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!
Apologize for dumb question…first timer trying to make for family. To feed 12 would I just double all ingredients? Thanks in advance!
No need to apologize, Kevin! Yes, doubling everything will make enough for 12 people 😊
Hello Emily! I have made this soup last year and it was DELICIOUS!!! But I can’t remember if I used gold potatoes or russet..is it ok to use russet potatoes? Thanks!!!
Definitely! Enjoy, Victoria 😊
Best potato soup I’ve made! Love, love, love!
This is too yummy! I like it also with the chunks like the recipe says. It’s satisfying and fulfilling.
We’re so happy you enjoyed it, Tonya! ❤️
How long will leftovers stay in good in the fridge? Any re heating suggestions? Thanks!
Joel
Hi Joel! They will be good for several days in the refrigerator. I reheat mine on the stove top in a sauce pan. 🙂
Does this freeze ok?
I haven’t tried it personally. I would be concerned about the heavy cream separating out.
This potato soup is not completely finished you need to add in 2 hard boiled eggs chopped near the end before the garnishes. Try it you’ll be glad you did!!!
Nah not at almost $5/ dozen!
Made this potato soup on a cold winter night. It’s the perfect easy recipe! So delicious! Printing out to put in my recipe book! 😋
This is the best potato soup I’ve ever had! Thanks so much for the yummy recipe!
We’re so happy you loved it, Kristin! ❤️
Loved it! Super delicious!
This potato’s soup recipe is delicious, even my toddler liked it! I didn’t add the chili powder or use the inversion blender because I didn’t have either one. Will make again, thanks for sharing!
This was the most delicious soup I have had in a long time. The only tweak I made was adding shredded cheddar cheese. I also like large potato chunks so I cut mine a little larger than that for which the recipe calls. I probably put a little more bacon in it, but essentially I followed the recipe. Super good.
My son is sick so I wanted to make a soup, we just finished this and came out amazing 🤤
Yay! We hope your son is feeling better soon Alexis ❤️ Enjoy the soup!
My new go-to potato soup recipe. Extremely creamy and a little thick, which I like. Easy to make and doesn’t take a lot of time. 10/10 recommend
We’re so happy it was a hit for you, Nate! 😊
Is this freezer friendly?
It tends to separate as it thaws, so we usually don’t recommend it 🙁
My Dutch oven is only 3 quarts. Will it be enough for the soup, or should I halve the recipe?
I use a 5.5 quart and you can see in the video that it is pretty full, so I’d recommend halving it. 🙂
how many ounces/cups is this soup?
Hi Kalissa! This makes about 9 cups of soup. 🙂
This soup is so wonderful and very hearty . I used plain chili powder. Be sure to only bring the soup to boil and then turn heat down and stir frequently to avoid soup sticking.
So glad you enjoyed it, Lori! 🥰
My family loves this soup! Go to recipe for a cold day!
So delicious. I had some fresh spinach left so I added that also.
So yummy. Thanks.
Hi I have all the ingredients to make this soup tonight which I’m excited for! But I’m vegetarian so I didn’t get any bacon.. is there any good meatless substitute for that part? I know bacon has so much flavor & don’t want to miss out entirely.
Hi Charlie! Unfortunately we don’t know of a good meatless substitute. You may just need to play with the seasonings a bit to get the flavor how you like it. Enjoy! 🙂