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!
Followed this pretty much to the letter. Just left out the chili powder. I absolutely LOVE this! So perfect for a chilly evening!
Has anybody tried adding carrots and celery and any other kind of vegetables with any success?
Yes! Enjoy 😊
Yes, used both carrots and celery cut into small pieces. I added them in with the onions and garlic to make sure they would be tender and that worked out very well.
Thank you.
Best potato soup I’ve ever had. The chili powder adds something. Thanks!
Thanks so much for the review, Bethany! Enjoy your soup 🥰
Awesome recipe. Our family is not big on soups but this was great. I used russet potatoes and omitted salt all together, since the broth was already salty enough. I served it with homemade bread. This will be added to my favorites for winter.
We’re so happy it was a hit for your crew, Laura! ❤️
This is perfect! I did a few things differently. I added the stock and mixed it before the potatoes. I only did a pinch of Cayenne and left out the Chilli Powder. I also used a potato masher instead of a blender. After adding the sour cream and the bacon I didn’t wait 15 minutes. LOL.. just a few to let it warm up again.
I also forgot and drained the bacon fat so I added it back in later. OOops.
This one was sooo good.
Can this be made a day ahead of and warned the next day?
Sure thing! 🙂
Has anyone used russet potatoes in this recipe?
Yes! They’ll work too 🙂
Yes, I just did. Make the potatoes a little larger and then I mashed them with a potato masher. Very nummy.
Hi there, if I were trying to be grain free, could I skip the flour or should I use an alternative flour? Thank you! Sounds divine! Definitely going to try this recipe!
Hi Kathie! The flour helps thicken the soup, so if you leave it out, your soup won’t be as thick. We’re not sure how an alternative flour will work 🙁
Use starch or alternative flour unless you want a brothy soup
You can use an alternative flour, or try potato starch! But if you use starch, I’d only use half as much as the flour called for. Also, if you blend all the potatoes in the soup, it will also definitely thicken it.
This has become a regular winter soup for our family. It’s not too complicated. We love it, thank you so much for sharing!
Love this!! Can it be frozen like a freezer meal?
Hi Kendra! I don’t recommend freezing it as it could separate when frozen. 🙁
I make this all the time decided to add chicken chucks this time! So good.
🤤🤤
Can you use Yukon gold potatoes and would you need to peel them?
Hi Tammy! Yes, that’s what the recipe calls for 😊 We hope you love it!
Can you freeze the potato soup. If so how long can you keep it?
Hi John! I don’t recommend freezing it as it could separate when frozen. 🙁
Great recipe! Kids love it
Anyone made this in Instant Pot? How long for the potatoes?
We have not made it this way ourselves, but other commenters have. If you want to search through the comments (the search function on your browser should find it quickly), you can see how they did it. 🙂
Going to make this but curious if you can make it in the crockpot??
Hi Jordan! We haven’t made this recipe in the crockpot. With the different steps with cooking the bacon and veggies etc., we think it is best prepped on the stove. You could always keep it warm in a crockpot though! If you do try to make the whole recipe in a crockpot let us know how it goes 😊
Just fry everything first in a non-stick pan and use a spatula to move it over to the crock pot. Make sure you add the stock and mix then poor everything over the potatoes in the crock pot. Making sure that there is nothing left in the pan.
You could on the other hand do this all in the Ninja Foodi using the Sear Saute Setting.