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).
]
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.
Marion
I made this dish and the taste was excellent the only thing I would do different is probably use rustic potatoes because I did the golden potato and cooking it kind of dissolve some of the potato into the soup so I didn’t have a lot of hunks of potato in it but the taste was excellent
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re glad you enjoyed it, Marion! You can also skip the blending step if you’re looking for more potato pieces 😊
DeeDee
Can it be made in a crockpot, or will the milk make it turn brown with slow cooking?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi DeeDee! We’d recommend keeping it warm in the crockpot after making on the stove 😊
Eileen Langowsky
Love this easy delicious soup’
Johnny
Made today for the second time. This soup is amazing! Made for my uncle who is a great cook, but unable to get around much anymore and he absolutely loved it. Can’t say enough about how good this is. Thank you.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed the soup enough to make it again! Hopefully your uncle loved it 😊
Jenny
This was amazing. Made just as the recipe was written except did half yellow onion and half red. Definitely a keeper!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yum! We’re so glad you liked it, Jenny ❤️
Estella Adair
Just made it and wow! So good. Added extra garlic and onions because we can never get enough. Loved how creamy it was!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you enjoyed it, Estella! 😊
Lindsey
This will be our third year in a row making this for Christmas Eve (with a large salad😉). This year we are going to make our own bread bowls to go along with it as well! Thank you for the recipe and Merry Christmas.
Necil Quick
My grandson made this for me after I got out the hospital & oh my goodness, it’s absolutely delicious and I know I got better quicker🤩. Making it right now since my sister is driving in to spend Christmas with us.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
How sweet of him! And sweet of you to pass the generosity on. 😊 Thanks for commenting, Necil! Merry Christmas ❤️
Kurt
Creamy and delicious…best potato soup I’ve ever made. Everyone raves about it!
Rachel
This is my second time making this Potatoe Soup recipe in two months. Delish! Everyone compliments on the smell and the taste. Thanks for the awesome recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We love hearing that, Rachel! Thanks for trusting our recipe ❤️
Jules
Best potato soup I’ve ever made!
Barb k
I made this yesterday. It was delicious.
Megan
Can this soup be frozen?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
It tends to separate as it thaws, so we don’t recommend it 🙁
Carlene R
Amazing!!!
Craig
My first try at this recipe. TASTY!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy it was a hit, Craig! Thanks for the review 🥰
Sharon
Amazing soup! The only thing I changed was instead of sour cream I used a package of Boursin chive, delicious!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds yummy! We’re glad you enjoyed it, Sharon 😊
Karen M Phillips
This is my go to potato soup recipe, just the thing on a cold winter night.
Jenny
How many servings does this recipe make ?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Six! Enjoy 😋