Brown Butter Is The Secret To Irresistibly Savory Mashed Potatoes

Poor mashed potatoes. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Mashed potatoes are delicious, without a doubt. But, as a side dish, they rarely get to shine on their own. Although it's praised for its comforting, buttery flavor, mashed potatoes have mainly been relegated to being a humdrum dish at the dinner table. But it doesn't have to be that way. There is one simple secret to making an irresistible bowl.

Brown butter — perhaps best known for its ability to amp up a batch of chocolate chip cookies — might just be the perfect ingredient to bring your mashed potatoes to a whole new level. Brown butter is butter that has been heated until its milk solids have caramelized, giving the butter a deep, nutty, and slightly toasted flavor. That signature flavor is so much more complex than the cold butter pats typically added to mashed potatoes.

Browning your butter, though it may seem like a complicated endeavor, is quite simple. All you'll need to do is slice your butter and put it in your saucepan, letting your butter melt in the pan. You will want to pay attention to your butter as it simmers on the stove, and once your milk solids have separated from the liquid and turned a caramel brown, you should take your pan off of the stove. Make sure to not overcook your brown butter, however. Burnt milk solids can take on a burnt taste, and that isn't pleasant in anything, especially mashed potatoes.

The nuttiness and warmth of your brown butter will add depth to your whipped, fluffy dish by adding both fat and caramelized milk solids, which carry heavy doses of flavor. This caramelized flavor can make your potatoes the perfect side dish for a delicious roast chicken. Or, you could serve up a bowl of brown butter mashed potatoes on their own to really let them shine.

But brown butter isn't the only thing that you can add to your mashed potatoes to kick them up a notch. If you want to take your brown butter mashed potatoes to a new level, there are a few tips and tricks to rounding out your bowl. Adding ingredients with a similar flavor profile can help to bring out the full potential of your brown butter. Adding cheeses such as parmesan — which has a nutty taste — can help to complement your brown butter's flavor while adding an extra punch of saltiness.

Additionally, adding roasted garlic can add depth to your brown butter mashed potatoes. Homemade caramelized onions could also be added to your bowl to round out the savory brown butter flavor. And sautéed mushrooms can give your bowl a rich umami flavor that can add enough depth to make it worthy of a main dish. Of course, you can always keep it simple and keep brown butter as the star of your mashed potato endeavors. It is your bowl, after all, and the world is your mashed potato.