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Red Skin Mashed Potatoes

Creamy and flavorful red skin mashed potatoes are a rustic, easy side dish that's bursting with butter, chives, and cream cheese.
Course Side
Cuisine American
Keyword homemade mashed potatoes with skin, mashed red potatoes, red skin mashed potatoes, skin on mashed red potatoes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4 people
Calories 238kcal
Author Blair Lonergan

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ lbs. red potatoes, quartered
  • 3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature (about 4 ½ tablespoons)
  • 3 tablespoons buttermilk, at room temperature (or substitute with whole milk, heavy cream, or half-and-half)
  • 1 ½ tablespoons salted butter, cubed, at room temperature
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • Dash of ground black pepper, plus more to taste
  • Garnish: chopped fresh chives

Instructions

  • Place potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and cook until potatoes are tender (about 15-20 minutes).
    Pot of red potatoes with skin in water.
  • Drain potatoes and return to pot. Add cream cheese, buttermilk, butter, salt and pepper; mash to combine. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper, if necessary.
    Process shot showing how to make red skin mashed potatoes.
  • Garnish with fresh chives just before serving.
    Horizontal side shot of a bowl of red skin mashed potatoes.

Notes

  • You do not need to peel red potatoes before boiling. The skin is very thin, so it's easy to bite and chew. Just make sure to scrub the potatoes clean before using in the recipe, and dice into fourths before boiling. Cutting the potatoes speeds up the cooking time and also makes it easier to mash the cooked potatoes later.
  • Add the potatoes to the pot of cold water before bring the water to a boil. This is important because if you add potatoes to a pot of already boiling water, the outsides of the potatoes will cook too quickly, while the insides will remain hard. These undercooked potatoes will yield hard lumps in your mashed potatoes.
  • Make sure that your cream cheese, buttermilk (or cream), and butter are at room temperature before you mix them into the potatoes.
  • If you don't have a potato masher, you can use a fork to mash the potatoes or grab an electric hand mixer.
  • Don’t overmix the potatoes. Mash or whip them until mostly smooth, leaving a bit of texture, and then stop! Too much stirring and mixing makes the potatoes gummy.
  • Garnish the mashed potatoes with scallions, chives, or fresh herbs like parsley or thyme right before serving. This gives them a touch of bright, fresh flavor!

Nutrition

Serving: 1/4 of the mashed potatoes | Calories: 238kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 34mg | Sodium: 434mg | Potassium: 819mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 447IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 52mg | Iron: 1mg