The Ultimate Creamy Potato Soup
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclosure policy.
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 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!
Great rainy day comfort soup.
Wow! Plain old potato soup will never be the same at our house! Love this recipe.
Thank you!
This soup is AWESOME! My husband does not usually like potato soup, but he said this was the best potato soup he has ever had!
The best potato soup I’ve ever made!!! I could never go back to an old recipe I used before this one.
I have LOVED this soup for years. It’s one of my families favorites, but now that I own an instantpot… how? 🤷♀️
Ooh I honestly am not sure how to do it in an instantpot, but if you crack the code I would love to hear how you did it!
I used instant pot
First I put on saute cook bacon than I remove add onion than rest ingredients except milk set instant pot for 12 min natural release than I add cream
Great recipe , I’ve made this recipe multiple times, great comfort dish
Could the flour be substituted for corn starch to make this soup gluten free? And if so, how much corn starch would you suggest?
Hi Lindsey! You can use cornstarch, but it won’t be an equal substitution. Just add enough until you get your desired thickness, and you should be good. Enjoy 😊
Hi. Can I use half and half instead of heavy cream?
Hi Renata! I would replace both the milk and the cream with the half and half. 🙂
This was delicious. My 8 year old daughter said “ I have a new favorite soup now”. My husband even liked it. Superb!
We’re so happy everyone liked it, Becky Jo! Thanks so much for leaving a review ❤️
I think I made this last year for Christmas Eve and everyone loved it. They want me to make it again but I don’t remember cooking bacon or the special pepper. Did you change this since last year?
Hi Shelly! I have not changed the recipe, maybe you had a different one, but you should give this one a shot. 🙂
Absolutely wonderful! My friend left ancho chili pepper at my house and I had no idea what I was ever going to use it for. Now I have something!
How perfect! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed the soup! 🙂
Best potato soup ever!!
My first time trying the recipe! It was absolutely delicious!
I made this after meant bland potatoes soup recipes. It is delicious.
I doubled this tonight for my family and to bring to another family with a new baby. Do you know how long it keeps or if it freezes well? The other family just let me know that they’d prefer it next week instead. If it doesn’t freeze well I guess we’ll be eating the rest!
Hi Kristen! It will last about 3 days in the refrigerator. I would not recommend freezing it as it could separate when frozen.
This turned out amazing !! I made a few adjustments like cooking additional bacon but I poured off some of the grease before putting in the onions. I didn’t have ancho chili so I used chipotle chili, I added a couple of stalk of celery finely chopped with the onions for a little sweetness. It turned out great. My wife said it was the best potato soup she’s ever had.
This was an absolute delicious recipe to make. I’ve only ever had canned potato soup. This was amazing the texture was real nice, the flavour very tasty and hearty.
My husband and I love to cook together on weekends. This was the PERFECT cold weather soup recipe. Super easy to follow, so flavorful and the ancho chili is a game changer!! We will definitely make this again.
Is there another ingredient I can use instead of bacon? For health reasons I would need to eliminate that when making it but still want the flavor.
Hi Jessica! You could use a butter instead of the bacon, but unfortunately I don’t have a suggestion to keep that bacon flavor without the actual bacon. 🙁
Thank you Sam! 😊
Try just a dash of liquid smoke!!
My Family always puts deli smoked ham into the soup it has flavor. If you use cook both the butter and ham together to crisp it up the ham will flavor the butter and it taste just as good. I promise. 👍🏻🥰
Hi Jessica!!
Have you tried turkey bacon? I hope this will help.
Jessica you can try using Goya ham flavored packet. It gives a little smokey taste. Use it in bean soup all the time. Good luck.
Omg this is soooo good!!! I couldnt use bacon or bacon grease to make it because my son doesnt eat pork. So I used half a stick of butter.. I cant even imagine the goodness it would have been because this is amazing. Thank you for sharing.
We’re so happy to hear it still turned out well for you, Michelle! Enjoy 😊