The best instant mashed potatoes should be creamy, hearty, and well seasoned. Most importantly, instant potatoes should taste good enough to convince you to never boil and mash your own potatoes again.
Making mashed potatoes can be a real production. You have to boil and peel some industrial-sized bag of spuds, give yourself tennis elbow mashing them all, and then add enough butter, cream, and salt to murder your entire family—and, honestly, 90% of the time they’re still kind of bland and lumpy. But, wow, can you even imagine the reaction if a bowl of them didn’t land on the table for Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas dinner? Mashed potato mutiny.
A lot of home cooks don’t want to hear this, but instant mashed potatoes are good. They’re smooth. They’re creamy—especially if you add plenty of milk and butter. And they’re extremely easy to make. Many of the best instant potatoes on this list—like Idahoan mashed potatoes—only call for boiling water.
Over the course of many taste tests, we’ve dug our sporks into dozens of bowls of instant mashed potatoes and came up with this list of the absolute best. Don’t let a judgey in-law keep you from spending your potato-making time in better ways. Just make the best instant mashed potatoes. (P.S. If you don’t like instant mashed potatoes but still don’t wanna bust out the masher, we’ve also ranked the best microwave mashed potatoes and the best frozen mashed potatoes.)
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- Idahoan Butter & Herb
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One thing you never want mashed potatoes to taste like is dried herbs…which really isn’t a problem here, because you can’t really taste them, anyway. But that’s okay! These Idahoan mashed potatoes are still buttery, salty, a little garlicky, and lightly seasoned with parsley. Really, there isn’t much to complain about. I paired them with a seared salmon filet coated in an herb and garlic cream sauce, and they were perfect. No doctoring needed. Side note: If you glance at the rest of this ranking, you’ll notice that Idahoan is pretty hard to beat. When it comes to instant mashed potato brands, they really are top tier—and you don’t even need milk or butter. Incredible, if you ask me. —Ariana Losch
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Idaho Spuds Classic Mashed Potatoes
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Plain, boxed mashed potatoes and bags of unseasoned potato flakes abound at the grocery store, but not all of them manage to taste all that much like potato. The spuds inside this mind-blowing bargain of a box (seriously, 18 servings for around two bucks?!) need salt and probably a little more butter than the cooking instructions call for, but they’re a great blank canvas for gravy, roasted garlic, sour cream, or other mix-ins. One taste tester called them “as potato-y as mashed potatoes can get.” If you’re on the hunt for the best boxed mashed potatoes that come in a big ol’ box you can keep in the pantry, buy these. —Gwynedd Stuart
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Idahoan Baby Reds
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Lots of instant mashed potato flakes require water, butter, and milk to become food anyone would want to eat. Not Idahoan mashed potatoes. These magical packets of dehydrated potato flakes are good to go (and genuinely tasty) with just boiling water. We love that Idahoan Baby Reds have real potato skins in the mix. I think a lot of people could be fooled into thinking these were really mashed baby red potatoes, and that’s what makes them some of the best instant mashed potatoes money can buy. —Gwynedd Stuart
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Betty Crocker Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
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These instant mashed potatoes by Betty Crocker are decadent, buttery, and nicely salted. There’s a deeply satisfying, fresh-out-the-oven roasted garlic flavor that permeates every bite. Unlike Idahoan instant potatoes, Betty Crocker does require adding milk and butter to your potato prep. That can be good or bad, depending on how rich you like it! I personally threw some Kerrygold butter and nonfat milk in there, and they turned out beautifully. —Ariana Losch
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Idahoan Sour Cream & Chives Mashed Potatoes
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Sour cream and chives are my weakness, so I really had to put my bias aside to judge these Idahoan mashed potatoes impartially. The thick, creamy consistency blends perfectly with the tangy richness of the sour cream, while the chives add a subtle bite of fresh onion flavor. Because Idahoan potatoes come out quite rich and concentrated, this is not the stuff to buy if you’re only so-so about the sour cream and onion flavor from the get go. You’ve been warned! —Ariana Losch
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Idahoan Chicken Broth
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These sound boring, but they’re actually really interesting! Of all the instant mashed potatoes we tasted, these are the savoriest. These would be good with pretty much any meal, as long as you’re not serving vegetarians. Add some extra water to these, and they’d make a quick, easy, and tasty potato soup. They’re versatile, and that’s what makes them some of the best instant mashed potatoes out there. Who knew chicken broth was what instant mashed potatoes needed? —Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Idahoan Monterey Pepper Jack
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These are the best instant mashed potatoes if you love cheese. Not only are these the creamy, cheesy, rich mashed potatoes of your dreams, they also have a wonderful kick from the pepper in the pepperjack. I don’t know what I was expecting from these instant potatoes, but I certainly didn’t think they’d be this delicious. Obviously they’d be great on their own or as a bed for some fried chicken, but I also want to make a taco-inspired cottage pie and top it with these lightly spiced mashed potatoes. Idahoan mashed potatoes are reliably delicious, but these are the best. —Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Betty Crocker Creamy Butter
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When it comes to convenience foods, Betty Crocker truly does it all—cake mixes, brownie mixes, Suddenly Salad, which I wholeheartedly love and recommend—but she doesn’t get nearly enough credit for her potato products. These instant mashed potatoes are smooth, flavorful, and incredibly creamy. . They’re also packed with flavor and don’t need additional seasoning to land on the dinner table (although we’d never discourage you from dousing your instant potatoes in gravy). These are the best instant mashed potatoes —Gwynedd Stuart
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
Best with Cream Sauce
Best Blank Slate
Best Rustic
Best Garlic
Best Sour Cream & Chives
Best for Cooking
Best Cheesy
Best of the Best
Other Products We Tried:
Idahoan Cheddar & Sour Cream, Idahoan Vermont White Cheddar, Idahoan Wisconsin Cheddar, Idahoan Smoky Cheese & Bacon, Idahoan Four Cheese, Idahoan Applewood Smoked Bacon, Idahoan Loaded, Chef’s Cupboard Roasted Garlic, Chef’s Cupboard Four Cheese, Idahoan Hidden Valley Ranch, Signature Select Mashed Potatoes, Sprouts Organic Mashed Potatoes Garlic, Great Value Mashed Instant Potatoes, Hungry Jack Mashed Potatoes, Kroger Instant Mashed Potatoes, First Street Instant Mashed Potatoes, 365 Instant Mashed Potatoes, Betty Crocker Loaded Mashed Potatoes, Amazon Fresh Boxed Mashed Potatoes, Bob’s Red Mill Instant Mashed Potato Flakes, Haddar Instant Mashed
