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 so, so good. I didn’t have ancho, but I did have chipotle powder,so used that. I didn’t peel the potatoes; gold skin is so thin and delicate that I like the skin on. I also added more bacon, because, mmmmmm bacon!
Homemade Potato Soup requested by my college son home for the Holidays. Your recipe was simple, so we tried it. Amazing! I used the emersion blender right in the pot for a minute or so ( I like chunks too ;)). I will be keeping this recipe for the future. Thank you!
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Michele! Thanks so much for the review ❤️
If there is a pork allergy, can the bacon be left out entirely and just have some to serve on side for those that want it? Will the taste be ok?
Hi Amanda! You can omit the bacon, but you will lose a good bit of flavor. Others have done this and still enjoyed it. 🙂
Can you freeze this?
Hi Heidi! Others have done so, but I don’t recommend it as it could separate.
Hi Sam—Just came across your Ultimate Potato Soup recipe while making a ham stock with leftover Christmas ham. It looks delish. Do you think I could substitute the ham broth for the chicken broth in the recipe?
Hi Vicki! That should work, but you may want to reduce the additional salt in the recipe as a result. Hope you love it!
Delicious!! I love this recipe! thank you!
Hello! I just made this soup and it turned out fantastic! I do have a question regarding storage. I want to serve the soup for dinner tonight, but I’m afraid putting it in the fridge will affect the texture. Should I leave it out in a covered pot or should I refrigerate it and warm it on the stove before serving? Thank you for the amazing recipe!
Hi Kip! Refrigerating the soup won’t do anything to the texture. Leaving it on the warm stove for a long time could thicken it a lot so depending on how long it needs to sit, it may be best to refrigerate and reheat later. 🙂
This soup is delicious! I did not have milk so I used half and half! Also used just regular chili powder. Can this soup be frozen? There is a lot for just two people to eat!
Hi Diana! We typically avoid freezing creamy soups as the cream tends to separate as it thaws. If this doesn’t bother you, go for it!
I’ve made this before it’s absolutely delicious but not I have a daughter that is dairy intolerant what do you recommend using for the heavy creaming and milk substitution?
Hi Danielle! Non-dairy substitutes should work, but the flavor will likely be different. Typically coconut cream is used to replace heavy cream and any non-dairy milk will work for the milk. We haven’t tried this ourselves, so let us know how it goes for you!
This is a fantastic soup. I did have to switch out the bacon for turkey bacon and added duck fat to get the right amount of fat at the beginning. (I have a legit pork allergy) it did take me a total of an hour and a half to make. Prep was 30 minutes. What killed my time was fishing the chopped bacon pieces out at the beginning and then fishing out everything to put in the blender.
I just made this soup for lunches this up coming short week. Oh my goodness this soup is sooooo amazing!!! All of the flavors are so fresh and just wonderful!!! I can’t wait for lunch everyday this week!!!! Delicious!❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for using our recipe, Debra! Enjoy your lunches this week 😊
This truly is the very best potato soup recipe!
We’re so happy you think so! Thanks for the review 🥰
Just fixed this soup for dinner tonight and WOW!! The wife said it was restaurant quality and oh so creamy! I elected to smash the potato’s in the pot while cooking and not a blender to keep it chunky! The flavors were spot on!! Loved this!!!
Thanks for giving it a try, Gary! We’re so glad it was a hit 😊
confused on the bacon directions. it says to add reserved bacon….but never says what to reserve. did you add bacon before you added the reserved bacon? if so, how much?
Hi Daniel! The reserved bacon in step 9 is the same bacon you removed from the pot in step 2. Hope that helps!
This soup was the star of my annual cookie swap/ luncheon this year. My guests are still talking about it. This is a keeper.
Daughter says, “This is fire, Mom!” (I’m told that’s a super positive rating. LOL). Using the emulsion blender was spot-on. Absolutely delicious.
We’re making it now, family is coming in about 1 hour. Can’t wait to try it!!
I’ve made this before…. and making it this weekend! It’s SOOOO good. Hey if I use thick cut bacon, should I do less?! Thanks for this delicious recipe
Hi Bernadette! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed it! The amount of bacon is really a personal preference. You need to make sure to get enough grease to cook the onion and really get that flavor in the soup. 🙂
If I want to make ahead for a party how would you suggest transporting this without overcooking it?
Hi Helena! I’d just make it in advance and reheat it there or transport in a slow cooker. It reheats well!
This is my new favorite soup!!!
Just made this and it is really good. I ended up adding slap’ya mama seasoning so I was able to cut the salt back and also added Parsley flakes. Will be making again
This is so delicious and was a Fam fave and all I heard around the table was Mmmmmm delicious! We will be having this again soon! There was no leftovers 😉