Rosemary Browned Butter Mashed Potatoes

This festive Rosemary Mashed Potatoes recipe gets an elegant twist thanks to rich browned butter infused with garlic and herbs. A decadent side that’s easy to make for everything from casual dinners to holiday feasts. Vegetarian. 

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Fluffy, buttery mashed potatoes are already one of the world’s best comfort foods. But add some browned butter, garlic, and rosemary to the mix? Ohhhh, my goodness. It doesn’t get better than this. 

Tender Yukon Gold potatoes and homemade browned butter make these mashed potatoes creamy, rich, and fluffy (AKA everything they should be). Browning some butter with fresh rosemary and garlic gives the mashed potatoes just the right amount of flavor and earthiness. 

These are one of the best mashed potato sides for cozy fall or winter dinners (looking at you, Thanksgiving!)

Ingredients

Scroll to the recipe card below for a full ingredients list with exact quantities.

Before you jump in, there are a few things we want to highlight:

• Yellow potatoes –  Also called Yukon Golds or butter potatoes, these yielded the creamiest results in our epic mashed potato taste test. They’re smooth and naturally buttery. 
• Unsalted Butter is always our go-to: It gives us more control over the final seasoning in a recipe.
• Half-and-Half is our favorite liquid to use for homemade mashed potatoes: It creates a fantastic rich, buttery texture without being as heavy as cream.
• Rosemary and garlic infuse the browned butter with tons of flavor. Please use fresh rosemary here if you can! Dried rosemary just gets a little weird in these mashed potatoes and doesn't have the same effect. Fresh rosemary is best (hands down!)
• Salt and pepper – Salt is SO important here. Be sure to taste as you go and add seasoning as necessary! When it comes to black pepper, freshly cracked is a must.

Instructions

This dish is pretty straightforward! It’s a riff on our Ultimate Mashed Potatoes; if you’ve made that recipe before, this will probably feel quite familiar.

Boil the Potatoes

Add potatoes to a large pot and cover with cold water (Image 1, above). Add a generous pinch of kosher salt, cover, and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are fork-tender (Image 2), then drain the potatoes and set them aside.  

Brown the Butter

Return the warm, empty potato pot to the stove and add the butter. Gently crush the garlic cloves with the side of your knife to release their juices, then add them to the pot along with the rosemary sprigs (Image 3, below).

Cook on low heat until the butter melts and starts to brown (about 5-10 minutes). Stir the butter constantly and keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. Once the butter has just barely browned (4), remove the spent garlic and rosemary (5) and reserve a few teaspoons of the browned butter to use as a topping later (6).

Pro Tip: Work quickly and keep a close eye on your butter! We recommend you turn off the heat right when the butter starts to brown, especially if you haven't worked with browned butter before. This helps reduce the risk of burning your butter while you remove the herbs and reserve a spoonful for garnishing the potatoes. Turn the heat back on when you add the half and half! Learn More: How to Brown Butter.

Assemble

Add the half-and-half (Image 7) to the pot, stir it into the butter, and bring the mixture to a low simmer (8). There will still be a bit of separation between the butter and the liquid: That's ok! It doesn't have to be perfectly smooth.

Add the cooked potatoes, salt, and pepper to the pot (9), then use a potato masher to mash until creamy, allowing the potatoes to soak up all that rosemary-infused browned butter (10). 

Once mashed, taste the potatoes: Add another pinch of salt if the flavors haven't quite "popped" yet, and add a few extra turns of cracked black pepper as needed.

Three Tips for Perfectly Creamy Mashed Potatoes 

After months of in-depth testing, we landed on 3 key tips for the creamiest mashed potatoes. Be sure to check out our Mashed Potatoes 101 tutorial for the full breakdown and lots of side-by-side photos! For now, here’s what you need to know:

1. Cut the potatoes into evenly sized pieces. This helps them cook evenly, which creates a smoother, more uniform final dish. We aim for roughly 2.5-inch potato pieces. Smaller potatoes can often be cut in half; large potatoes may need to be cut into quarters. 
2. Use a hand masher or potato ricer for best results. The key to any mashed potato recipe is working the potatoes as little as possible: Stirring and mashing releases the potatoes' starches, which can make potatoes sticky or gummy. Stick with a light pass of the hand masher or potato ricer so as not to overwork things.
3. Use the GOOD butter. High-quality butter like Kerrygold Unsalted Butter or Vermont Creamery’s Unsalted Cultured Butter have a higher butterfat content, which makes these mashed potatoes ultra-rich and flavorful.

This recipe was originally published in 2014. It was updated in 2023 with additional notes, photos, and streamlined instructions.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Easy Mashed Potato Recipes

Mashed potatoes are an essential side dish in fall and winter! Here are a few more of our favorite recipes:

Did you make this recipe? Leave a comment and star rating below to let us know how it turned out!

📖 Recipe

Rosemary Browned Butter Mashed Potatoes

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Jessie
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
• Yield: Serves 4-6 1x
• Category: Side Dish
• Cuisine: American
• Diet: Vegetarian

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Description

These elegant mashed potatoes are perfect for a dinner party!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 pounds yellow or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
• kosher salt, to taste
• 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly smashed
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
• ½ cup half and half
• fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

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Instructions

Cook the Potatoes:

1. Add potatoes to a large pot and cover with cold water. Add a pinch of kosher salt, cover the pot with a lid, and bring to a boil over medium heat (this can take 15-25 minutes). Once the potatoes reach a boil, cook 10-15 minutes more until they are easily pierced with a fork. Drain and set aside. Return empty potato pot to the stove.

Brown the Butter:

1. Add butter, garlic cloves, and rosemary sprigs to the empty potato pot. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly, until butter has melted and just begun to brown, about 5-10 minutes.
2. Remove garlic and rosemary from browned butter; discard or compost. (You can save some of the crispy rosemary for a garnish if you'd like!)
3. Reserve a few spoonfuls of browned butter for topping the potatoes later.

Mash:

1. Add half and half to the browned butter; stir to combine. Bring mixture to a low simmer, then turn off the heat. Note: The butter and half and half may look a bit separated here - that's ok! They don't need to form a thick or smooth sauce: We're just warming up the liquids so the potatoes mash more easily.
2. Return potatoes to pot. Add a bit of salt and pepper, then mash until all of the browned butter is soaked up and potatoes are creamy.
3. Taste potatoes; add extra salt and pepper as needed to help the flavors pop.
4. Place mashed potatoes in a large serving dish or separate it into individual servings. Top with reserved brown butter. Serve immediately.

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Notes

Additions and Substitutions. Add toppings (fresh chives or parsley, balsamic glaze, goat cheese, parmesan). Use red or russet potatoes in place of yellow potatoes if you prefer. Leave the potato peels on for extra texture if you like. Use sage or thyme in place of or in addition to the rosemary. Swap some or all of the half and half for milk, cauliflower cream sauce, or broth (chicken or turkey stock and parmesan broth are all tasty here).

Saving leftovers. Let leftover potatoes cool completely. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 3-6 months. 

Nutrition

• Serving Size:
• Calories: 445
• Sugar: 2.2 g
• Sodium: 953.2 mg
• Fat: 22 g
• Carbohydrates: 56.8 g
• Protein: 5.6 g
• Cholesterol: 47.2 mg

Keywords: thanksgiving, fall, holiday