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.
Dana
It has been the best one I’ve ever had, especially puréing 50 percent of it and adding it back in. The Ancho Chili topped it of.
Shelby
This was my first time trying a potato soup recipe, and this one did not disappoint. I only did a couple of things differently. I cut the onion up in large pieces, cooked them in the bacon fat for about 10 minutes, and removed them because my boyfriend doesn’t like onions. I, also, used 4 strips of bacon instead of 6 since I’m not the biggest fan of bacon. Lastly, the store I went to had run out of the ancho chili powder so I mixed together 1 tsp of chili powder with 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes. From that, I used 1/4 tsp in the recipe. It ended up having a nice amount of spice from that plus the black pepper it calls for. I definitely plan to make this again.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad it was a hit for you, Shelby! Thanks for commenting ❤️
Susan
My family loved this!
Monica
I tried this soup tonight and it’s absolutely perfect, everything I’ve ever wanted in a potato bacon soup! This will be my go to recipe forevermore!
Lisa
Tried this recipe and had not used ancho chili powder before. I’d recommend starting with an 1/8 t to start. The flavor is overwhelms the potato in my opinion.
Marion Krause
This Potato Soup was really good. However, it did not pass the granddaughter test. She prefers the other recipe I’ve made in the past. Thanks for sharing.
Susie
So delicious, I did not purée any of the soup at all and added 1c of shredded cheddar cheese.
Shelly
I saved this recipe several weeks ago and then ended up making it for a Christmas dinner. Excellent soup! I feel like whenever I saved it the first time I saw a comment about how much bacon grease you actually used from the reserve? I’ve scrolled back through the comments and I can’t find it again. Seems like it was maybe 1 or 2 tablespoons? I just want to add it to my notes for future cookings! Thank you! 😊
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Shelly! You’ll want to use approximately 2 Tablespoons of bacon grease. Hope that helps!
Tina
Would this soup freeze? I’ve never tried freezing soup and just curious.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
It tends to separate as it thaws, so we don’t recommend it 🙁 Our tomato soup and turkey chili freeze well though!
Tae
Tried the recipe and it was really delicious would recommend to anyone who likes potato soup!
ROXANNE
Went looking for a potato soup recipe and hit gold! I used my cast iron Dutch oven pot and this soup was amazing. For sure creaming half with an immersion blender was the perfect way to make it soooooo creamy. Had to share some too good to keep to myself.
Sam
So happy you enjoyed so much, Roxanne! Thank you for trying my recipe!
David C
LOVE THIS ONE – first but not our last time making this one! Thank you!
Carol H
I made this for lunch today, & it was a hit! This is the first time I’ve made potato soup, so I was a little apprehensive, but while a bit time-consuming, it was easier than I expected. Thanks for a great soup!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Carol! Thank you for trying my recipe! 🙂
Kim
This was a perfect potato soup recipe. I added the ancho chili but I also added 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper ,and 1/2 tsp chipottle chilli pepper and topped with sharp cheddar and sour cream. The soup had a fantastic southwestern flair. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks
T
love this soup- made it last night eating it for lunch today! i 1/2 the recipe- based on other reveiwers note about how much it made. it is super good- i will never buy grocery store soup again!
Mardi
My husband said it was “killer”!!