November 17, 2021

Creamy Slow Cooker Garlic Mashed Potatoes

These creamy slow cooker garlic mashed potatoes are perfectly creamy and delicious and so easy to make! The slow cooker does all of the work for you and smashed garlic gives the potatoes so much flavor. This recipe is great as a weeknight side dish or an elegant addition to add to your holiday menu. You’ll get creamy potatoes every single time!

The Best Creamy Slow Cooker Garlic Mashed Potatoes

There’s nothing like perfectly creamy and delicious mashed potatoes. Whether you serve them with gravy or a drizzle of melted butter,  they’re just a classic side dish that everyone loves, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

If you have never tried making your mashed potatoes in the slow cooker I’m here to tell you that you have to give it a try, ASAP! Making your mashed potatoes in the slow cooker gives you the creamy dreamy potatoes you’re looking for with hardly and work. You will never want to make mashed potatoes any other way!

diced potatoes and rosemary in slow cooker

The Ingredients You Need for Creamy Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes (No Cream Cheese!)

Note: full ingredients list & measurements provided in the Recipe Card, below.

Potatoes – russet potatoes are my personal favorite but Yukon gold also work well.

Garlic – no need to mince your garlic for this recipe! Just give the garlic cloves a smash before adding them to the slow cooker. They will become tender while cooking and be easy to mash right into the potatoes.

Rosemary – the flavor of rosemary and potatoes is classic and gives these potatoes a subtle hint of herby flavor.

Chicken broth – instead of cooking the potatoes in water, this recipe uses chicken broth to add in even more flavor. You can also use vegetable broth if you prefer.

Full fat coconut milk – this helps make the mashed potatoes nice and creamy.

Butter – mashed potatoes MUST have butter in my personal opinion! If you like you can use a vegan butter of your choice or ghee instead.

mashed potatoes in slow cooker

How Do You Make Mashed Potatoes in the Slow Cooker?

Note: full ingredients list & measurements provided in the Recipe Card, below.

Making mashed potatoes in the slow cooker could not be easier, in fact, it’s my new favorite way to make them because it requires hardly any hands on cooking time. Especially, if you’re serving mashed potatoes for a holiday dinner like Thanksgiving or Christmas, the slow cooker is the way to go for potatoes. You’ll just add the potatoes to the base of the slow cooker, set the heat to high, and let the slow cooker work it’s magic while you prepare the rest of the meal!

Step One: Add the diced potatoes, smashed garlic, rosemary, chicken broth, and a cup of coconut milk to the base of slow cooker and cook on high for three to four hours until the potatoes are fork tender.

Step Two: Once the potatoes are tender, mash with a potato masher or electric hand mixer until creamy. Mashing the potatoes for a bit before adding in the butter and extra milk helps to ensure that they are extra creamy.

Step Three: Once the potatoes are mashed a bit, add in the remaining coconut milk and butter and then give the potatoes another mash or stir until they are just the right consistency.

This is also the time to add in your favorite seasonings or additions. You can add more milk to make the potatoes creamier, a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt for tang, or your favorite cheese. Adjust the seasoning too by adding a little more salt, pepper, or your favorite fresh herbs.

Step Four: Serve the potates with a drizzle of melted butter or ghee and a sprinkle of fresh herbs like chives.

Mashed Potato Variations

  • Use buttermilk or cream. If you can tolerate dairy, try using heavy cream, half and half, whole milk, or even buttermilk instead of coconut milk in this recipe.
  • Add in your favorite shredded cheese! Parmesan or shredded sharp white cheddar are some of my personal favorites
  • Use different combinations of fresh herbs. Sage and thyme are both absolutely delicious in mashed potatoes.
  • Add sour cream or Greek yogurt. This will give the potatoes even more creaminess and a little tang.
  • Loaded them up! Stir in crispy bacon and green onion for delicious loaded mashed potatoes.

mashed potatoes in white bowl with spoon

More Thanksgiving Recipes to Serve

Making this recipe for the holidays? Here are few more of our reader favorite Thanksgiving recipes to add your menu this holiday season:

I hope you give these Creamy Slow Cooker Garlic Mashed Potatoes a try! They are creamy and delicious and the perfect addition to your holiday menu or weeknight dinner!

If you do give this recipe a try, I want to know! Leave a comment with a star rating below. You can also snap a photo & tag @allthehealthythings on Instagram. Your reviews help support All the Healthy Things and make it possible for me to continue to create the recipes you know and love.

Print

Creamy Slow Cooker Garlic Mashed Potatoes

  • Author: Ashlea Carver
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 4 hours
  • Total Time: 4 hours 15 minutes
  • Yield: 6-8 1x
  • Category: Sides
  • Method: Slow Cooker
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Gluten Free
/
Scale:
  • Author: Ashlea Carver
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 4 hours
  • Total Time: 4 hours 15 minutes
  • Yield: 6-8 1x
  • Category: Sides
  • Method: Slow Cooker
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Ingredients

  • 5 pounds russet potatoes
  • 1 cup chicken broth 
  • 1 3/4 cups full fat coconut milk 
  • 1 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
  • black pepper
  • 2 rosemary sprigs
  • 6 cloves of garlic, smashed
  • 1/3 cup butter

Method

  1. Clean and dice the potatoes into large chunks and then add to the base of a slow cooker. 
  2. Add the smashed garlic cloves, rosemary sprigs, chicken broth, and 1 cup of coconut milk to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours until the potatoes are fork tender. Lower the heat to the warm setting. 
  3. Next, use a potato masher or hand mixer to mash the potatoes. 
  4. Add the butter and the remaining 3/4 cup coconut milk to the potatoes and continue to mash until smooth creamy. Add more milk if you want the potatoes to be creamier. This is also the time to add any cheese, sour cream, or Greek yogurt if you are using. 
  5. You an either leave the potatoes in the slow cooker base or transfer them to a serving dish. Serve the potatoes with a drizzle of melted butter and a sprinkling of fresh herbs. 

Keywords: slow cooker mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes, slow cooker, garlic mashed potatoes, slow cooker garlic mashed potatoes

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Recipe rating

    20 comments
  1. These were yummy and so easy to make! I loved that this recipe had room where you can add in your other preferences as well.

  2. Made these for thanksgiving a day ahead of time. SO easy and flavorful! This will be my go to from now on. I like sour cream in my mashed potatoes so I added that as well.

  3. These were perfect! Delicious and exactly what we were looking for! So nice they could be done in a slow cooker and everyone thought delish!

    • Yay! Love hearing that, Beverly! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!

  4. Those were by far the best mashed potatoes I have ever had! The whole family loved them! We didn’t even need any gravy!

  5. Easy and brilliant! We cooked these for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Tasted great and didn’t take up any stove space. I will never make mashed potatoes any other way!

  6. Stopped making mashed potatoes years ago because it was hard work. The crockpot makes it incredibly easy. This recipe was flavorful and delicious. Another big win for weeknights and the holidays.

  7. We made these for our celebration of Thanksgiving in England – we loved them! So creamy and delicious, and EASY TO MAKE. It was by far the most stress free part of the dinner! Lifesaver, doing them in the slow cooker. Thank you!

  8. Made these for Thanksgiving and they were so good! I used whole milk instead of coconut milk, but kept everything else the same. The leftovers were even better and I can’t wait to make them again!

  9. 5/5 again, Ashlea! My husband and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving by skipping the traditional meal and made braised short ribs instead of turkey – but we still needed those mashed potatoes on the side! I love that these are made in the slow cooker because you can put them going and forget about them, for one, and for two, it doesn’t take up any stovetop space! Typically I would leave the skins on the potatoes but we grew A TON this year on our farmstead and the skins are a bit too tough – that being said, these recipe still worked super well with fully peeled potatoes! We also halved the recipe since it was just the two of us and still have some leftovers. All in all, will DEFINITELY be making these again for every holiday once we can all gather again.

  10. Bland mash? Who is she? Don’t know her after this recipe. These potatoes were so flavorful. I’ve found THE recipe for my family. Can’t it recommend enough.

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