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!
I’ve made this soup a few times now and my family loves it, tastes fantastic, highly reccomend!
In your video you talk about simmering the soup for 30 minutes after boiling then purée. In your directions I do not see anything describing the simmering for 30 minutes. Is this necessary?
Simmer for at least 15 minutes. 30 would be great if you have the time but at least 15. I hope that helps!
BEST SOUP EVER!
Super soup! Loved the recipe. My family request’s this often.
Has anyone added beef to this, to make it like a cheeseburger chowder? I’d like to make this for dinner but I know it won’t fly in my house without more meat in it!
Quick and yummy! Great job!
We’re so glad you enjoyed, Brianna!
Excellent!!! Followed the recipe as written. It was the tastiest potato soup I have ever had. Yum!
This might be the best soup I have ever made, and I make a lot of soup. The flavor is excellent. I used Yukon Gold potatoes, that might make a difference. The next time I make it, I’m going to add some smoked ham. The bacon flavor is great, but the bacon gets a little flabby after a day or two. The ham will hold up better.
We are so happy you loved it, Janet! Thanks for leaving a review ❤️
Made this for my husband and I tonight for dinner it was delicious. I modified it to sauté onions carrots and garlic and then deglazed with a dash of white wine then added the flour per the recipe. Add it all the Yukon gold potatoes and chicken broth. Boiled those and then used my emulsion blender. Stirred in whole milk and 1/2-1/2, instead of heavy cream, and sour cream, and cooked awhile longer. Added green onions and bacon, and some cheese ( because it goes so well)
Absolutely delicious and easy!
Fantastic soup! Was perfect. Only change I made was that I used a beef broth.
It was absolutely delicious!! Even my 15 year old brother (who’s a wildly picky eater) went wild for this!
I will say that I added a small amount of chili powder, which added a bit more depth to the dish and I highly recommend trying this! Luckily this doesn’t make the dish any type of spicy for anyone sensitive to that.
10/10 would recommend!
We’re so happy everyone loved the soup, Nova! Thanks so much for giving our recipe a try ❤️
The bacon makes this taste sooo good! I’ve also skipped the bacon to make it vegetarian and it is still scrumptious. I use a potato masher instead of a blender and it is easy!
It’s a game changer for sure! So glad you enjoyed the soup, Claire ❤️
I made this for my pharmacists and staff and it was such a hit that they keep asking me to make. They liked that I left a lot of potatoes in the soup and didn’t pulverize them all. I added extra sour cream to make up for it. Best soup ever! Gonna make again tomorrow for them. I have made this about 10 times for them and still come back and ask for more.
Do you have recommendations for modifying this recipe for a slow cooker? I am super anxious to try this soup!
Hi Rebecca! We haven’t tried making this in a slow cooker since there are multiple steps when things need to be added, and it could be a little bit difficult. Others have tried it so you could try searching the comments for how they did it. 🙂
Followed the recipe and found it way too thick. Not a problem…easy to fix.
This soup is amazing! I will make a double batch and my teenager will eat it for lunch at school and dinner for an entire week. Thank you for sharing. Not gonna lie I cheat a little on the last step b/c my teen likes lots of potatoes in the soup and I hate peeling and chopping potatoes. Rather than blending about half the soup I add one container of the Bob Evans store bought mashed potatoes to it. It doesn’t change the taste and it makes it creamy.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
We’re so happy our recipe is a staple for your family, Sara! Thanks for commenting ❤️
Can I add clam juice and clams to the recipe?
Sure! Enjoy, Terri ☺️
We loved the recipe! My husband said he could eat 10 bowls of it because it’s so tasty (but he stopped at 2 because he was full.). We both think it’s the best potato soup I’ve made! I think it’ll become our go-to potato soup recipe! Have you ever frozen it?
Hi Susie! I have not personally frozen it. I would be worried about separation occurring when freezing.