Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes - Basic Method

Mashed potatoes are one of the things I make most often in the Instant Pot. It takes about 20 minutes total, which isn't really a time savings compared to a pot on the stove, BUT it makes it so much easier because once I set the IP I can walk away and not worry about adjusting temperature, the water boiling over, etc. 

I also make lots of variations of mashed potatoes, but for today I'm sticking with the very basic type, just potatoes, butter, milk, and salt. 

First, peel your potatoes. Tonight I ended up using 5. If you have very thin skinned potatoes, you can leave the peel on.

Then cut into small chunks. 

I had a hard time thinking of how to explain how big these chunks are, so here's a bottle cap for scale. 

Then dump into the Instant Pot. It doesn't really matter exactly how big the chunks are, just make sure they're roughly the same size. 

Then add 1 1/2 cups water.

And about a teaspoon of salt.

Then set the Instant Pot to 8 minutes of high pressure. 

When the 8 minutes are up, do a quick release (or leave it as long as you want) and drain. 

Then dump back into the Instant Pot. 

Add butter to taste. This is about 2 Tablespoons. 

And mash till smooth.

Now add milk til it's the consistency you want. I started with 1/3 cup. 

Get a sturdy spoon and stir in the milk, getting into the corners. I should be using a big wooden spoon for this, but Enzo somehow finds them every single time and reduces them to wood chips. So I stopped buying those expensive accidental dog toys and resort to using a hard plastic rice paddle instead. 

Once it's well mixed, adjust salt level. I like to really beat the potatoes with the spoon to make them smooth and fluffy.

The butter, milk, and salt level are totally up to you. The measurements I give here make a basic, not too rich mashed potato. Feel free to add chopped green onions or chives, sour cream, cream cheese, roasted garlic, sauteed onions, or anything else you fancy. 

But even totally plain, mashed potatoes are still pretty damn good.