Anyone else counting the minutes until Thanksgiving? It’s the one meal that I look forward to making every single year. Although this year we will be celebrating without extended family, I will still be preparing a feast for the five of us, including these loaded smashed potatoes. We’ll enjoy lunch and dinner and leftovers for a few days after, including a Thanksgiving leftovers grilled cheese (stay tuned for more info on that). I will enjoy every single second of it.
We often stick to the same menu every year for Thanksgiving. We have a special way of cooking the turkey and specific sides we love, but this year, we wanted to switch up one of our sweeter dishes, the sweet potato casserole.
We are huge fans of roasted veggies, so it only made sense that for any potato side we were going to come up with, that roasted potatoes would be a part of it. Our family loves baked potatoes and definitely could have gone that route, but if you have more than just your family over, loaded smashed potatoes will save you the hassle of having to make separate baked potatoes and will give your guests the option to take as much or as little as they want.
These loaded smashed potatoes can be made the same day, but if you are making this the night before, you can turn off the oven after you remove the roasted potatoes. Before you melt the butter, cover the baking dish of smashed potatoes and refrigerate until the following day. Take it out about 20-30 minutes before you’re ready to heat it up. The rest of the steps will be the same, making sure that you bake at 350° for 20 minutes (if it’s still cold, leave it in for 30 minutes).
Let’s Talk About Ingredients
How you cut your potatoes will determine how long they have to cook. If I use the larger red potatoes, I cut each one into about 20 pieces. Obviously cutting them smaller will take longer, but it will help them to roast faster and it’s faster to smash them so I find that it’s worth it. Speaking of, after using a number of kitchen utensils to try to mash the potatoes (including a tool specifically made to mash potatoes), I have found that this meat chopper is the easiest option!
For the cream cheese, I use whipped because you don’t have to soften it and it’s so much easier to mix. I love the whipped chive cream cheese because it gives your potatoes extra chive flavor as well. If you can’t find it, regular whipped cream cheese will work!
Make sure that you save some of your cooked bacon for garnish, so don’t put it all into your smashed potatoes.
I know that when it comes to salt, we all have very different tastes. I recommend tasting your smashed potatoes before they go into the oven. Take into consideration that the cream cheese and bacon both have a salty flavor, so don’t go overboard. I find that you can always put the salt shaker on the table and have people add if they feel they need more. It’s better to add than serve it too salty.
I’ve tried to show the steps in photos above for you, to make it a bit easier.
Step 1: Potatoes cut up and tossed with oil
Step 2: Potatoes lined up on a lined cookie sheet
Step 3: Cooked bacon
Step 4: Roasted potatoes
Step 5: Combine potatoes, spices, sour cream, cream cheese, garlic and bacon.
Step 6: Smashed potatoes transferred to a baking dish with drizzled butter
Now that you know a little bit about our loaded smashed potatoes, I’m excited to share our recipe.
Loaded Smashed Potatoes
PrintLoaded Smashed Potatoes
Description
Everything you love about loaded baked potatoes, but in smashed form. This is the perfect potato side dish for the holidays or family dinners.
Ingredients
- 4 lbs red potatoes, cut into small chunks
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3/4 cup bacon, cooked
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup whipped chive cream cheese
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Garnish
- chopped fresh chives
- sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper
- Toss chopped potatoes in olive oil and spread evenly, in one layer, on your baking sheet
- Roast for 40 minutes
- Meanwhile, copy bacon into bitesized pieces and cook on the stove until crispy
- Once potatoes are golden brown and tender, remove from oven and lower to 350°
- Mash potatoes in a large bowl. It’s okay to leave them a little chunky
- Add sour cream, cream cheese, most of the bacon (just leave enough for garnish), black pepper, garlic and salt. Stir until combined.
- Transfer to a 9×13 baking dish
- Melt butter and drizzle over the top of the potatoes
- Bake for 20 minutes
- Top with a dollop of sour cream, fresh chives and leftover bacon and serve.
Notes
If you are making this the night before, you can turn off the oven after you remove the roasted potatoes. Before you melt the butter, cover the smashed potatoes and refrigerate until the following day. The rest of the steps will be the same, making sure that you bake at 350° for 20-30 minutes.
If you try our version of the Loaded Smashed Potatoes recipe, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Don’t forget to check out all of our family friendly recipes! Including our Thanksgiving favorites: My Not-So-Secret Collard Greens, Dill Stuffing, Fresh Cranberry and Orange Relish, and Apple Pecan and Caramel Trifle.
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These potatoes sound so delicious. I think that I will make them fo lunch
These look amazing! They remind me of a recipe my mother-in-law makes at special dinners! 🙂
These look delicious! I’m excited to make this dish for our Thanksgiving dinner!
Oh yes please. I know I will love these. I eat so many potatoes. I won’t lie, we usually buy the already made potatoes in grocery stores and heat them up. Maybe I’ll branch out and make these!
I have always loved mashed potatoes and you seem to have taken them to the next level. I can not wait for all the sides on Thanksgiving which are always better than the main course.
Oh my goodness! These look delicious. I am a huge fan of smashed potatoes and can’t wait to try your recipe.
I love mashed potatoes, they are one of my favorite side dishes for dinnertime, period! Loaded mashed potatoes are the best! I am going to give this a try next week, in preparation of thanksgiving!