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!
I’m not big on bacon could you substitute ham instead?
Sure, that would be fine!
Very Very Good. I will do this one from now on.
This is my first try at potato soup. My daughter has been begging me to make it so here we go! Thanks so much for the great recipe! The best I could find on the web!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it! 🙂
I have never made potato Soup befor what is the reason to blend it and do you have to ?
Hi Megan! It’ll make it nice and thick and creamy. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, I just prefer the texture when it’s blended (thicker and creamier). Enjoy!
This is my go to recipe. My whole family loves it.
Thank you so much, Shannon! 🙂
I don’t have any cream, just milk. I wonder if I just substitute more milk if it would be ok?
Hi, Penny. The soup won’t be quite as creamy and I would reduce the amount of milk to about 1/2 cup to start. 🙂
We LOVED this recipe! Delicious and satisfying!
Can we freeze the left overs for another night or weekend?
Hw long will it stay good in the refrigerator?
Hi, Sheri. I would worry that the cream would separate when it is frozen so I don’t recommend it. It should be good for a few days in the refrigerator. 🙂
It has been a cool, blustery Sunday and I am making this wonderful looking recipe for tonight’s dinner…I LOVE potato soup and I am confident that this will be my “new favorite” – it just sounds delicious! I’ll let you know how it turned out! 🙌
I hope you love it! This is great blustery weather food, for sure!!
I have never made potato soup before. I have always wanted to. And after reading all the great comments I can’t wait to try it. I am making it right now. I am so excited to try it
I hope you LOVE it, Denise!!! 🙂
Best potato soup ever. I just use regular chili powder and it was just as good.
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Dorothy!!
Fantastic!! I’ve tried several versions, and while all were good, this one topped them all-even my picky kids LOVED it!
I’m so happy to hear it was such a hit! Thanks for commenting, Karen!!
I made this last night and it was absolutely the best potato soup I’ve ever had! I never tried ancho chili powder before but it definitely added a nice depth to the soup, thanks so much
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the soup, Tiffany!! Thank you so much for commenting! 🙂
Cannot find ancho Chile powder. Any substitutes?
Regular chili powder will work 🙂 Enjoy!
So this was my first try at potaoe soup. Your recipe is wonderful and full of flavor. I did substitute regular bacon for jalapeno bacon what a treat..
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed, Christina! And jalapeno bacon sounds AMAZING! Thank you for commenting!
Do you have a cookbook?? If not, I strongly recommend you consider it. If so, how can I order it? I can’t keep printing out all your fabulous recipes!
Hi Pat! I do not have a cookbook, not yet anyway! If I do ever write one I will certainly let you know, though! Thank you for your kind words, I am so glad to hear that you are enjoying all of the recipes! <3
I’m making the soup but it’s not as thick as I would like it- any suggestions to make soup thicker. I followed the recipe- only I put my ingredients in a crock pot rather than stovetop
Try cooking it on high with the lid off for 30 minutes to an hour. Did you puree the soup as well? That will help thicken it up. 🙂
This recipe is the absolute best. For all the potato soup lovers out there, this recipe should be #1.
I am so glad you enjoyed the soup, Amber. 🙂