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.
Casi
Could I do this recipe in a crock pot? Is there any ingredient I would need to change or take out?
Sam
Hi Casi! I would recommend preparing it as indicated and then keeping warm in a crock pot.
Michelle
My picky 10 year old will only eat potatoes in french fries form and on occasion mashed potatoes. I told him this was creamy soup and he could all all the cheese and green onion he liked. He devoured it and did not even notice it was cream of potato soup. Us adults enjoyed it too! I followed the recipe with the exception of sour cream because we were out, and it turned out delicious.
Karey
First potato soup recipe I’ve made that I liked, I’ve tried at least 4 or 5. I made this without bacon and it was PHENOMENAL!
Terah
One of the BEST potato soup recipes I’ve tried! My kids are very picky, and they ask me to make this really often!
Rene Singleton
Love this recipe
Valerie Ryan
Can the potato soup be frozen?
Sam
I don’t recommend it as it could separate.
Tammy W
Great recipe! The soup turned out amazing!
Colleen Dunne
Would russet potatoes work?
Sam
Hi Colleen! Others have done so with success. 🙂
Jess
Do you think I could use russet potatoes instead? It’s what I have on hand.
Sam
Hi Jess! Others have done so with success. 🙂
Mandy Storkamp
Can I use miso broth anyone know. I’m out of chicken broth
Sam
Hi Mandy! While I haven’t tried it myself, I think it could potentially work, but it will certainly change the flavor of the soup.
Skip
I followed the recipe proportions almost exactly for all ingredients. I used a mixer to blend the soup rather than transferring some to the blender. I just mixed it on as low as possible to keep the hot splashing from going everywhere and I purposely left some chunkiness in some of the potatoes. Used mixer for 2-3 minutes on low. Soup was absolutely delicious! Ended up with 6-8 bowls of soup as we like slightly reduced portions. Put the leftovers in plastic storage containers in the fridge and I bet the soup will be even better tomorrow.
Melvin Chaffin
Will this soup freeze well?
Sam
I don’t recommend freezing it as it could separate when frozen. I know others have done it with success but I typically do not risk it.
Barbara J Sheridan
Excellent recipe for potato soup. Cut back on the sour cream to 1/2 cup, added more black pepper as we like black pepper. Have to watch salt intake so cut back to 1/4 teaspoon. Used the ancho chili powder, topped with Mexican Blend Cheese. This is the best potato soup recipe have tried. Thanks for publishing this recipe.
Cheese
Wowsa, this soup is sooo divine! I also cubed some Badger Baked Ham for the WI Football game ~ creamy and loaded w/flavor!
S Hawkins
So good and easy. I added half a block of cream cheese and a little velveeta cheese, I also added the pre packaged shredded potatoes and another cup of milk when I noticed my family kept “taste testing”! I knew it wouldn’t be enough and it made it even better!!!! Oh and I used peppered bacon🤯🫶🏾
As an emergency foster parent we get kids all the time and it can be hard to find something they will eat. This is always a winner❤️
Lisa
What can you use instead of ancho chili powder? I can’t find it near me.
Sam
Hi Lisa! You could substitute regular chili powder just omit it. It just adds a really nice flavor. 🙂
Norah
OMG! So good! I added a little diced celery and carrots left from an earlier recipe. Only 1% milk so used 1/2 milk and half cream (and a little cheese) A real game changer in my house. Thank you!!
Stephen
One of my top go-to soup recipes. I don’t blend the potatoes because the blender is very annoying to clean so I just put them in a bowl and mash them real good, then mix them mashed potatoes back into the soup. It’s a bit more effort up front, but much less cleanup afterward