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!
Hands down the best potato soup recipe. We add just one thing, cut up smoked sausage. I usually just add it in the same time as the bacon to cook and then add it back later with the bacon. Gives the soup that extra layer of flavor. Just wanted to share! Highly recommend this recipe to anyone who wants a delicious, easy potato soup.
Thank you so much for sharing, Hannah, and thank you for trying my recipe, I really appreciate it! 🙂
This really is the best! I made it again tonight after purchasing Ancho chili powder for the first time. It was worth it. I’ve tried a bazillion potato soup recipes and this is one of the simplest and OUR FAVORITE!
So happy to hear this, Krista! Thank you so much for trying my recipe, I appreciate it! 🙂
My favorite potato soup recipe
2nd time making it & it’s fool proof ! I always double the recipe so there’s leftovers . I’m freezing some this time so I can be prepared whenever someone’s sick. Def a new staple
delicious!!
thanks for great recipe hide do I email this recipe to myself?
So glad you enjoyed it, Sharon! As you scroll down the page, a few social sharing options will appear at the top of the page including a green icon that gives you the option to email the recipe. You could also bookmark it or use the heart icon on the bottom right side of the screen to save it.
Absolutely the best potato soup recipe out there! My family requests this soup often!
Hello from France. No sour cream here. Would you suggest crème fraîche or Greek yogurt-those are my two go to’s for sour cream substitute.
Hi Amy! Full fat greek yogurt will work. 🙂
Can you use unpeeled potatoes?
Hi Sabina! The soup wouldn’t be as smooth, but if you are ok with that texture, that would work. 🙂
Hi. How can I make this gluten free?
Hi Kim! I suspect a gluten free 1:1 flour substitute would work, but I can’t say for sure. You should be fine to substitute a smaller amount of cornstarch or arrowroot for the flour, too. Also make sure you check all of your other ingredients for gluten as well. 🙂
Instead of doing the roux with the flour, you can use a cornstarch slurry to thicken it.
1 1/2 tablespoons of Potato starch or corn starch works for me.
Mix with a small amount of water and then add at the end to thicken the soup.
Can the chicken broth be substituted with other broth like vegetable broth or beef broth?
You could, it will just change the flavor profile a bit. 🙂
Both my husband and daughter are hard to please and both said it was the best they’d ever had.
Can this potato souo.be frozen for layer use?
Hi Laura! I don’t recommend it, the soup could separate. 🙁
This was delicious! I had some celery stalks leftover so I added those and made sure to blend them with some of the potato chunks. It made enough for me to share with my sister which she and her teenage boys also enjoyed. This will definitely be a saved recipe to use throughout this winter!
Delicious! Perfect on a cold windy night at the beach!
I’m a sucker for a good potato soup, making many variations of it, but this one is far and away the best recipe I’ve come across. I’ve shared thus soup with a handful of friends and family and they all rave about it.
My one suggestion is to DEFINITELY use ancho chili powder – it really makes the soup special! It has a smokey flavor to it that you just can’t get from a regular chili powder blend. However, start off with a small amout (you can always add more) because a little too much can be overpowering.
Everything about this soup recipe is perfect as is. No omissions or substitutions recommended from me!
Can I freeze any extra
Hi Joe! I don’t recommend it as it could separate. 🙁
Absolutely the best!
I loved this soup. It is creamy and flavorful. I think we’ll be full all evening. My sons and husband all enjoyed it. I will make more bacon and have green onions or chives along with the cheddar cheese next time. And I think crisp toasted French bread would be just the right addition.
Had a taste for potato soup for weeks & couldn’t find any pre-made that hit the spot. So, I finally decided to make some myself. Loved, loved, loved how this recipe turned-out!!
I made this soup last night for the family. It was a total hit! My 3 year old grandson had 2 bowls, and my husband ate the leftovers for lunch today! Only made one small change-I added 1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese. This soup is now a household staple!