Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. I have spent much of my life detesting Thanksgiving foods. So much so that I’m doing a series right now on my take on Thanksgiving and Christmas favorites. And one of the foods that I’ve never really liked in the past has been, you guessed it, mashed potatoes. They was always something that didn’t sit right with me in the mashed potatoes that I’d eaten in the past. They were too much like a puree, or they were too lumpy, or they were too watery, or they were too this, that, or the other. So if you bought one too many potatoes, strap in tight and get your spud gun ready! We’re making changes to potato gospel. We’re talking today about my bacon chive mashed potatoes.
Why bacon and chive? SO. MANY. REASONS. Let’s cover two:
- The chives make it taste like you’ve got SOUR CREAM in there! It’s a underlying note; a color note in the chord, really, but it’s there and it’s glorious. Plus, added bonus, you don’t actually need to put the sour cream in there!
- Bacon’s saltiness and greasiness gets the mashed potatoes going well on their way to the proper balance between lumpiness and creaminess. Plus, this uses my famed bacon vinaigrette, which can only end in piggy happiness.
My third modification is simple. And it’s also optional. But not really. Kind of.
I bake the potatoes and then mash them. No peeling allowed! No boiling or steaming here! Why? Because it makes the final result so earthy and potatoey. And so good. But besides pure taste, it impacts the texture of the final product. Remember my complaint about mashed potatoes being too watery and too much like a puree?
This solves the problem handily. The crispiness of the skin works well with the grainy consistency of the potato. The bacon vinaigrette and butter that you throw in adds the creaminess. And suddenly your mashed potatoes go from side dish to absolute spectacular. Not kidding. These were the first mashed potatoes that I’ve truly and genuinely loved.
Spices. That’s what’s going to take these over the top. I recommend a little bit of lemon, freshly ground pepper galore (if you like that) and either light cinnamon (if you’re feeling exotic) or some dill to round things out.
That’s the basic idea behind these mashed potatoes. But, as always, you can vary and switch it up to your hearts desire! Still want a bay leaf in there? Do it! Want to go crazy with seasonings? Have a blast! And have a blast eating these mashed potatoes!
- 5 pounds potatoes
- 1 recipe bacon vinaigrette
- 4 oz. chives
- 2 tsp lemon zest
- 1 Tbsp freshly ground pepper (you can absolutely lower this if you want to. I just really like pepper)
- 1 Tbsp fresh dill
- ¾ pound butter
- Bake potatoes, prep bacon vinaigrette
- Prepare spices
- Mash baked potatoes
- Mix in vinaigrette
- Mix in butter
- Mix in all remaining ingredients
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