Like I mentioned earlier this week when I posted the recipe for The Best Apple Crisp You’ll Ever Make, I love Thanksgiving. It’s the perfect excuse to pull up a seat at the table and gorge yourself until your pants don’t fit anymore. And the best news is, calories consumed on Thanksgiving don’t count! Okay, I made that last part up, but who cares when you’re eating great food?
I know how nerve wrack it can be to make a turkey—it’s time consuming and you have to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning to put it in the oven and then it’s either done 2 hours before your guests arrive, or close to Friday morning. It’s easy for even the best cooks to doubt their turkey skills.
That’s why the stars of the Thanksgiving meal are the SIDE DISHES. And the slow cooker garlic mashed potatoes I’m about to tell you how to make? Both simple and stress free.
I Met A Lot of Resistance About The Slow Cooker Garlic Mashed Potatoes
It was mostly because of the “slow cooker” part. Hubby isn’t a fan of the slow cooker to make meals. That is, until they turn out fabulous like my Mississippi River Roast and then he’s clamoring for the slow cooker meals.
I personally think the slow cooker is the best invention of the 20th century, besides deodorant, of course. It’s probably the biggest time saver of my life. I have a lot of great recipes that I dump into the slow cooker and they come out way better than if I had spent hours making them.
Of course, I have my slow cooker fails, too, but this blog post isn’t about THEM. It’s about a WIN—slow cooker garlic mashed potatoes.
Simple Steps with a Creamy, Delicious Result
First, cube the potatoes. I think red skin potatoes are the best potatoes for this recipe. One of my favorite things about the garlic slow cooker mashed potatoes is that you don’t have to peel the potatoes. Yup, easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Just chop and plop. (In the slow cooker, that is.) 
Add buttermilk, butter, garlic, dried rosemary, salt, and pepper. Set slow cooker for 5 hours on low and let it do its thing. Check on it from time to time to make sure it’s not burning—it may occasionally need to be stirred.
There’s also a lot of speculation about herbs and spices in the slow cooker and how you may need to add them closer to the end of the cooking process. Apparently, this has a lot to do with the particular herb or spice, and also the flavor you are trying to achieve.
If you’re looking for more on this topic, this article from the Gourmet Garden might help. 
While everything else is cooking, you’ll have garlic mashed potatoes bursting with flavor. It’s a WIN because you didn’t need to peel the potatoes AND you don’t need to mash them either.
And if you’re worried that your kids won’t eat the mashed potatoes with the skin on them, you may be pleasantly surprised. My son LITERALLY peels the skin off red skin potatoes when I bake them. He’ll have a pile of skin on his plate and red bits stuck to his fingers. AND he never eats mashed potatoes when I make them. But even he loved these garlic mashed potatoes. 
You NEED a Slow Cooker in Your Life!
Are you sold on these garlic mashed potatoes yet? No? Wait, what??? You don’t have a slow cooker? You must have a ton of time on your hands to stand over the stove every night then, right? No? Well then do yourself a favor and GET A SLOW COOKER!!!!
You’ll love this one that I use. I’ve been through a few slow cookers and this is my favorite:
But if you’re really not a fan of the slow cooker, the good news is, you can make these garlic mashed potatoes on the stove, using what we call in my house, a spaghetti pot. You can set it to low, but you need to keep on top of it to prevent it from burning.
Whichever method you pick, you will love these garlic mashed potatoes and your family will be “thankful” that you made them.