The Ultimate Creamy Potato Soup
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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 3/4″ 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 1/4 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
Equipment
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
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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
Can you use Russet potatoes instead of gold?
Hi Evelyn! That will work just fine. 🙂
Delicious would frozen diced potatoes work in this recipe,or what would happen if I used potatoes with the skin left on the,I’m a nursing home cook and struggle making this recipe
Hi Sherry! I haven’t tried the frozen potatoes but it should work. I personally prefer to not leave the skin on because it’s getting blended but if you’d like to you can leave the skin. 🙂
If I only have about 2 cups of chicken broath would that work as well ? Or should I just make the trip to the store to get some more ?
Hi Haley! You’ll need more liquid here or else the soup will be pretty thick. You could try substituting some water but you’ll definitely lose a lot of flavor.
Overall it’s creamy and good but I think that the garlic was too overpowering.
Enjoyed this soup! I made it for a get-together that didn’t end up happening so I refrigerated what I didn’t eat. After refrigeration, it obviously became thick so I added a little milk when heating it up and it was perfect and none went to waste. I’ll definitely make this again!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Carl! 🙂
I have never had potato soup …. in fact never thought I would like it. My husband has been bugging me to find a recipe so we came across this one and we worked on it together today. Awesome really liked it, I did however hold the sour cream and left it as a toping not a fan so we were both happy my hubby used it as a topping and I totally enjoyed it with out.
Loved this Potato Soup recipe! I had added some chopped leeks with my onion mixture. It’s definitely a keeper for sure~
Is it ok to omit sour cream or yogurt? I don’t have either. I do have cream cheese- would that do the trick?!
Hi Shawna! The sour cream adds a nice depth of flavor. The soup will still turn out without it but you will lose a little bit of flavor. Enjoy! 🙂
This is the best potato soup! The whole family loves it ❤
This is a terrific base recipe for creamy potato soup. Personal taste modifications are endless. Using the bacon fat infuses the ingredients with great bacon flavour. If your bacon is overly greasy, you may want to drain some of it, and reduce the butter. Be sure to deglaze the sauté bits on the bottom of the pot so they aren’t wasted. Thanks!
Can this soup be made in a slow cooker?
Hi Nick! There’s a few different steps where things need to be added so I’m not sure how it will work in the slow cooker. 🙂
Does this soup freeze well?
Hi Pamela! I’d be worried about the soup separating in the freezer so I don’t recommend it.
Based on other cream soup recipes I’ve done, you could add the dairy products last. But I did this recipe in the slow cooker, not changing the order of things, because I forgot to, and it came out fine. The heavy cream was a bit separated but once I blended some of the soup it was just fine. My husband and friend loved it.
Hello from Germany- we made this soup today and my family really loved it. A perfect soup for a snowy/rainy november evening. Def recommend this recipe. Thanks so much! 🙂
I’m the man of the house and do 100% of the cooking and love it.
I just made this one and its amazing!!!!! thanks for the recipe. I’m looking for a good bacon bean soup recipe now…
thanks
Jayson A. Bastar
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Jayson! Wish I had a bacon bean soup recipe to share, yum!
We added white beans to this yummy soup and it was awesome.
Maybe for just the bean bacon you could do beans rather than potato. I often add white beans to any of our creamy soups with great results.
Hi Sam, can this soup be frozen??
Hi Clarence! I don’t recommend it as it could separate in the freezer.
This is a great recipe. It was so simple and very tasty. Shared a bowl with a friend at work and she loved it as well. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
This recipe is wonderful. The flavor is amazing, The only thing we did was added some carrot for some colour, Tip: I cut the potatoes in half inch rounds and put them through a fry cutter.
I made this for dinner this evening and hands down the best potato soup I’ve ever had. Thank you for an amazing recipe! This is one I’ll keep for sure!
Potatoe soup is absolutely wonderful. The Best Ever!
Yum Yum
Solid recipe The wife and I really liked it but as usual I did not go exactly by the recipe. Saute’ the onion and a rib of celery in butter and some bacon grease. Mashed the potatoes no blender and left a cup or so just cut to add to the soup. Used much more bacon and added at least a cup or more of shredded cheddar cheese. Used halfnhalf and low sodium chicken broth.