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!
Love the soup. Can the left overs be frozen?
Hi Lois! I don’t recommend it as the cream can separate out when freezing.
Can I add onion powder instead of onion dices? (Wife hates them.) If so how much? I’m new to cooking… Sorry if the question is silly.
Hi Nathan! You shouldn’t be able to taste the actual onions by the time you are done. They should be very soft and most likely a bit pureed. They add a great flavor to the soup without making it taste like onions. I’m not sure how much onion powder you would use here or that you would achieve the same flavor profile.
Hi Nathan,
Like your wife, I too hate biting into onion so I generally mince them so fine that once they’re cooked you can’t tell they in it except for that great taste. If you don’t want to do the fine mince, then 1 tablespoon of Onion Powder is supposed to be equal to 1 Medium yellow onion.
Used smoked paprika and celery salt subs, added diced carrots and a 1 1/2 tsp MSG. Served with homemade bread bowls. It was delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Do you leave in the garlic and onions in the whole time?
Hi Alayna! You’ll want to just leave it in the entire time. 🙂
Great recipe and really easy! I made this yesterday and it was delicious. I didn’t have ancho chili powder, so used smoked paprika instead and it was perfect! I love the generous amount of garlic in this recipe too! Thanks for sharing!
We’re so happy you liked it, Pam! Enjoy ❤
Can I put leeks in this soup and use heavy cream instead of milk
Hi Dee! You can add leeks if you’d like. If you use heavy cream you may need less because it’s thicker. 🙂
Made this tonight for dinner and it was delicious!😋 I only had regular chili powder and added a cup of chopped up ham, which was a perfect addition. Topped it with shredded cheddar cheese. I will use this recipe as my “go to potato soup” cuz it was wonderful. Thanks for sharing!
We’re so happy you liked it, Julie! Thanks for your review 😊
I made this the other night. Very easy to make but definitely weren’t enough potatoes. I don’t have a kitchen scale so I went with “about six” and picked the largest out of the bag and still wasn’t enough. Flavors are absolutely delicious and everyone enjoyed the soup.
Delicious. Easy. Made as written. Thank you!
The best potato soup ever. I may leave sour cream out next time. It was so delicious even after full, leaves you wanting more!
We’re so glad you liked it so much, Gloria! 😊
I’ve made before and was delicious. This time I added a bit of celery for texture and taste. I only had regular chili powder and used 1 tsp. Here’s to hoping it comes out delicious!
We’re so happy you like it, Melissa! Hopefully it comes out just as tasty this time around 😊
Hey, at what point did you add the celery into the mix? i wanted to do the same but not sure at what point to start cooking it
Just made this creamy potato soup; very easy and very delish
Anyone turn this into a clam chowder? I think i’m going to try….love this soup!
Tonight is my second time making this soup! It’s so delicious and easy to make. I really like that your directions don’t skimp on the salt and other seasonings. Most recipes I always end up adding more seasoning to make it flavorful, this recipe calls for the perfect recipe. Both times I’ve used a sweet onion instead of the yellow onion and it tastes great! Thanks for sharing!
Yes this soup is AHMAZING! Its so easy too! I like to get a hambone (Honey Baked Ham Store sells them) And add it my instapot with the chicken broth and cook it on hi for 30 min. Then I use that broth for the soup and I chop the ham and its too freakin good! One member here called this recipe “crack soup” and I couldn’t agree more. Thank you!
That sounds delicious, Lisa! We’ll have to try that sometime 🙂
This was amazing soup. Followed your recipe exactly and used regular chili powder and added some cooked sausage to it as well. Yummy. Thank you
We’re so happy you enjoyed it, Rose 😊