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 just made this for the first time. Wow! This is tasty!
Hi, I need to make a gallon of soup! How much does this recipe make?
Hi Jaz! This recipes makes about 9 cups of soup, so you’ll want to double the recipe for what you need. Hope that helps!
Love this recipe, really good and very easy. I really wanted to try this recipe even though I didn’t have all the ingredients. I didn’t have bacon, but I used ham instead, and also no sour cream but added a spoon of cream cheese. It was so delicious.
This takes some effort to prep, but is well worth it! It was delicious – a big hit with my family, and perfect for a chilly, rainy fall night!
I made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious! There isn’t a canned soup on the market that comes close to being this good. And such an easy recipe to follow! I started making my own soups because of high blood pressure and the super high sodium in canned soup. This recipe is so good, it kind of made me glad I have high blood pressure. LOL
I never used ancho chili, so I did as they suggested and started with 1/4 tsp, but I had nothing to worry about. I added the other 1/4 later in the process.
Thank you for this delicious recipe!!
Perfect recipe! My entire foodie fam loved it! I omitted the chili powder as my hubs has pretty intense reflux so I can’t speak to the recipe with it, but everyone said it was outstanding as it was!
I made this recipe with cayenne pepper, a whole package of bacon (because who doesn’t love bacon) and I minced up chives and parsley and added to the end for some color. I also only puréed about 1/3 of the soup because I wanted it really chunky and I used gold potatoes. Soup is absolutely delicious!!!
I don’t have ancho chili powder, only regular. Should I use that or just leave it out?
Hi Pam! You can use regular chili powder if you’d like, but I would probably just leave it out. 🙂
I made it and oh my GOSH! It makes you want to eat the entire pot alone. Potatoes are my all time favorite food.
BTW I did have have the right chili powder so I ases regular and a dash of smoked paprika! Perfect! I would love to post my pictures,
You can always share a photo in our Facebook group or tag us on Instagram @sugarspun_sam ❤️
This recipe was very good!! I added some garlic & herb seasoning that I picked up from the store, and some paprika in place of the chili powder. Very filling and nice!
We’re so glad you liked it, Jade!
My 4th time to make this recipe on a cool Fall day. Delicious every time!
We love hearing this, Rhonda! Thanks so much for using our recipe ❤️
This is the best recipe! Delicious! Just finished making it! My husband is going to love it!
We’re so happy you love it Catherine! Hope your husband does too 😊
I’m not a big sour cream fan. Will it lose a lot of flavour if I leave it out?
Hi Laurie! You shouldn’t be able to taste the sour cream in the finished product, but it does add a good depth of flavor. 🙂
I often substitute plain yogurt for sour cream, and vice versa.
LOVE this recipe. Quick,easy, and delicious. Will definitely make again!!
Seriously, the BEST potato soup EVER. I have zero complaints. Not too much or too little of anything. I am definitely making this again, and again, and again. Thanks so much for all your wonderful recipes.
We really appreciate your review, Stephanie! So glad you loved the soup so much 😍
I mashed half of the potatoes, added some leftover steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, and an 8 oz block of sharp cheddar. It was AMAZI
NG!
After reading all the reviews I am looking forward to trying this for dinner tonight. I did convert to my crockpot and wanted to share. My family has onion allergies so I did leave those out. I just diced about 3 pounds of potatoes and added them to the crockpot. Added all the liquids, seasonings threw the lid on. Cooking it on high for 3-4 hours. I plan to cook the bacon separately so people can top their soup with it and I left out the bacon grease to make it a little healthier and flour since potatoes when pureed thicken things up. I will also add the sour cream at the end(last 30 minutes or so of cooking).I hope this helps people trying to convert to a slow cooker.
So good! Pared this with your drop biscuits!! 🙌🙌🙌 wouldn’t change a single thing!
Yum, that is a delicious pairing Cecelia! Enjoy 😊