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!
Hi! Do you have any tips for freezing this soup?
Hi Andrea! I would worry that it would separate, but others have said they have frozen it and just stirred it back together. I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure how well it will work.
Wow. I made this the other day and it didn’t last. Probably the best soup I’ve ever made and was a huge hit with my extended family as well as my own.
So glad it was a hit for you, Stephanie! ❤️
I had a couple personal problems with this soup. First I didn’t use caution using salt as recommended per your notes. I used salted butter, my chicken broth was salted and maybe my bacon was extra salty. So surprise! Soup was too salty! Secondly, I don’t get along with garlic but I was determined to follow this recipe so I used what amounted to maybe 1/16 of a clove. Even so,to me, it was overwhelming in the soup and will be for a couple of days. I taste tested before adding the sour cream and the bacon. The salt and garlic issues aside, it was tasting very good although very rich (for me). But I went ahead and added the sour cream and the bacon to the pot that was already plenty rich and plenty salty. I had one bowl and that’s all I can take. Kids will be here tomorrow; I know they’ll love it.
I am going to try your recipe again with adjustments (less salt! no garlic!)….as soon as I recover!
Oh no! We hope you like it better next time, Sandra 😊
Slice an apple and add it to the soup. It will remove some of the salr.
I don’t know if I’ve already left a review, but it warrants another! This here is some delicious potato soup! I do add my own fixin’s such as celery, carrots, poultry seasoning, italian seasoning, bay leaves and so on. I leave out the bacon but double the butter (ha I like butter girl) and we and the family gobble it down like there’s no tomorrow. Sometimes I have a little leftover and it doesn’t stay in the fridge long before it gets eaten! I just mash a few potatoes with my spoon to give it a little thickening but otherwise I leave out all the blending stuff. I sure am glad you put this out there. It’s my go to at least once every two weeks! Yum Yum!!!!
This was AMAZING! A bit time consuming but well worth it, and it is definitely restaurant quality. I like my cream of potato soup a bit thicker so I added a cup of chopped celery in with the onion, and also simmered the soup a bit longer (it thickened as it simmered). I added a splash of white wine to deglaze the pan after I took out the bacon. I also added a pinch of cayenne along with the ancho chile, as others suggested. Even without these little tweaks, this is a great soup for lunch or dinner. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Sounds delicious! We’re so glad you enjoyed, Pam 🥰
This soup can’t compare to any other potato soup! It is absolutely so delicious! The only thing I don’t do is add the ancho chili powder (since I can’t seem to find it anywhere) but oh my goodness its so amazing even without it. My son-in-law HATES soup but requests this often ❤ I always have to double the recipe to feed my large family (8 members to be exact). I can’t thank you enough for sharing your recipe, it has seriously become a staple in my home!
I used a pinch of Cayenne Pepper, which is all it needed for us. I wouldn’t say I like it hot but it gives the soup a deeper flavor. I learned that one from Chef John. This soup is great! Give it a try you won’t be disappointed!
Oh, and I am sure I added too many potatoes. LOL… I never measure but love a thick potato soup.
We’re so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the review 😋
I need soup for twenty. Do I just quadruple the ingredients
Yes! Enjoy 😊
Love this simple recipe! I just sat down with a bowl of it, and it’s awesome. I didn’t use cream, just used 2 2/3 cups of whole milk, and omitted the sour cream entirely. I didn’t have any ancho chili powder, so I just used the regular I had and it turned out great!
Oooooh, yes! I maybe didn’t cut my potatoes small enough, so the estimate of 10 minutes to cook the potatoes was wildly off. My chunks were less than or right about at 1″ cubed, but 10 minutes? It was more like 45… But the core recipe is so very tasty! It’s great “naked” and just amps up from there as you sprinkle things on top.
I made this soup for a friend who was hospitalized for mono (& her mom), and once they tried it, they referred to me as a “soup wizard.” Super tasty and easy to make. Definitely adding to my comfort food rotation!
Just finished this recipe it was delicious. I didn’t use the anchollie chili, I used chili powder, added chicken bouillon soup cubes, everything spicy seasoning and it was so good. Will definitely be added to the menu more often
We’re glad you enjoyed it, Cashe! Thanks for commenting 😊
Made this tonight and my husband called it “restaurant quality “ so I’ll call it a winner!!! The only drawback was the temptation to eat a pile of crispy bacon pieces and loads of cheese! A good “loaded baked potato” style recipe. Yum!
We’re so glad everyone enjoyed it, Deb! Thanks for the review ❤️
Am I able to use frozen potatoes instead? If so how would I go about that route?
Update: I used the frozen potatoes and they actually were done/tender within 10-15 minutes of boiling! Soup turned out amazing thanks for an easy, yummy recipe.
Hi Jenna! I haven’t tried it with frozen potatoes, but I think it could work. I would probably thaw them to reduce the risk of adding extra liquid then just follow the same instructions. 🙂
Thank You for sharing! I love this recipe ❤️❤️
This was so good! Potato soup is our family’s favorite so I like to try different recipes and my son declared this tied for first. 🙂 For anyone who can’t have gluten, a gluten free all purpose flour blend worked just fine for the roux. I used a potato masher to roughly mash part of the soup about 10 minutes in and worked like a charm (I have a blender and an immersion blender but didn’t want to clean – lol). Lastly, I didn’t put the milk in at the beginning because I was worried about boiling milk – added it at the end and left out the heavy cream and it was perfect!
Thanks for letting us know how it went for you! Enjoy ❤️
I didn’t use the pepper but replaced it with trader Joe’s every but the bagel season. Tasty!
This was delicious! I never made potato soup before and it was easy! I added about 4oz cheddar and broccoli, left off the chilis, and mashed the potatoes in the soup pot cause I was afraid to blend it while it was hot but everyone raved about it. Thank you so much for sharing it!