The Best Instant Mashed Potatoes from Potato Flakes

How to make Instant Mashed Potatoes that taste better than REAL mashed potatoes from scratch

Instant mashed potatoes are an awesome invention! They allow us to store so much more food in the pantry than if we had to keep fresh potatoes in storage. Plus, making mashed potatoes from scratch takes a lot of extra time and effort. Add to that the limited shelf life of potatoes and dehydrated potato flakes start looking better and better. Sometimes homemade from scratch is the best way to go. But, we just don’t always have time for that! Let me teach you how to cook up instant potatoes that will have your family thinking you slaved in the kitchen for hours. This is a family favorite in our home.

Fooled Ya Mashed Potatoes

We live in the South, also known as living in the Bible Belt. Often, that means attending a Baptist Church. Attending a Baptist Church usually means there is plenty of opportunity for “dinner on the grounds” or pot luck suppers. When attending these blessed meals, one absolutely expects for there to be multiple potato dishes. Our family has always felt obliged to be one of the providers of these starchy favorites. However, limited time to peel, boil, smash and mix up fresh homemade potatoes made it easier for us to make instant potatoes. Knowing that discerning southerners would be slapping our instant potatoes on their plates by the spoonful made us work hard to dress them up. Now, we know it isn’t nice to set out to fool your fellow church attendees. But when it comes to food in the south, you bet your recipe better be lip smacking good.

What Brand Instant Mashed Potatoes are Best

You will find many brands of Instant Mashed Potatoes to choose from, readily available in local grocery stores, Walmart, Amazon and other chain stores. Our family’s favorite brand is Hungry Jack. However, Hungry Jack has been a little bit difficult to find since they experienced a recall then a shortage in 2022. To get our mashed potato fix, we changed to Idahoan Instant Potatoes. They cook up good and there are many flavors available. Red Hill has good, clean products and their instant potato flakes do not disappoint. Additionally, if you prefer organic products only, Edward & Sons Trading Company offers a great option. Most stores also have their own brands that will suffice just fine. We like Hungry Jack because the ingredients include fewer fillers. Although, we must admit that we haven’t tried the organic brands, which we should do. Every brand we have tried claims the ingredients are real potatoes, so we suppose it is probably true. However, many have a long list of ingredients that are hard to pronounce. So, we suggest reading the label and making the best choice for your family.

Dairy Products Make a Huge Difference

Quality dairy products make a difference in how instant mashed potatoes turn out. As the recipe says, skimping on the dairy will make your potatoes taste like paste. Paste may have tasted good in kindergarten, but adults seem to have more discerning tastebuds. So, let’s stick with the good stuff.

Using Real Butter in Fooled Ya Mashed Potatoes

Butter is THE essential ingredient we use in our delicious boxed mashed potatoes. Around our house, we do not take this lightly. This is because the yumminess of the butter is what makes the tastebuds dance and sing. The fat content and general deliciousness of the butter combines so smoothly with the dairy to rehydrate the dried flakes. As a result, there is no clumping of nasty dehydrated dryness in a single bite of our potatoes.

Equally as important to the butter is the half and half. We know, it sounds a little overboard. But, let’s remember, we are not using fresh potatoes. My momma called them reconstituted potatoes. If you’re gonna make the reconstitution “Fooled Ya Mashed Potatoes” good, you’re going to have to spring for the best ingredients. The half and half adds a richness to the flavor and thickness to the potatoes that you do not get with water. Not only do we recommend not using water, we are strongly against it. The dairy will also contribute to the clump free finished product that have everyone wanting to lick their plates.

Just a quick note: You can use any brand you like. Land o Lakes does not sponsor us, though now maybe they should. We use different brands depending on cost and availability. Obviously, store brands would be the most economical unless the brand names are on sale. Our favorite place to get butter and half and half is Costco. We like the bulk supply and the cheaper price.

Instant Mashed Potato Pairings

Since we are discussing finely sophisticated dining, let’s also cover meals that can easily include Fooled Ya Mashed Potatoes. Our number one, top favorite, lip smacking meal to have these potatoes with is homemade meatloaf. Maybe we should pause here so we can go cook! Other meals we love to slap some potatoes on the plate with include our chicken broccoli braid, spicy southern salmon patties and any dinner that includes green beans. Plus, they are a great companion to a nicely prepared, medium rare grilled filet mignon steak. That’s just a plate load of southern satisfaction.

Amp Your Potatoes Up with Toppings and Mix-ins

Our recipe includes a suggestion for optional sour cream to be added. We aren’t sure why anyone wouldn’t include the sour cream, but that’s just us. In addition to sour cream, we love to amp up our instant mashed potatoes with fine ingredients that add layers of flavor and comfort. The obvious choice is gravy. Any kind of gravy. In the south, you can’t go wrong with gravy. Actually, you can add anything you like, including things we would consider gross. Other than gravy, our favorite mix-ins include cheese, bacon, chives and hot sauce. Of course, we have been known to mix our mashed taters into fine dishes like Shepherd’s Pie and a delicious southern casserole or two.

Gravy is not the Only Topping We Love

The cheese we like to use is a whole milk extra sharp Cheddar cheese. Although, more pungent cheeses (stinky cheeses) can add some very deep flavor as well. We like to shred our own cheese to avoid the sawdust additives. When it comes to bacon, can you really go wrong? Bacon equals GOODNESS! We like to grow our own chives, but any fresh chives purchased at the grocery store or local produce stand will suffice.

Now, the hot sauce is a different story. We are quite a bit more selective about our heat! First of all, we love cayenne pepper and add it to many dishes. Secondly, we love a good sauce that gives us both flavor and heat. One example we do not like is Tabasco Sauce. Yep, it’s true. It tastes like metal with some heat to us. Instead, we opt for Old Pueblo Authentic Pablano Sauce, which has been a family favorite for generations. Recently, an Indonesian friend of ours introduced us to Huey Fong Sambal Chili Paste. Only because of the nostalgia of the Pablano Sauce does it take the spot of our second favorite hot sauce for the best instant mashed potatoes with hot sauce. Plus, we eat it on almost everything. Except cereal, because that would be yucky!

How to Store Dry Instant Mashed Potatoes

Some Potato flakes are packaged in boxes, or what Momma called “envelopes.” We might just call it a pouch. Once you open the package, it is important to keep moisture out and freshness in. Moisture can cause mold in the dried potatoes. Mold is definitely not one of the mix-ins we enjoy. An airtight container or zipper baggie will do the trick. Then you can store the your instant potatoes on a shelf in the pantry or cabinet for a very long time.

How to Store Left Over Fooled Ya Mashed Potatoes

On the rare occasion that not all of the Best Instant Mashed Potatoes are scarfed up, you’re going to want to save them for later. In the south, we appreciate a little left over comfort food to snack on when no one is looking. We aren’t picky about how you store them as long as the container is airtight and can be put in the fridge. A zipper bag works great and you can cut the corner off and squeeze out the snack time goodness when you’re on the sneak. A plastic or glass container that stacks nicely with all of the other left overs is always nice for keeping the fridge in order. We are definitely more regimented about keeping the potato left overs than we are about what we keep them stored in.

How to Repurpose Left Over Mashed Potatoes

Supper time is made easy when you can repurpose the foods you saved from previous meals. When you do it right, no one will catch on to the fact that you didn’t work your tail off over their home cooked meal. So, when we have left over potatoes, you can bet we are going to repurpose them into something everyone will stuff themselves on and rave about for days.

Take a cup full of those left overs and mix them up with some cheese, pat them in some crushed up crackers and fry them in a little butter. Smash them thin so they get a little crispiness while cooking. Top that with a scoop of homemade chicken salad. Better yet, mix up a batch of broccoli cheese soup, add a couple of scoops of the potatoes and make a new soup experience. Lastly, and probably most popular, cook up a batch of Shepherd’s Pie filling, slap the taters on top, add a little bit of grated cheese and bake it to perfection in the over. No matter what meal you choose to repurpose the best instant mashed potatoes with, rest assured it will be superb!

How to Reheat Instant Mashed Potatoes

Maybe repurposing is not your thing in the kitchen. But, these taters are so good it seems unfair to toss them out. There’s nothing wrong with a little reheat. We like to reheat in a frying pan with a smidge of butter and a couple of tablespoons of half and half. They will taste fresh, like you just cooked them. You can also just toss them into a pot and add a small amount of liquid. Alternatively, you can put them in a casserole dish and toss them into the over for a bake reheat.

Made from Real Potatoes

Did you know that Instant Mashed Potatoes are made from REAL potatoes? Real potatoes are cooked smashed and dehydrated into versatile flakes. Some brands use additives to preserve freshness and color. They may also add spices and fillers that flavor the potatoes. Generally, we do not use the flavored packages because we try to limit the additives when possible. Check the ingredients on the brand you want to purchase to make sure you are comfortable with any additional ingredients that are not potatoes.

Consider the Versatility of Instant Mashed Potatoes

We have established that our Fooled Ya Mashed Potatoes are delicious. Additionally, we have disclosed how easy they are to make. Finally, we want to point out the versatility of the best instant mashed potatoes you can make. At last, let’s talk about how helpful the consistency can be. Imagine feeding a toddler something they don’t spit right back in your face. Plus, saving money on baby food in the process.

The smoothness of perfectly made potatoes are easy to swallow too. Making this treat perfect for aging members of the family that need higher fat content foods. Another thing about potatoes is that they are easy on the stomach. So, when you are feeling a little puny, grab a serving of your deliciously reconstituted mashed taters and a good ginger ale for some tummy refreshment. Lastly, when you grab the jell-o, pudding and ice cream for dental procedure or tonsillectomy recovery, throw some potato flakes in to mix it up a bit.

Fun Facts About Dehydrated Potato Flakes

In conclusion, we wanted to share some fun facts about these taste bud tantalizing flakes we call instant mashed potatoes. Potato flakes are good to use for children’s arts and crafts projects. They work great as a thickening agent for science projects. It has even been said that rehydrated potato flakes work great for shining silver and removing rust. Though we have no experience with those uses. Possibly the most notable and memorable use of dehydrated potato flakes is in the movie Home Alone. The snow in some of the scenes is actually instant potato flakes. Can you imagine? Go check it out!