An easy and delicious creamy potato soup recipe that can be made in just one pot! Loaded with bacon and creamy potato goodness, this is a favorite comfort food in my household.
Something savory today!
Savory, creamy, and loaded with bacon, sour cream, and cheese. You guys already know that we don’t exactly do health food around here, right? 😉
Even when I’m not sharing desserts, the food is always comfort food, and that’s usually best served with extra cheese (have you tried my baked mac and cheese yet!?) and usually comes with a few calories. Let’s not think about that too much, alright?
I know I mentioned to you guys that I had this potato soup recipe for you back when I posted my Oreo Balls; I made it when Zach had a bad cold and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since (you might think that’s an exaggeration, but I can assure you that my food obsessions run deep… Please see photo below to understand why).
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Zach prefers to eat healthy most of the time (I pretend that I do, too, but really if I lived alone I’m pretty sure I’d eat creamy cheesy foods every night and never fit through any doors ever again), so the soup was a good break from baked chicken breast, but this definitely isn’t an every night kind of meal in our house.
Potato soup is definitely on the menu for this weekend, though… it’s so frigid outside I’ve convinced myself that I need soup, specifically creamy potato soup, to survive. Potato soup makes me dramatic, evidently.
If you’re in the midst of a cold spell yourself (or even if you’re not) I think you’re going to enjoy this creamy potato soup as much as we do. Read on for some tips on how to make it!
Tips for Perfect Creamy Potato Soup
- Cut your potatoes into pieces no larger than ¾″ and try to keep them around the same size so that they cook at the same time. Nothing worse than biting into a crisp, raw-inside chunk of potato!
- To make this soup nice and creamy, I recommend pureeing about half of it either by using an immersion blender or by transferring a portion of the soup to a blender, pureeing, and then stirring the pureed soup back into the pot (maybe you recognize this technique from my corn chowder). If you want a completely smooth soup you can puree all of it, but I prefer to have a few actual pieces of potato, so I think pureeing half gives it the best taste and texture.
- Don’t return the bacon to the pot until after you have pureed some of the soup. It’s best not to blend the bacon 😉.
- The ancho chili powder is, in my humble opinion, a must and gives this soup the most perfect depth of flavor. I blend it into the potato soup and also sprinkle it on top before serving. I recommend adding just a ¼ teaspoon and then taste testing before adding more.
This would make a great comfort food for this cold and windy weekend (is there anything more cozy than a pot of soup simmering on the stove while the wind is howling at your window? Anything!?), and while I don’t follow football at all I do know that this would be great to make ahead and enjoy during the big game this weekend.
Who really cares about football when you can make yourself a Super Bowl of soup! 🤣😂 OK OK I’m sorry, enough of that!
Enjoy!
Treat yourself to a FREE E-BOOK!
How to Make Potato Soup
The Ultimate Potato Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 strips (uncooked) bacon cut into small pieces
- 3 Tablespoons butter unsalted or salted will work
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped (about 1.5 cup/200g)
- 3 large garlic cloves minced
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (42g)
- 2 ½ lbs gold potatoes peeled and diced into pieces no larger than 1” (this was about 6 Large potatoes for me/1.15kg)
- 4 cups chicken broth (945ml)
- 2 cups milk (475ml)
- ⅔ cup heavy cream (155ml)
- 1 ½ teaspoon* salt
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon ancho chili powder**
- ⅔ cup sour cream (160g)
- Shredded cheddar cheese, chives, and additional sour cream and bacon for topping optional
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Place bacon pieces in a large Dutch Oven or soup pot over medium heat and cook until bacon is crisp and browned.
- Remove bacon pieces and set aside, leaving the fat in the pot.
- Add butter and chopped onion and cook over medium heat until onions are tender (3-5 minutes).
- Add garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds).
- Sprinkle the flour over the ingredients in the pot and stir until smooth (use whisk if needed).
- Add diced potatoes to the pot along with chicken broth, milk, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and ancho chili powder. Stir well.
- Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork (about 10 minutes).
- Reduce heat to simmer and remove approximately half*** of the soup to a blender (be careful, it will be hot!) and puree until smooth (half is about 5 cups of soup, but just eyeballing the amount will be fine. Alternatively you can use an immersion blender.).
- Return the pureed soup to the pot and add sour cream and reserved bacon pieces, stir well.
- Allow soup to simmer for 15 minutes before serving.
- Top with additional sour cream, bacon, cheddar cheese, or chives. Enjoy!
Hildy Hassman
Made this tonight for my 95 year old dad who is feeling a bit under the weather. Wow! It’s like a big bowl of hugs! Such a creamy and comforting soup. Would rate it 5+++ if I could. My dad doesn’t eat bacon so substituted in 2 extra T butter as per Sam’s suggestion. You gotta try this recipe – it is the best!!! 👌
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Hildy! 🙂
Diane Grooters
How many servings does this make?
Sam
Hi Diane! It will make about 6 servings. 🙂
Jaqueline Lech
Does the mixture of onions and such go straight in with the potatoes?
Hildy Hassman
This soup has such wonderful reviews. Was wondering if anyone has omitted the bacon.
TIA
Sam
Hi Hildy! If you omit the bacon I recommend using an additional 2 Tbsp of butter (adding it with the butter that is already called for). I hope that helps!
Hildy Hassman
Thank you for the tip! Making it tonight. Will let you know…
Melissa Lawrence
Just made this tonight so good I didn’t have any ancho chili powder so I used lime chili powder I’ll try the ancho chili powder next time I make this best potato soup I’ve ever made and eaten
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Melissa! 🙂
John
Very simple to make and tastes great, I used a blender to puree all the potatoes to make it a perfectly creamy consistancy
AJ
Made this on a whim because I had a 10lb bag of potatoes about to go bad and got tired of mashed potatoes really quick. I’m not typically one to go for creamy soups, especially when making them for myself since they tend to be a lot more work than just chucking some veggies in broth, but I’m glad I made an exception! I didn’t have fresh onion or garlic so I used powder for both, and didn’t have heavy cream so just added a tiny bit more milk and butter and even without those it’s fantastic! I haven’t eaten my way through the batch yet and I’m already excited to make it again after grocery day when I can get fresh onion and garlic!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂
Debra McGowen
I’ve never attempted homemade potato soup before and this came out great. My daughter who always get it at Chili’s said, “Wow mom this is better than Chili’s. Hands down 10 out of 10”
Thank you for a great and easy recipe.
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Debra! Homemade is always better if you ask me. 🙂
Tony
I was missing heavy cream and only had two strips of bacon but holy heck this is fantastic. I wonder how glorious it would be with all ingredients
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Tony! 🙂
Andy
I’ve made this recipe a few times now. Lately I’ve just been chopping up some ham to throw in it to be lazy and cheap. Haven’t tried it with the anchor chili powder just been using cayenne. Tried one time with russet potatoes and it isn’t very good that way. I also added potatoes until they start peaking out of the liquids in the pot, this last time I only used a potato masher instead of blending as I really enjoy chunking potatoes.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoy it so much, Andy! 🙂
Iza
My toddler approves of this soup. As for my I think it is delicious.
Andrew
Thank you Beautiful Lady and Happy Mothers Day…I added smoked Pork chops to my soup and It gave it a little more meat and smoked flavor….Blessing to you…Andrew
Sam
Thank you, Andrew! I love the sound of adding pork chops. Sounds delicious. 🙂
Pa
My husband says, “Hands down, best potato soup – It would be a great base for clam chowder or a seafood bisque!” We both loved it….yum!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much! 🙂
Maureen Colitre
Agree about adding clams
Myra
ThIs was a great recipe, fast and easy too. I added more garlic, more chili powder and smoked paprika. It was a delicious soup with a salad. Perfect dinner!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Myra! In my house there is no such things as too much garlic. 🙂