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!
This was actually a lot easier to make than I thought it would be, and oh was it delicious! 🤤
can this be frozen and saved for another meal?
I don’t recommend freezing it as it could separate.
I’ve actually frozen it and reheated it before & it works great. It does separate a little while it’s thawing & will look kinda yucky & like it might not come together, but once it’s all heated through it’ll be good as new. I also recommend heating it on the stove instead of the microwave bc you can monitor & control the temperature more 🙂
What can be. Served with the soup, besides condiments? Sandwich, green or fruit salad or what????
Hi Ruth! I like crusty sourdough bread, or broccoli salad, or even homemade biscuits. 🙂
I think next time I won’t cook everything in the bacon fat. It was too greasy for me. Otherwise a great recipe.
How long can you store it in fridge beds going bad?
Hi Tom! I wouldn’t recommend keeping it longer than 3-4 days in the refrigerator. 🙂
I have tried many many ..different recipes for potato soup and this is by far the best. the only one I will make in the future
This soup was delicious! Husband agreed. Thank you!!!
Thank you so much for this potato soup recipe. my family and friends love it! We lick our bowl clean, yummy!!!
I made this soup twice in a week it was so good! Added some diced ham and extra sharp cheddar that we had on hand. Thanks for a great recipe!!
I big hit in my home
very good recipe,I cooked it twicw in a week,highly recommended
Easy and delicious!
Wow! Absolutely amazing recipe! It’s a great potato soup before the sour cream. Once that goes in it’s over. Adds a creaminess. All you need to do after this is add your cheese and bacon to the top. Worthy of a very high end restaurant!
this sounds amazing! I’m planning on making it the day before and taking it to a potluck. was thinking about putting in the fridge overnight and warming up in the crock pot the day of the luncheon. Do you think it will separate being in the cold fridge?
I hope you love it, Sandy! It should not separate in the refrigerator, but it can separate if frozen. 🙂
I think it’s BETTER the next day!
Delicious! People are asking for this recipe now. Thank you!
What a great recipe! My wife says I just got the job of cooking from now on!
I added a few drops of Tabasco to my bowl and wow, it was great!
Thanks for sharing!
Best potato soup recipe. I make this all the time.
Can your recipe be cooked in a crock pot?
Hi Donna! It could be warmed in a crockpot later, but there are several steps that would make it difficult to make in a crock pot by itself.
I made this in the crockpot. Just fry the bacon and sautee the onions first (I actually left some of the bacon in the soup while cooking) then put onions and some bacon in crockpot with potatoes, chicken broth and spices. Cook on high for about 3 hours until potatoes are tender, remove about half to blend. Add flour to the milk/cream mixture and add to soup. Cook another hour or so until thickened.
The BEST!!! You. may want to add a couple of boullion cubes . or chicken soup base. I diced the potatoes & par cooked them in slightly salted water.
TIP!!! fry bacon, remove from pot THEN chop it up. I found cutting the raw bacon so painful. That being said, this is my GO-TO recipe. Absolutely perfect. I also sub Chipotle instead of ancho because its what I usually have on hand. Thanks for the recipe!
Try freezing the bacon for 1/2 hour before cutting. This method also works for cutting beef for stew.
This soup is amazing to say the least. I couldn’t find the ancho spice, but used Chipotle Chili powder instead. So so so good