I’d added half of my sautéed onion & ‘shrooms to the pot for Chicken Pierre, had asparagus prepped to go in the steamer, and just needed something wonderful to spoon that sauce over along with the chicken.
Smashed potatoes!
But not just any smashed potatoes; these were gonna be cooked in chicken stock, then smashed with Irish butter and – you’re gonna wanna try this – chive and onion whipped cream cheese.
Tasty!
INGREDIENTS
•Unsalted chicken stock
•5 or 6 small-ish russet potatoes
•1/2 + 1/4 tsp Seasoned Salt
•2 tbsp unsalted butter
•2 tbsp Chive and onion cream cheese
•Black pepper, to taste
•Heavy cream – to make the potatoes as creamy as you prefer
Note: I based these amounts on a dinner for two and we still had leftovers; if you’re cooking for a larger crowd, you’re gonna want to adjust the amounts of cream cheese and butter.
Wash and cube the potatoes – I did not bother peeling mine – then place in a bowl and cover with cold water. You will notice the water is quite cloudy. That’s the point. Let the potatoes rest in the water for 10 or 15 minutes, then drain and rinse well.
Add the potatoes to a sauce pan and add chicken stock to cover – this amount of potatoes and this pan took one 32 ounce carton of stock.
Stir in 1/2 teaspoon of seasoned salt and bring to a boil over medium high heat.
Reduce the heat to medium or medium low and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, just until the potatoes are nice and tender when poked with a fork.
Drain the potatoes and return to the pan.
Add one tablespoon of the butter along with the two tablespoons of cream cheese and mash well.
Stir in the cream until the potatoes are the way you like ’em – this batch took about 1/3 of a cup – then give the potatoes a taste.
Hmmm.
Good, but…
I added another 1/4 teaspoon of the Seasoned Salt, a goodly amount of freshly ground pepper, and that second tablespoon of butter.
Much more better!
As an option, you could use sour cream in place of the cream cheese, though then you would probably cut back on the cream. My grandmother, Rachel, would also sometimes stir in a bit of her home made pickle relish, which, yes, sounds kinda weird, but was actually pretty nice.
Of course, I had that Pierre Sauce to think about, so I kept mine simple with the cream cheese, butter, and pepper.
And I was wicked pleased with that decision, especially after dinner when cleaning out the pots.