Ultimate Loaded Mashed Potatoes

Loaded Mashed Potatoes are creamy and buttery, topped with cheddar cheese, bacon and scallions. They’re a breeze to make and perfect for making ahead.

Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes Ultimate Loaded Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes and baked potatoes are the ultimate comfort food around here. We love the warm, creamy starchy goodness and adding all the toppings is always a huge hit. One person will usually make a pile of cheese on their plate roughly the size of the potatoes while another will make what looks like a bacon mountain. This used to lead to fights over toppings.

Now, we make loaded mashed potatoes casserole which takes all the “I didn’t get enough bacon” off the table. This dish is easy, it feeds a crowd and it can be made ahead.

Made with bacon, sour cream, cheese and green onions, these really do feel like they’re fully loaded mashed potatoes.

Easiest Mashed Potato Recipes:

This recipe was originally requested a couple of years ago by my husband after he ate Chili’s Loaded Mashed Potatoes. So you can imagine his joy that when I was developing the recipe, I had him pick up 2 large servings from our local restaurant.

Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole

How to make Loaded Mashed Potatoes:

I started making the mashed potatoes with milk, but it wasn’t tangy or creamy enough. I tried mashed potatoes with cream cheese and mashed potatoes with heavy cream, but it wasn’t until I subbed in JUST sour cream that the texture came out perfect. We did at one point have a refrigerator full of trays of mashed potatoes.

When it came to serving these potatoes I tried just adding the cheese and a sheet of foil to let them naturally melt, but the cheese didn’t get quite melted enough. The bacon also stayed a little too cold even with the carryover heat. A quick trip to the oven solves this, so I highly recommend the final step of baking.

If you are pressed for time, I suggest adding half the potatoes to the casserole dish, then the cheese, then remaining potatoes and topping it with bacon and green onions. The cheese being in the middle will help it melt more. Use the skillet to re-warm your bacon crumbles for just a few seconds before adding them to the top of the mashed potatoes.

loaded bacon and cheese mashed potatoes

If you’re looking to make this dish a bit healthier to counteract all the cheese and bacon and butter, you can make cauliflower loaded mashed potatoes by boiling half the amount of cauliflower and pureeing it in your food processor before adding it in with the mashed potatoes.

You won’t even be able to taste the difference and with half the amount of potatoes in the recipe you will be saving a lot of calories and carbs.

Tools used in this Loaded Mashed Potatoes Recipe:
Potato Masher: ½ whisk, ½ potato masher, I love this kitchen tool!
Immersion Blender or Hand Mixer: Make quick work of the potatoes this blender is my go to for blending soups and mashed potatoes.
9×13 Baking Pan: The perfect size for these mashed potatoes to have good topping coverage and baking time in the oven.

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Loaded Mashed Potatoes

Loaded Mashed Potatoes are creamy and buttery, topped with cheddar cheese, bacon and scallions. They're a breeze to make and perfect for making ahead.  
Yield 8 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 8 ounces bacon or more to taste
  • 3 pounds russet potatoes peeled and cut into 1" cubes
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 container (16 oz) sour cream
  • 4 teaspoons Kosher salt divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 8 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 cup green onions sliced

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  • Put the potatoes into a large pot and cover with water and 2 teaspoons of the salt.
  • Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
  • Drain the potatoes and put them back into the pot with the butter and sour cream.
  • Mash them well and add in the remaining salt and the pepper.
  • Scoop the potatoes into a 9x13 casserole dish and top with the cheese and bacon.
  • Cook the potatoes for 5-10 minutes covered with foil, or until the cheese is fully melted.
  • Garnish with green onions before serving.

Notes

If making ahead for a party, stop at the step before it goes into the oven. If refrigerated in between, cook the potatoes for 15-20 minutes covered.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 469kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Cholesterol: 78mg | Sodium: 1636mg | Potassium: 801mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 680IU | Vitamin C: 10.3mg | Calcium: 234mg | Iron: 1.8mg
Keyword: Ultimate Loaded Mashed Potatoes
Ultimate Loaded Mashed Potatoes
Loaded Mashed Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the upcoming cookbook: Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients which is being published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. OMGOODNESS, WE DIED N WENT TO HEAVEN???? THIS RECIPE IS AMAZING….I DID DOUBLE THE BACON N CHEESE (JUST BECAUSE) AND ADDED HALF TO MASHED POTATOES BEFORE PUTTING INTO MY CASSEROLE DISH, BUT EVERYONE LOVES IT….. DEFINITELY 5 STARS…..THANK YOU FOR SHARING

  2. Made this for a dinner party last night, alongside beef ribs. I used red potatoes out of our garden. It was nice to get most of it done, before people showed up. Everyone loved it, and went back for more! Thank you 🙂

  3. I made these for Father’s Day dinner. My husband and boys loved them!!! They all agreed that they were “the star of the show”.

  4. Another great recipe. This is exactly like one of my favorites at Chili’s the “Loaded Mashed Potatoes”. I’d love to eat there still, but they just charge so much when you are taking a family or friends. So, thanks for sharing and helping us to learn how to do it ourselves.

    1. If you are not a fan of sour cream, cottage cheese is a great substitute for this recipe! Hope that works better for you!

  5. Everybody loved them. I did stir in the bacon and most of the cheese and then sprinkled a bit of cheese and the green onion on top before baking.

  6. You said to use one stick of butter. Is that 1/2 a cup? You never specified if the butter should be softened or melted

    1. Yes, it’s 1/2 cup butter. No need to melt or soften the butter and the heat from the potatoes will do that for you. Enjoy!

  7. Made them, ate them, loved them!

    While the recipe, as posted, is simply wonderful, I cut the bacon and cheese in half to better suit our own nutritional limits, and the potatoes turned out fabulous. I’ll definitely make this again, and again, and would not hesitate to serve them to company.

    They look lovely, they taste fabulous, and will no doubt be wonderful leftovers, if we’re lucky enough to have any.

    Thank you, Sabrina.

    1. You can easily adjust the recipe down using the slider tool in the recipe card for only 2 servings. Personally, I don’t mind having leftovers the next day to give myself a break from cooking every now and again. Hope this helps!

  8. Can I cook the potatoes in the oven instead of the stovetop? I’m making this for thanksgiving and going to make it the night before and will add the cheese and garnish with the onions before heating it in the oven.

    1. You can always cook them first in the oven like baked potatoes and then mash them. Otherwise, besides boiling the potatoes, this recipe is made in the oven. Hope this helps!

  9. The recipe calls for 4 teaspoons of salt.. I see that you only used 2 to boil in the water? Where is the other salt incorporated? And the ground pepper?

    Thanks

        1. Sabrina,
          Can I cook this potatoe dish, like the crockpot recipe?
          Then should I place in oven safe roasting pan when adding the cheese & bacon – or will the cheese crisp up, with lid off crockpot, for 30min, like the crockpot dressing?
          I can cook the bacon just before, it is to be added & served.
          Sorry, to ask about changing the recipe(s) but think they both look & sound great, want to try both for Thanksgiving meal.

          1. That sounds right – I would recommend baking the cheese and the bacon part, so that they get melty and browned.

          2. Thank you, for your speedy response. I hope you & your family have a safe & wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.
            Sincerely,
            Lise