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 ¾″ 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 ¼ 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
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
Recommended Equipment
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
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Theresa Stevens
Best potato soup ever!
Gail Graf
The best potato soup recipe ever!
Kenna
Amazing soup, my wife and I loved it! I thought it could use a bit more seasoning so added Old Bay and some smoked paprika, next time will use more bacon too.
Matt
Really want to try this recipe! Would leaving the onions out make the consistency to thin?
Matt
Sam
Hi Matt! It will change the flavor a good bit, but not the consistency. 🙂
Julianna Brown
Made this Soup & it was Amazing!
Jess
I make this soup all of the time. My son lives it! Thank you for sharing, This is my go to comfort food on a cold fall or winter day. I follow your recipe to the T and its is perfect! YUMMY! 👍
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So happy to hear this, Jess! Thanks for trusting our recipe 😊
Sandy
Excellent recipe! Best potato soup ever.
Gina
Looking to make this for the first time. Can leftovers be frozen?
Sam
Hi Gina! Due to the cream in the soup, I don’t recommend freezing it as it can separate out. 🙁
Carolyn
Really good potato soup recipe! I followed the recipe to a T, until the end. I just added 2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar during the simmer, and topped it off with a dollop of sour cream to cool it off a bit. Delicious!! Saved the recipe!
Trevor
One of the absolute best ever!! Truly delicious! I added 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper and a teaspoon of Natures seasoning, and it was just the perfect amount of spice!
Ivan
This is my third time making this and it’s such a delight to have accompanied with a grill cheese *chefs kiss* I also use sausage instead of bacon since it has more of a seasoned flavor VS a smoked bacon. The sausage blends nicely and really flavors the entire dish. However nothing wrong with bacon, just my preference. 🙂 thanks for the recipe
Patti Route
The BEST Pitato Soup EVER.
Heather Doering
I have made this recipe You are right delicious.. Found recipe confusing you talk about bacon bits but never mention adding them to the soup Also never mention when to add the liquids. Sorry to be so picky but it says to whisk the onions garlic and flour that’s all I in have in the pot. I think recipe could use a little tweeking.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Heather!
Bacon bits are addressed in step 9. Liquids are all mentioned by name in step 6. As for the whisking, are you referring to step 5? You should only have onion garlic and flour in the pot (plus some bacon fat and butter, of course) and so that’s right, that is all you would be whisking. So it sounds like all of the info is there where it should be 🙂
Olivia
I made this recipe and we fell in love! My question is, how would I convert it to a slow cooker meal so it’s ready when we get home from work?
Sam
Hi Olivia! I’m glad everyone enjoyed it! I haven’t tried doing it in a slow cooker since there are multiple steps when things need to be added it could be a little bit difficult. I know others have tried it so you could try searching the comments for how they did do it. 🙂
Laurie
So easy to follow and it tasted delish!
Jeanie
Delicious
Laurel Burbrink
Very yummy!
Tara
Just made this – can confirm it is the actual best loaded baked potato soup & I am an Idaho girly.
I used gluten-free all purpose flour (Bob’s Red Mill) – because, I’m sensitive. Also, I do not have an immersion blender so I used a ladle to add 5 cups to a food processor, pulsed until it looked right, & then tossed it back in. I thought it was going to be way more daunting than it actually was.
10/10 would make this soup again!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed it so much, Tara! Thank you for your review ❤️
Trisha
Can I use vegetable broth instead of chicken? I plan on cooking bacon in separate pan and people who want it can add it since I have vegetarian friends who will be eating this as well
Sam
Hi Trisha! Your soup will lose a good bit of flavor without the grease from the bacon bacon and the vegetable broth will also change the flavor but it should still work.
Casey11
This was super yummy! I made a double batch so we would have leftovers. I used my potato masher instead of doing the purée suggested in the recipe because I wanted the chunks and it was really good.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know how you enjoyed it, Casey! ❤️
Emily
Can I double/triple this recipe?
Sam
Sure thing! 🙂