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.
Jo Teran
Just finished off two bowls. YUMMY! Followed the directions as written and turned out perfect.
Karen Pichea Teubert
I just made this recipe tonight for my family. My entire family loved it! My daughter said quite possibly this is the best soup I’ve ever made! I definitely will be making this recipe from here on out! Thank you
Sean Bennett
Very good!! I cut the receipt in half because it is just my wife and I. Perfect dish for late November in the Northwest.
Sean & Cheryl
Sarah
I’ve made this soup numerous times and it’s always a big hit! So delicious and lots of flavor. Leftovers are just as delicious too.
Just be careful and reduce to slow simmer as soon as it starts to boil because I burnt a whole pot of it the other day. But that was all my fault because I didn’t watch it closely like I usually do. Making it again tonight with garlic cheddar biscuits!
Tip
Thanks for service you provide to us learning to cook. Recent widower and found that I enjoy cooking. First soup recipe, but it was easy to follow and turned out great.
Susan Murray
This is a great winter soup and the added bacon bits enhanced the flavour
even more. It turned out great! Big hit.
Tina C Hall
Wonderful !!!!! Great for those cold days !!!! Ur awesome….
Rhonda
EXCELLENT.. my husband not a fan of potato soup ; I grew up on them. He actually said this one was GOOD and went back for 3rd helping. I did add some diced ham for protein for kids.
Isreal
Can you use a whisk to mix the soup up with the potatoes if you don’t have a blender?
Sam
Hi Israel. Some people have used a potato masher, but I’m not sure a whisk will be quite strong enough.
Gary Roush
I can’t wait to get this cooking tomorrow. A couple of quick questions first. When using the immersion blender, you just use it enough to the point where it seems half? And will any harm come to this soup if it’s in an instant pot on “Keep Warm” for a few hours? We’re having family in and they’re not all arriving at the same time.
From the comments I’ve read, I cannot wait to make this soup. Thank you for the recipes.
Sam
Hi Gary! Yes you will want to puree about half of the potatoes. I do this to get the nice texture, but still keep some potato chunks in the soup. It should do fine in an instant pot kept on warm.. 🙂
Rachael
Do you ever have issues with the milk/cream breaking?!
Sam
I have never had an issue here. If you follow the recipe exactly you shouldn’t run into any problems. 🙂
Heather-Laurel
Hi Rachael,
That happens to me sometimes when I cook with milk if it’s gotten too hot. I made the soup without the milk for 2 reasons – the same reason as yours (if I’m busy doing other things while cooking it might boil too hard or for too long), but also because I’ve been burned by putting piping hot soup in a blender before. I took the soup off the burner, measured the required milk and cream and then added the milk only with the portions I was blending to cool it down somewhat (my immersion blender doesn’t work). No problems at all. Just make sure when you’re reheating your soup that you do it gently, stir, and don’t let it boil too hard.
Annalisa Benner
This is the best potato soup I’ve ever had! Everyone in my family loved it!
I ended up with more soup than potato, so I’ll cook more potatoes to add to the left over soup. (and we measured 2.5 lbs.) It is too good to not eat again the next day! 🙂
Lisa T.
Making the soup now and it’s already getting raves for the fragrant smell! Took a tiny taste test even though I’m still on the “cooking till tender” step but, OH MY, this is gonna to be good!
I’m definitely going to add you to my favorites and try more recipes!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We hope you LOVE it, Lisa! 🤩
Suzie
This recipe is awesome! I subbed Cauliflower for the Potatoes and hubby loved it.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Oh, interesting! We’ll have to try that 😊
Marcy Lindenzweig
Amazing soup! Made it just as written. Hubby liked it and he is picky.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yay! So glad it was a hit 😊
Sandy Goodale
Delicious soup. Easy to follow directions and really great flavor.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much, Sandy! Enjoy 🥰