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!
Can condensed milk be substituted for cream
Hi, Pam! I don’t think I would recommend it, condensed milk is pretty sweet.
Made this soup today for lunch on this cool Spring Kentucky day. It was fabulous! Hearty, thick and flavorful.
The addition of sour cream and ancho chili. powder really make it special. Thanks for sharing a great recipe that will be repeated many times in our house.
I am so glad you enjoyed the soup, Vicki! 🙂
Such a fantastic potato soup my entire family loved it. Just to make it my own I added a little sweet basil and some shredded carrot at the very end just so gets cooked just right. Perfect absolutely perfect thank you very much for your recipe
I am so glad you enjoyed the soup Dawni! 🙂
Fantastic soup hearty and the chili ads depth.
I am so glad you enjoyed the soup, Allie! 🙂
Fantastic soup
This soup is so delicious and addicting! This is my first time on your site but I can’t wait to try more of your recipes soon! Thanks for sharing!
I am so glad you enjoyed the soup. 🙂
Dang good soup girl!!
Thank you so much, Lee! 🙂
Made this soup this afternoon. Easy to follow recipe and so delicious! A hit that everyone enjoyed. Thinking of adding clam juice and chopped clams next time for an easy clam chowder during this season of Lent. Thank you for posting!!
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed, Carmen! Thank you for commenting, I appreciate it! 🙂
What a wonderful soup! Thank you for sharing this recipe it’s a keeper!
Thank you so much, Joanie! 🙂
Would you put this in the crockpot on low ?
Hi Kristen. I haven’t tried it in a crock pot. I think if it was made in the crock pot, you would sacrifice a lot of flavor that comes from all of the different steps, but it should work. 🙂
Delicious and easy to make!
Thank you so much, Kara! 🙂
I made your soup and it is delicious. Can the soup be placed in a airtight container and placed in the freezer?
Hi Susan! This soup isn’t ideal for freezing. I would be worried the cream would separate out while in the freezer. 🙁
Made this for my brother and he loved it so I made some more to use up the heavy cream. However, I didn’t have any cheese 😟 but it tasted great anyways ☺️ and fewer calories! I also added more garlic since it makes everything taste good! Thanks for the recipe!
You can never have enough garlic! I am so glad everyone enjoyed it, Carol! 🙂
The BEST potato soup…very creamy and easy to make. For sure I will be making this once a week. Yum…
I am so glad you enjoyed the soup, Mary Ann! I would love to have this every week! 🙂
Made this just now. My family and I love it! So easy and delicious.
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it, Tara! 🙂
Do you boil the potatoes first?
No they don’t have to be boiled first. Cut them into small cubes and place them in with the other ingredients in step 6. 🙂