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!
Best loaded potato soup. Better than any restaurant’s! The best part is that its so easy to make. mess free.
We’re so happy you think so, Tina! Thanks for coming back to leave a review 🙂 Enjoy the soup!
I’ve been searching for the perfect potato soup recipe for ages, and this is definitely it!
We’re so happy you found our recipe, Lacy! Thanks so much for commenting! Enjoy the soup 😊
Can you freeze the potato soup. I worry about the potatoes getting mushy
Hi Sharon! We don’t recommend it–the soup has a tendency to separate in the freezer.
would this be good without having any of it puréed ? i prefer chunky to runny soup
Sure! Enjoy 😊
Tonight is our fourth night having this soup since we discovered it a month ago. My teenage sons love it and so do my husband and I!
We love hearing that, Steph! Thanks for using our recipe again and again 😊
Made a big pot of this last night. Easy and delicious. I’m trying your broccoli soup recipe next! Thanks for sharing.
Delicious! I Sun season salt to sub for the ancho powder and it’s still so good!
Great recipe, I’m not a huge patotoe soup person, but this is a keeper!
I’ve made this recipe many times. Always turns out great! Highly recommended.
I love this recipe! Once I remove the bacon, additionally I sautee onion, carrot, celery and garlic in the bacon fat. I also use a potato masher, works great!
This recipe didn’t call for carrots and celery. Did you just add on yiur own? Did it make it more flavourful
Was looking for a great potato soup to add leftover honey baked ham to and this was definitely it!
Sounds delicious, Amanda! Enjoy 🙂
Made this and was the best!! I didn’t have the same chili powder so I used regular and also same amount of smoked paprika. Folks wanted the recipe! Delicious!🎉
Love this soup as does my family! I don’t put bacon but instead crumbled impossible sausage so it’s vegetarian. I recommend stirring while it’s boiling so it doesn’t stick to the bottom.
We’re so happy to hear that, David! Thanks for trying our recipe and leaving a review 😊
For those who love cheese. I like to add a handful of shredded cheddar jack when you add the sour cream and bacon.
We always add cheese ourselves too 😊 Enjoy the soup!
Made yesterday, thinking amount would be Plenty for husband & I for several days of up coming cool/cold weather. About half way through making our son & his family stopped by & we ate the whole Delicious best Potato Soup I think I’ve ever made! So today I made a big pot of Chicken & Dumplings! Also delicious !!!
Sounds like you were meant to make this recipe, Glenda! We’re so happy everyone was able to enjoy it together. Thanks so much for commenting 🙂
Love this recipe. It’s a favorite in our home. Instead of blending part of the soup I use a potato masher and break up some of the potatoes while still leaving little chunks of potato to enjoy.
We love hearing that! Great tip too–thanks for sharing! Enjoy 😊
I don’t have gold potatoes at hand only russets potatoes that I have. Can do that?
That will work fine, Lisa! Enjoy 😊
I love this recipe! Thank you for sharing with us.
We’re so happy to hear that, Jamie! Enjoy your soup 😊