Loaded Mashed Potatoes
This post may contain affiliate links.
The best Loaded Mashed Potatoes are packed with crispy bacon, melty cheese, creamy sour cream and crunchy green onions! This family-favorite side dish recipe is an Outback Steakhouse copycat. It’s truly delicious and easy enough to make for a weeknight meal, but impressive enough for a holiday dinner.
Table of contents
In high school, I worked at Outback Steakhouse for a few months. I fell in love with some of the dishes and started making them at home. This recipe for loaded mashed potatoes is one of them, and it has been made in my kitchen for over 20 years now!
It’s a family favorite that we make for weeknight meals throughout the year. And we also make it for holiday meals, like Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas.
For this recipe, I’m using my tested and perfected tricks for making the best mashed potatoes. This includes cooking the potatoes in broth and using sour cream instead of milk. Using both of these tricks makes these mashed potatoes so creamy and flavorful!
Now toss in lots of cheddar cheese and crispy bacon to make them super cheesy, and with a crunch. Now you’ve got the best loaded mashed potatoes ever!
The great news is, they’re also super easy to make! It only takes 20 minutes to make this recipe for a quick and simple side dish anytime!
Ingredients
- Chicken broth – this is one of my secrets to making truly flavorful restaurant-style mashed potatoes. Instead of cooking the potatoes in boiling water, I cook them in boiling broth. This is super easy to do by simply adding chicken bouillon to a pot of boiling water. The flavorful chicken broth soaks into the potatoes as they cook, imparting them with extra flavor.
- Russet potatoes – I always use russets for mashed potatoes. These potatoes have a high starch content. This means that when they’re mashed, they’re lighter and fluffier, than potatoes like yukon gold that have a medium starch level. You can peel them, or leave the peels on, totally your call!
- Garlic – I always boil my potatoes with a couple cloves of garlic. The garlic will soften in the boiling broth and blend right in with the mashed potatoes to add even more flavor.
- Unsalted butter – I like to control the amount of salt I add to mashed potatoes, so I use unsalted butter, then salt the potatoes to taste. If you’re using salted butter, reduce the added salt in this recipe by 1/2 teaspoon.
- Sour cream – now this is the real secret to the creamiest mashed potatoes ever! Instead of milk, I add sour cream and 1/4 cup of the chicken broth that the potatoes were boiled in. This results in ultra creamy mashed potatoes with a great flavor.
- Salt + black pepper – to season the mashed potatoes.
- Cheddar cheese – I always recommend using sharp cheddar cheese and grating your own cheese at home. Pre-shredded bags of cheese at the grocery store contain additives that cause them not to melt as well as fresh-grated cheese. One of the things that makes this recipe so special is the ribbons of melty cheddar cheese swirled throughout the mashed potatoes.
- Bacon – for this recipe, you’ll need 1/2 cup of cooked, crumbled bacon. You can use my guide for how to cook bacon in the oven, and cook 6 strips of bacon to get the half a cup needed for this recipe, or you can purchase real bacon bits at the grocery store and mix them into this recipe.
- Green onions – the crunch of diced green onions finishes off this dish perfectly, just like on top of a loaded baked potato.
Instructions
For the full ingredient amounts and recipe instructions, jump to the recipe card, at the bottom of this post.
- Cook the potatoes. Bring 6 cups of chicken broth to boil in a large pot on the stove over high heat. Cut the russet potatoes into 1 inch cubes (skins on or off) and add them to the boiling broth, with 2 cloves of garlic. Cook for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork tender. Remove 1/4 cup of chicken broth from the pot before draining the potatoes. Drain the potatoes and transfer them back to the pot, or to a large mixing bowl.
- Season the potatoes. Add butter, sour cream, salt and pepper to the cooked, drained potatoes. Also add the reserved 1/4 cup chicken broth.
- Mash the potatoes. Use a potato masher, or electric hand mixer, to mash the potatoes until their smooth and fluffy.
- Load up the potatoes. Add the cheddar cheese, bacon and green onions to make these loaded mashed potatoes. Gently stir the ingredients into the mashed potatoes, then serve immediately.
Recipe tips
- To peel or not to peel? That’s totally up to you! I’ve made this recipe with skins on and off. Sometimes, I like the skin for a little texture and other times, I peel the skins to make the mashed potatoes perfectly smooth and creamy. I’ll let you make the call on your preference!
- After you’ve finished preparing the potatoes, to keep them warm, transfer them to a slow cooker. Set the slow cooker to warm and leave the mashed potatoes in there for up to 4 hours. Before serving them, I recommend stirring in 1/4 cup chicken broth or milk to make sure they’re still nice and creamy.
- This recipe serves 6-8 people as a side dish. As a good rule of thumb, you always want to plan for about 1/2 pound of potatoes per person. If you want to double this recipe to serve 12-15 people at a holiday meal, simply click the 2X button in the recipe card below. The ingredient amounts will automatically update for the new serving size.
Dietary options
To make these potatoes vegetarian, replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth. And omit the added bacon.
These potatoes are naturally gluten free. Always make sure the chicken bouillon, or chicken broth, used is gluten free. While Knorr is not certified gluten free, it does not have any ingredients that contain gluten. My brother is celiac and we use this ingredient when cooking for him regularly.
Storage and reheating
Store leftover loaded mashed potatoes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 6 days.
Reheat the mashed potatoes in the microwave or oven.
To reheat them in the microwave, scoop a single portion of mashed potatoes onto a microwave-safe plate, or into a bowl, microwave for 1 minute, then stir in 1-2 tablespoons of milk or heavy cream and reheat for another minute. This will keep the mashed potatoes nice and creamy.
To reheat them in the oven, place the mashed potatoes in an oven-safe dish. Cover with foil and place in a 350°F oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove and stir in 2-4 tablespoons of milk or heavy cream before serving.
What to serve them with
Pork chops, meatloaf, Thanksgiving turkey and more! Mashed potatoes pair perfectly with so many delicious main dishes. Try it with one of these popular recipes for dinner tonight!
- Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf – because bacon meatloaf + bacon mashed potatoes = the ultimate comfort food dinner!
- Dad’s Famous Captain Crunch Fried Chicken
- Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp
- Smoked Turkey Breast
- Lemon Rosemary Chicken
- Slow Cooker French Onion Chicken
- Bacon Wrapped Turkey Breast
- Roasted Prime Rib
- Beef Wellington
- Marinated Grilled Sirloin Steak
- Smoked Pork Chops
- Salisbury Steak
And if you have leftover mashed potatoes, don’t miss my Mashed Potato Bacon Pizza!
More side dish recipes
Looking for more easy side dishes for Thanksgiving and beyond? Check out these delicious dishes!
Loaded Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 3 pounds russet potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes – skins on or off, your choice
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
- ½ cup cooked, diced bacon, approximately 6 slices
- ¼ cup green onions, diced
Instructions
- Bring the chicken broth to boil on the stove in a large stock pot.
- Once the broth is boiling, add the cubed potatoes and garlic cloves to the chicken broth and cook for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork tender.
- Remove ¼ cup chicken broth from the pot and set aside.
- Drain the potatoes from the remaining chicken broth, then add them back to the pot, or transfer them to a large mixing bowl, with the reserved ¼ cup chicken broth, butter, sour cream, salt and pepper.
- Use a handheld potato masher or electric hand mixer to mash the potatoes.
- Once the potatoes are mashed, without any lumps remaining, add the cheddar cheese, chopped bacon and diced green onions. Gently stir to combine the ingredients, then serve.
Notes
- After you’ve finished preparing the potatoes, to keep them warm, transfer them to a slow cooker. Set the slow cooker to warm and leave the mashed potatoes in there for up to 4 hours. Before serving them, I recommend stirring in 1/4 cup chicken broth or milk to make sure they’re still nice and creamy.
- This recipe serves 6-8 people as a side dish. As a good rule of thumb, you always want to plan for about 1/2 pound of potatoes per person. If you want to double this recipe to serve 12-15 people at a holiday meal, simply click the 2X button above. The ingredient amounts will automatically update for the new serving size.
- To peel or not to peel the potatoes? That’s totally up to you! I’ve made this recipe with skins on and off. Sometimes, I like the skin for a little texture and other times, I peel the skins to make the mashed potatoes perfectly smooth and creamy. I’ll let you make the call on your preference!
- To make these potatoes vegetarian, replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth. And omit the added bacon.
- These potatoes are naturally gluten free. Always make sure the chicken bouillon, or chicken broth, used is gluten free. While Knorr is not certified gluten free, it does not have any ingredients that contain gluten.
- Store leftover loaded mashed potatoes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 6 days.
- To reheat them in the microwave, scoop a single portion of mashed potatoes onto a microwave-safe plate, or into a bowl, microwave for 1 minute, then stir in 1-2 tablespoons of milk or heavy cream and reheat for another minute.
- To reheat them in the oven, place the mashed potatoes in an oven-safe dish. Cover with foil and place in a 350°F oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove and stir in 2-4 tablespoons of milk or heavy cream before serving.
Nutrition Facts
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
One Comment on “Loaded Mashed Potatoes”
This is one of favorites to have with fried chicken, but also goes well with about anything, the leftovers are great reheated.