, Laura :)
great idea instead of traditional mashed. love those browned edges and of course the make-ahead component for entertaining!
Thanks Cathy and it really is nice to have these potatoes ready on the big day :)
Love this recipe, Jennifer! My sister-in-law makes a garlic mashed potato recipe that converted me to a potato lover after a lifetime of not eating them, lol.
I will try this one at Christmas because we’re finding it more and more convenient to create make-ahead dishes. Can’t wait!
Hope your day was fabulous and delicious. Loved the video! Happy Thanksgiving :)
Thanks Robyn! These really are delicious and a great time saver, which is always good :)
I love your recipe and the video was very moving. I just love family! Thanks for the make-ahead recipe – I can use all the help I can get. Happy, happy, happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! I can’t wait for ours too.
Thanks Tricia :) Looking forward to a great weekend of food and family here!
I LOVE make ahead potatoes for Thanksgiving – they save SO much time. I usually use goat cheese in mine but I really like the idea of using sour cream & cream cheese – YUM! Will have to do some experimenting – thanks for the inspiration!!!
Thanks Stephanie :) I think you’d like the flavours in these, too!
Love these potatoes Jennifer. You’re getting me pumped for Thanksgiving!
Thanks Mary Ann and yes, I’m getting excited for the Thanksgiving eats just writing about them :)
This is absolute genius, I can’t tell you how many Thanksgivings I’ve spent trying to organize all the sides at the last minute, this is a must make this year!
Thanks Sue! These potatoes are absolutely perfect for holidays, as they whole boiling and mashing process is removed from the day of. Makes time for other things, for sure :)
I love “the potatoes”! What a wonderful idea to make this part of the meal ahead when there’s so much else to do. Happy almost Canadian Thanksgiving! Such a sweet video…
Thanks so much, Chris :)