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!
Made this tonight. Was a big hit with me and the husband! So creamy and savory. Really delicious. Followed the recipe exactly. Thank you!
We’re so happy it was a hit for you, Rob! Thanks for trying our recipe ❤️
Yummy! How do you clean your Dutch oven? I’m having a hard time even tho I love to cook in those! The enamel in mine is getting darker….Hope to hear your secret soon!
Hi Lori! This is something I struggle with as well. Sometimes baking soda works well for me, sometimes it doesn’t. I actually just bought Le Creuset’s enameled cast iron cleaner because I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I hope it works well.
I don’t usually care for any recipe I find through Google but this one is absolutely addictive. I don’t use the chili powder but that’s the only thing I don’t use and it comes out so delicious Every. Single. Time. Thank you for sharing your recipe!!
For some reason my Grandmother added 1 cup cooked rice to this potato soup recipe. Whether she ran out of potatoes or had rice in the fridge, it worked out well, just added another layer of texture. Thanks for a great recipe.
Wow wow .. wow..took me about an hour .. start to finish.. prepping with one hand..
I’ve been struggling lately to find food that my 91 year old Mom likes to eat. She LOVES this soup. I substituted chili powder for the ancho chili powder because I didn’t have the ancho and it’s so good. It means so much to find a good recipe for the elderly. THANK YOU!
Amazing recipe!! Made it as is and my family can’t get enough. Can you leave the flour out to make it gluten free? Or is there a substitute?
Hi Kelsey! If you leave out the flour the soup will be much thinner. I’m not sure on a substitute. I suspect a gluten free flour would work. 🙂
Super easy, super good! Love this recipe!
Sometimes I add some slices of Kielbasa or other sausage
It turned out just perfect and delicious. Thank you for sharing.
I have made a lot of good potato soup in my life. This is absolutely delish! I think I am done trying recipes-this is “the one”. I used about a teaspoon of siracha because I didn’t have ancho chili powder. I have always put sour cream on the side because my husband doesn’t like it. He loved this soup and doesn’t need to know that sour cream is part of what makes this soup great ;o)
Your secret is safe with us, Krista 😉 Enjoy!
doubled the recipe and it worked great. used half of the amount of arrowroot powder for the flour and it was perfectly creamy. yum!
Wonderful! Thanks for letting us know how that substitution worked out for you, Amy 😊
My absolute favorite potato soup and perfect on a cold rainy day! Way better than the restaurant! Thank you for sharing this recipe. Highly recommend. I used kinder ancho chili as I can never find the powder and I added about a teaspoon. Then I used better than bullion for my chicken broth base!
I have tried several different potato soup recipes on the internet and I find yours to be spot on it’s very delicious and I sure with my family
We’re so happy you like it, Penny! Thanks for commenting ❤️
Excellent recipe definitely will make again at some point
I used this recipe for potato soup for our Wed night church dinner. I substituted 3X 1/4 tsp of garlic powder per recipe instead of the 3 cloves of garlic. My wife cannot tolerate whole garlic but she can for some reason do garlic powder. The recipe was a huge hit with the church. I increased the recipe to make a 4X volume. This as well as all of Sam’s recipes are simple to follow, contain amazing flavor and are fun to make. Thank you Sam!!
We’re so happy it was a hit! Thanks for using our recipe, David ❤️
Argh – I messed it up went by directions of salt before I read the “notes” should have known better. Will probably start over!
I’m in school and doing my best to stick to a budget, so I made the best use of the ingredients I had on hand rather than purchasing additional ingredients. I used russet potatoes in place of Yukon Golds, regular chili powder in place of ancho chili powder, a bag of bacon bits in place of bacon, and instant chicken bouillon granules in place of chicken broth. The soup was absolutely delicious, even with my alterations. I’m excited to make it again with all the ‘correct’ ingredients. 😉
We’re so happy it turned out nicely for you, Emily! Enjoy 🥰