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 made this today and adjusted the recipe only slightly and added carrots . Absolutely delicious. Will be making this again!
Sounds yummy, Char! Enjoy the soup! 😊
Just made and ate this! Followed the recipe the only thing was I added a little more chicken broth into the soup after I puréed the half because it was a little to thick for my liking! Tastes amazing! First time ever making potato soup and an amazing first experience! Thank you!
We are so happy you found our recipe and gave it a try, Rebecca! 💙
Made this today and it is absolutely delicious! I subbed the chili powder with smoked paprika and cayenne pepper. Spicy and delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!
Oh my goodness , this is the best and most yummy recipe ever.
I made a batch and it went away so fast that I decided to double up and freeze some because I never want to be without.
Thank you so much for sharing .
I bought the pot and emulsion to and it was so wonderful.
The house smelled amazing
Thanks for your review, Jackie! We’re so happy you love the soup ❤️
I ate the whole pot in two days.
It was good. I will be making again. Things I did differently I added bay leaf for the simmer and put 1/4 of the bacon in the simmer (I cooked 9 pieces instead of 6) the only thing I would do differently in the future is add the sour cream to the blender with 1/2 the soup so it blends better.
I made some adjustments since I didn’t have all the ingredients. Soooo goood.
Substituted berbere season for the chili powder, also added a little baharat season and part of a can of coconut milk and almond milk for the milk & cream. And then added Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. So tasty. Oh I also put mushrooms, 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks in as well. Thanks for the recipe!!
We’re so happy you enjoyed it, Katie! 🥰
As an expat living in Australia one thing I’ve found that they just don’t get and that is creamy potato soup. This is bang on what I was craving lately. Great flavour and great recommendation on the ancho. I do prefer my potato soup to be more lumpy so I took a potato masher to it when the potatoes were done! Great work. Looking forward to your chicken and corn chowder.
OMG!!! This is the best potato soup I’ve ever made. Thank you!!! I had most everything on hand, but made a couple changes for health and supply reasons. I used fat free half and half in place of the heavy cream to reduce the saturated fat and I didn’t have ancho chili powder on hand so I used chili powder and a pinch of cayenne. I also used a potato masher instead of blender and it turned out perfectly. I just garnished with fresh chives from my garden and it didn’t need anything else. Wonderful recipe💗
I made this but had to sub flour for cornstarch and it was good just not that same creamy quality. I did add crispy onions and that texture added another layer of flavor! I’ll definitely try this again but with flour:)
Thank you!
I made it couple times. Both good. I used broadbent pepper bacon. I kept the ancho added 1/4 tsp cayenne which gave it exceptional body. Main sub was 1.5 milk 1/2 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup buttermilk gave it a tang I wanted. All in all good recipe thanks. Ps. I do A Asiago sourdough crouton that goes great on this soup
Love those ideas, Scuzzi! We’re so happy you like the soup 🙂
When making this and using an immersion blender (I’ve never used one before). Do I still need to divid the soup in half or can I just use the immersion blender in the entire pot?
Thank you and I am super excited to make this, it sounds delicious!
Hi Jenn! You should be able to just blend it all right in the pot. Make sure you stop when it’s about halfway pureed–it can happen pretty quickly! Enjoy 💙
SO GOOD! Followed recipe exactly. My family loved it. THANK YOU!!!
We’re so happy everyone loved it! ❤
Man, was this delicious. Our whole fam loved it. I screwed it up and it was still great! (My brain skimmed the recipe and thought I was supposed to boil the potatoes separate – I can’t explain myself!!) I was able to fix it by using less water w/ my bouillon base to make the broth more concentrated.
I used russets and subbed chipotle powder for the ancho… it turned out so creamy and flavorful. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
We’re so happy you enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to leave a review ❤
I actually baked my potatoes and then added half mashed and half diced, that way I didn’t have to go through the blending. Very delicious, thank you
This recipe was amazing!!!! My whole family loved it!
We’re so happy to hear that, Alicia! Thanks for giving our recipe a try ❤
Hi,
Can you use vegetable broth instead?
-Mary
Hi Mary! That will work just fine. Enjoy 😊
This recipe is amazing!! My whole family loved it!
Kathy
Would it be okay to use russet potatoes?
Yes! Enjoy 😊
Love, love love this recipe and so does everyone else. Creamy and delicious and so easy to make.
Christy Guidry
We’re so happy it’s a hit for you, Christy! ❤
Can you freeze this ?
Hi Christine! I know others have frozen it, but I worry the cream may separate out when freezing.
It’s amazing!!! Very easy to prepare and totally out of this world delicious!!
We’re so happy you like it, Dayana! Thanks for coming back to leave a review 🙂