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!
Hi, I just made your recipe and was curious why it says to peel the potatoes? Is there a reason that the skins wouldn’t be good in the soup?
Thanks!
The skins can be tough and add a texture that’s not traditionally in a potato soup, but if that’s your preference, you can certainly leave the skins on. 🙂
Thanks Sam 🙂
I want to say this the best soup I’ve ever made, and that’s a long list of soups! easy, fairly quick and delicious! I made some fresh French bread to pair with, and everyone is full and satisfied!
Delicious! Will deinitely make again!
Love this soup. Was a big hit for the family. Does it freeze well?
Hi Jennifer! It can separate due to the cream so I don’t recommend freezing it.
I have frozen it numerous times and it reheats just fine!! I reheat on the stove for even heat distribution (low/medium heat stirring occasionally) It will look grainy like it wont come together and kind of yucky when you first starts melting it, but just keep stirring and watching it (dont add any additional liquid bc it doesnt need it) and it will be like brand new soup when youre done!! Hope this helps!!
Amazing recipe!!! We loved it!
This is the best version I’ve ever made! I’ve made a lot of potato soups, best this is the best.
definitely delicious!
I absolutely LOVE this recipe! It is a big hit in our house during the cold months especially. We added more bacon but other than that it’s spot on! ♥️♥️
A great comfort food soup for chilly nights. This recipe is easy to make. Since I did not have chicken broth on hand, I used vegetable broth.thank you for sharing your recipe!
Love this potato soup! I’ve been making it for several years now. I only puree 1/4 of the potatoes. I like chunks of potato. No ancho so I used chipotle chili instead this time. YUMMY! 5 Stars Everytime!
Awesone , Easy , Best I ever had!!!
I reheated leftovers but it’s definitely not creamy and more thick. Any recommendations on how to make it creamy again while reheating? Thank you!! It was delicious!
Hi Shana! Add more broth to it before reheating then slowly warm and stir in the broth, that will make it thinner again! You may need to add a bit more salt and pepper too so just taste-test and do that if needed. Enjoy!
So creamy and delicious! I’ve been sending this recipe to everyone.
Very good! Easy to prepare. I didn’t have all the ingredients, so altered a little (minus bacon, heavy cream, ancho chili powder, sour cream) but even so it was delicious. I added Smoked Paprika and All purpose seasoning. Out of preference, I left the potatoes chunky and didn’t purée. My son said it was “very good.”
High praise. Lol
Will make again.
We added some carrots to it too. It’s a delicious comfort food recipe. Thank you!