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.
Heather Keller
Love this recipe and so do my kids. It is pretty easy to make too.
Tim
any draw back to using russet potatoes? I don’t have gold/yellow.
Sam
Russet will work just fine 🙂
Janie
I used russet and they made the texture a bit mealy. It’s still good but I don’t think I’d use them again. If you don’t mind not having the smoothness of the Yukon potatoes it wouldn’t matter.
Georgette
I just made the soup I hope I did everything right. I will let you know. It looks yummy 😋
Tina
Hi! Can I make this the night before I’m serving it? Thanks 😊
Sam
Yes, I would probably keep out the bacon after cooking it and add just before serving or serve on the side. Enjoy!
Tina Felizzi
Thanks so much!!!!
--M.
Soup season came fast here – one day we have record breaking high temps and two days later, we have the first deep freeze of the year! Everyone was in the mood for warm comfort food before trick or treating – I found this recipe, had most of the ingredients so decided to try it out. It was a hit! Definitely keeping this one for our winter rotation!
Brian
loved it!! instead of milk I just used more heavy cream and added a dried ancho and guajillo pepper. blended them up with half the soup. very rich and flavorful !
Madi
We have had 110 degree weather and then the next month we are having 32 degree weather! Perfect time for soup! made this and everyone raved and went back for seconds and thirds!
Naomi
This is incredible! Whole family loved it and I’ve got some finicky eaters 🙂
Carrie
It was yummy and easy to make. I didn’t have ancho chili pepper so I used some dark chili powder and a little cayenne pepper.
W W
Love this soup!!!!!!
SWLAMAN
It’s a great recipe. I just don’t care to add flour when baking 1/3 of the potatoes to crumble in the soup works best while enhancing flavor and texture.
LaDonna
I like the bones of this soup but next time I don’t think I will use bacon or I will at least discard the drippings. It feels very greasy in the mouth.
Charlene
I made this last night and HUGE hit with the family! Very flavorful & stick to your ribs good! We like our soup thick so I puréed less than half and it was just perfect.
Thank you for sharing this with us. We have a new favorite dinner in our home!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Alexandra
How do I know how much ingredients to use for a serving of 8 people?
Sam
Hi Alexandra! I would increase the recipe by 50%. 🙂
Christina
This was really delicious! I added about 2 cups sharp cheddar. Didn’t purée too much. I like it chunky. Was a hit!!
Jillian
This is SO good – all the reviews are right. My boyfriend and I ate every bite.
I didn’t have ancho chili powder, so I used regular and it was delish. My only tip would be to use a BIG pot. For some reason I was running out of room, but that’s my own fault… Will definitely make this again!
Jennifer Henning
How much soup does this recipe make? Like in quarts? Doesd anyone add any cheese to soup to cook or just as a topping?
Sam
Hi Jennifer! This makes 6 servings of about 1.5 cups so approximately 9 cups of soup. Others have added cheese in with the soup, but I have not personally tried it to recommend how much to add. Enjoy! 🙂
Jennifer Henning
I made the soup and added a little cheese. I entered it into a soup cook off and I’m proud to say I placed second!!! This is now my only potato soup recipe!! Thanks!!
Natalie
I just made your potato soup!! Absolutely scrumptious!
Suzi
Hi ma’am! Can I substitute chicken broth for vegetable broth? I don’t eat meat.
Sam
Hi Suzi! That will work just fine. 🙂