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!
Making this for the 2nd time, we love it!!! Thank you for sharing this recipe! Can we add broccoli? Would it best to add raw pieces or pieces that have been blanched?
Hi Anna! I’m so glad everyone has enjoyed it so much! I don’t think blanching the broccoli would be necessary. 🙂
Do I need the bacon grease or can I do without?
Hi Izzy! You will lose some flavor, but it can be done. Enjoy! 😊
Can you use Russet potatoes instead of the gold potatoes?
Hi Brittany! That will work just fine. 🙂
I love the Yukons. I’m an Idaho girl and reserve those russets for baking and fries. If you want a creamy soup with chunks of taters, use the yukons and stick blend or mash to thicken to your desire. Dont forget the onion, garlic and even carrots and celery if you like.
I just made this tonight. It was absolutely delicious!! I will have this as a staple from now on. Thank you for the easy to follow directions!
So glad you loved the recipe, Jill! Thanks for coming back to leave a review ❤️
Can this be frozen
Hi Carol! This soup tends to separate as it thaws, so we typically don’t recommend freezing 😕
My children . Love this soup!!!!!!
They are picky eaters ..
when I make your recipe ,9my kids mom can more !!!!! It’s all gone, there 4 of us, I’m going to. Double batch yours recipe Thank you for making my children happy 😃 plus we love it me and my hub.
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We’re so happy it’s a hit for your family Donna! Enjoy 🥰
SUPER GOOD…THE ULTIMATE CROWD PLEASER!!!
I have made this recepie a couple of times, it is one of my faves. I like using very strong stocks for my soup so the only change I make is I use a home made ham stock as another option. (adds more to the process but makes my scottish grandmother proud lol ) I do a whole ham hock and have enought to do a large pot of pea soup or save for second batch of potato! I have done it with the chicken broth as well and was also very yummy!
This recipe is delicious. I added nutmeg cumin paprika jalapeños red crushed peppers and hatch chili peppers. It’s so good thanks for sharing
It is currently June 1st 2023 when I saw this recipe showed it to my mom she said turn the air conditioner down to 67 and make the soup will try it next week
Love that, Laura 🤣 We could eat soup any time of year, especially this one! Hope you enjoy the recipe 😊
It’s June the 3rd and I am waiting on my pot of soup to start boiling it smells so good!
Amazing. I have never had better, even at very nice restaurants. And I love making it myself, adding my own personal touches, and feeling like I know exacly what I am eating.
We love receiving comments like these! Thanks so much for trying our recipe ❤️
Best potato soup recipe I’ve used. Very easy. Amazing flavors and texture. This is now my go-to recipe. Kids loved it, too!
It took 2 hours but worth it.
Delicious
Very good, but it took me +2h to make😵💫so plan more than 30min to make this recipe! And I highly recommend to add sour cream it really elevates the taste of the soup:)
The best I’ve ever eaten!
Omg!!!! This is the BEST potato soup you will EVER eat! She is right and should no doubt win an award for this recipe. I’ve made it twice and my husband cannot get enough nor say enough about how delicious it is.
Thank you sugarspunrun. Keep the recipes coming. I need no other recipe or website but yours to find the best.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Judy
We are so happy you both love the soup so much, Judy! Thanks for being such a fan ❤️
This recipe rocks! Last night I made this delicious potato soup for the first time and shared it with our friends before we went out to a comedy night.
Our friends raved about how tasty and creamy was this soup. My friend even asked to take some home later and a link to this recipe.
You now have new fans.
One addition I made was a sprinkling of smoky paprika.
This is now a dinner favorite. Thank you for sharing your recipes and making meals delicious.
We love receiving comments like this, Trish! We’re so happy the soup was such a hit. Thanks for using our recipe and sharing it with your friends! 🥰