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.
anne
hello! im trying to make this recipe vegetarian. if i skip the bacon step, do i need to change anything else to fix any proportions?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Anne! You can leave it out without any changes. Enjoy!
Elaine
I love making soup…and eating it! This was a simple and tasty . I used my immersion blender because it was much less trouble. I’ll definitely be making it again.
Hannah
How long should it take for the soup to thicken?
Sam
Hi Hannah! It should thicken up a bit after it’s blended. 🙂
Jody Peterson
Hi Sam,
I am going to this again! It’s become one of my favorites!!
Just wanted to say thank you for the recipe you posted. It is great!
Jody Peterson
Sam
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed it so much, Jody! 🙂
Chay
Seriously the best recipe! The bacon grease gives this soup SO much flavor! This is my go to when I have to take a meal to a friend or event. Everyone always asks for the recipe! I use freeze dried sour cream and cheese to use up food storage!
Donna Newell
Loved it!
Shannon
Delicious and simple! Will make again.
SUE
I was wondering if the ancho chili powder makes the soup hot and/or spicey. Thank you for the info!
Sam
Hi Sue! Ancho chilis are a very mild pepper so the powder is mild. It just adds a nice depth of flavor. 🙂
Victoria Puglisi
Hey if you swap out the sour cream for plain Greek yogurt, you up your protein and add better flavor in my opinion, also you can use 2% milk or plant based (unsweetened unflavored) milk to cut down more on the fat content. Use half ghee half olive or coconut oil instead of just butter, and use low-fat cheese, and use ham instead of bacon, let me tell you all of these swaps are absolutely delicious. For thickness you can add a little bit of powdered milk. If you like to add a little more flavor to things I suggest using low sodium soy sauce or Worcestershire in very small quantities (1/2 tsp at most) or a squeeze of lemon (1/4 slice). Anyway that’s a way to health it up so you can have soup every day. One more suggestion that I haven’t tested is to experiment with different types of flour, some types of flour have a higher protein content and hopefully in small amounts it won’t weigh down the texture too much.
Christeen RivaRigobert
Can you freeze this potatoe soup (I like to cook in advance for future meals) and if so, how would you advise doing so? Thank you for your time and recipe.
Sam
Hi Christeen! I don’t recommend it as the cream could separate out. I haven’t tried it personally, but others have said they haven’t had issues bringing it back together.
Nancy Williams
You can thin it out with extra chicken broth and serve it as a cold soup (French vischysous (sp))soup!
Steve Richey
great soup.. I make a big batch, freeze meal portions, and give it to friends .. they love it..
Angela Mills
So amazing!!!! The best potatoe soup EVER!!! My Family loves it.
I have doubled the recipe bc of large family and it is just as good.
This goes do quick in my house ❣️We live in Florida it is literally in the high 90’s heat index over 100 and my husband wants this tonight in August 2023.
It is so much fun to make! THANK YOU
Debra
I use Idaho brand instant mashed potatoes to thicken my soup instead of flour to add extra flavor. Put in toward end of cooking. Be careful use half a package to start add more if you like.
Kie
Don’t have a blender can I just mash with potato masher
Sam
Sure thing! 🙂
Lana Kent
I use a potato masher right in the pot — works fine!
Paige
I made this tonight for the first time to comfort a sick husband, just amazing! Only changes- I used peppered bacon and gf flour. It was served with fresh beer bread, very great and easy recipe.
Jessica from Kansas
I use turkey bacon and vegetable broth instead. I’ve made this recipe multiple times and it’s so good.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yum! Thanks for letting us know how it worked out for you, Jessica 🥰
Melissa
Would red potatoes work? I can get gold but I already have a bag of red sitting in my pantry.
Sam
Hi Melissa! Red potatoes will work here. 🙂
Susie Hess
I made this for my inlaws! They loved it. Very tasty. My father-in-law doesn’t like garlic so added only garlic salt. I didn’t use anchor powder. My mother-in-law said I should open a restaurant. Lol. They are 89 and 90. Thank you. I pray that I have the opportunity to make this for them again when we visit.
Zachary
This was a great recipe!
Elba
Will this soup taste as good after refrigerating or freezing leftover?
Sam
Hi Elba! It does taste good after refrigeration. I don’t recommend freezing as the cream could separate out when frozen. 🙂