TikTok Taught Me: A Genius Trick for Making the Easiest Mashed Potatoes Ever

Mashed potatoes. They're a Thanksgiving classic and arguably one of the best sides that Turkey Day has to offer. But, just like all good things, they are a labor of love — and quite a tedious one at that.

We are always looking to save time in the kitchen, so any hack where you can combine two steps into one is worth it in our eyes. As we discovered in the past, TikTok is one of the best places for finding genius kitchen hacks, like this one for making mashed potatoes.

When you're making a big batch of buttery, creamy mashed potatoes there are quite a few steps involved. First, you have to peel the potatoes (which always takes longer than expected), then boil them, and finally — mash them, of course.

What if we told you there's a trick in which all you have to do is boil the potatoes with the skin on because you have a tool in your kitchen that can remove the skin and mash the potatoes at the same time? And it's not a potato masher.

Use This Kitchen Gadget to Make Quick and Easy Mashed Potatoes

In fact, it's probably not a kitchen gadget you'd expect to be pulling out to make potatoes at all. The only thing you need to make mashed potatoes this holiday season is a cooling rack, according to TikTok user lorafied.

Use your favorite mashed potato recipe, but instead of peeling the taters, just boil them whole with the skin on. Just trust the process, we promise it will pay off.

Before you move on to the next step, make sure you let the potatoes cool slightly because you'll be mashing them with your hand — and as we learned in elementary school, hot potatoes are difficult to handle. However, you still want them to be warm enough to melt the butter, sour cream, or whatever else you're mixing in with the potatoes.

After the spuds are cool enough to touch, cut each one in half. Place the sliced potato with the cut side down on the cooling rack. Press the potato through the rack and watch as the skin easily slides off. At this point, the potatoes will also be roughly mashed, so you'll only need to mix them up a little more when you add the seasonings and additional ingredients.

Now that you just saved so much time making the easiest mashed potatoes ever, it's all about keeping them warm. But don't worry, we have a trick for that too — well, Rachael Ray has a trick actually — just make a bain-marie so you're perfect potatoes won't get cold anytime soon.

Voilà, Thanksgiving prep just got so much simpler. Seriously, how did we not know about this genius trick earlier?