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.
Krissy
no half and half or heavy cream, will it still turn out?
Sam
If you only have milk, the soup will be a lot thinner, but should still work.
Shawnee Wannamaker
Could I omit the heavy cream if I don’t have it or really any subs beside milk?
Sam
Hi Shawnee! I would just use milk, but your soup is going to be much thinner.
Shawnee Wannamaker
Thanks Sam! It was delicious!
Jacqui B
I’ve tried many Potato Soups and this is by far the best!!!
Gale
So easy and excellent flavor! I didn’t have any sour cream but really didn’t need it.
Adrianna
This soup is amazing!! Is it something that we can make ahead and freeze?
Sam
Hi Adrianna! Others have frozen it with success, but I worry the cream may separate out.
Jennifer Stafford
my family loved this recipe!
there was only 1 bowl left after we ate! I added some red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper.
Katy
Found this a few years ago, absolutely love this one. I highly recommend this recipe. My better half absolutely loves this.
Anna
The measurements were off for mine. I followed recipe to a T and it was not thick like the pic. It was pretty thin and I used whole milk and heavy cream. Not my favorite and wasted a lot of ingredients 🙁 I would suggest anyone making this to increase flour to 1/2c and maybe that will make a thicker soup.
Sam
Interesting, I’ve never had anyone complain of this before. I am concerned something may have been mis-measured. I would not advise increasing the flour to 1/2 cup as it would make the soup quite pasty.
Joyce
No reason to try any other recipe, this was amazing! I added chopped celery and diced leftover ham that my husband had smoked a few days prior. I eliminated the salt and used low sodium broth. This was actually fun to make.
Karyn
Made this tonight for dinner following the recipe exactly, with one exception: no chili powder. It was sublime!!! My family highly recommends.
Bonnie
This potato soup was amazing. Five stars for sure. Didn’t have heavy cream used half-and-half cream.
Rick
Your potato recipe was a hit. It had great taste. Very creamy. I highly recommend.
Pam
Another hit, Sam! Soooo delish🥰I ended up using my immersion blender and that worked great. Thanks again for a yummy recipe. Shepherd’s pie is next!
Theresa
Im a beginner with soups My neighbor helped me with this delicious recipe. Delicious- I hope to see more soups.
John Selogy
i didn’t have all of the ingredients, but I was able to add lib. it still came out wonderful!
Marty
Very good recipe with clear directions. Thank you!
Chris
Made this soup for the fam and they all loved it! Said it was the best they ever had. I will be cooking this again!!!
Violet
Omg!!! It’s heavenly! I will add shredded cheese to my bowl❤️