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).
]
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!
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!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Ronda
making this today. had a little bite and it’s delicious
Bonnie
This recipe sounds delicious! I am going to make this for a friend’s get together next weekend and wondered if I could eliminate the ancho chili powder? Or could I substitute it with paprika?
Sam Merritt
Hi Bonnie! The ancho chili powder really takes this soup to the next level so I highly recommend trying it if you can get your hands on it. If not, you can omit it, but you will lose the flavor it adds. Enjoy! 🙂
Jasmine
An excellent soup that I’ve made twice already and was enjoyed by all. Thank you for posting the recipe!
Marge
This soup is delicious! I added celery and carrots at the beginning. The only problem I had was that the part of the soup that I puréed ended up being so thick and pasty that I had to add more broth. Next time I’ll purée less, but it’s totally worth the minor fix for my liking. You don’t have to purée any of it if you don’t want to. The taste is so good and it fills you up quickly. It’s an excellent budget friendly dinner on a cold winter night!! Definitely comfort food!!
Sofia
Can you freeze this? If so, for how long and what’s the reheating process?
Sam Merritt
Hi Sofia! I don’t recommend freezing this as it could potentially separate. 🙂
Mj
Can I add cheese to the soup while cooking as an ingredient , not a topping
Sam Merritt
You could potentially stir it in at the end and I would make sure to shred your own so it melts properly. 🙂
Jessica
Absolutely love this soup making it again. It’s perfection!
Trish Edwards
Great recipe
D Reighard
Absolutely love this recipe.
B Nelson
This is a keeper! Creamy and just as described. One alternation I did, had russet potatoes on hand, so I used those instead of gold potatoes. Don’t be afraid to try that if that’s what you have on hand. It also kept in the fridge great (no separating) for a few days.
KB
Does vegetable broth work fine with this? I am vegetarian but would love to try it.
Sam Merritt
It will change the flavor, but yes it could work. 🙂
RD
Can the heavy cream be replaced with half and half?
Sam Merritt
It can be used a substitute. I would use less though as it’s a bit thinner. 🙂
Cayden
I always use vegetable broth and it turns out great! You will need to adjust your spices if you use vegetable broth though, I usually add more salt because vegetable broth is less salty
Summer Adams
I’ve tried a few potato soup recipes and hated them. Potato soup is my favorite soup. So when I say this. I mean it; This. Recipe. SLAPS. I was so thrilled to finally sit down and eat it. I used the lesser side of the ancho chili. I did make my potatoes a little too think so it took 2 hours. Still worth it a 100%. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe man.
Dina Purtee
Love this so much. Was nervous about the ancho chili powder, but what a pleasant surprise it was to keep it in. Will definitely be coming back to this one and doubling the recipe. I am eating it day 2 in the office for lunch and it’s even better today!