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!
Love this potato soup! I use low-sodium chicken broth. I just use a potato masher at the end right in the dutch oven. Saves on clean-up. Not too much though. I like chunks of potatoes in my soup. Great flavor! (I may add some shredded carrot in the future just for color.)
Have you substituted whole milk Greek yogurt for the sour cream with similar great flavor results? Just looking for lower saturated fat content. Lastly, what about subbing half ‘n half for heavy cream?
Hi Gail! I have not personally tried it so I can’t comment on the taste, but I think it could work. As for the half and half, that will work as well, but you may need slightly less and your soup will be a bit thinner.
Thank you Sam for your helpful comments!
Best potato soup ever! It’s easy and delicious! I use leftover bacon grease if I don’t have bacon. Plus I add cayenne pepper and carrots if I have them. This is so delicious. Also I use whatever kind of potatoes I happen to have.
I made it for the first time today and it came out delicious! Thank you for another great recipe! This is perfect for cold nights!
So good! I did add some celery salt and black pepper to the onions when cooking, but I think it would’ve been good without. Highly recommend
Wonderful recipe as is! Followed recipe to a T. Awesome.
For my mother in law, I’m afraid the chili spice will be too spicy for her. Any suggestions for a replacement of the ancho chili?
Hi Melinda! Ancho chili powder should not be very spicy. It adds a great flavor, but if you have concerns, you can just leave it out. I don’t know of a great substitute.
This soup had so much flavor! Made exactly as the recipe called for, except my husband and I sprinkled the ancho chili powder on our individual bowls of soup because my mother in law can’t have anything resembling spice. Thank you for this recipe, it’s a real keeper!
This is my first time with the recipe! I’m making it for meatless Friday today. It’s delicious AND easy! TY for this!
P.S.
I did use low sodium broth, but controlled the salt when ingredient asked for it😉😉
My boyfriend rated this a 15 out of 10!!! We added diced ham as well. We love this recipe! Thank you for publishing it!
I prefer not to puree any of the soup. My family prefers chunks of potato throughout. I love the recipe though.
Can I use extra chicken broth ??
Hi Donna! Your soup will be a little bit thinner, but it will still turn out. 🙂
I used ingredients I had on hand substituting milk with coconut milk and flour with almond meal flour. Delicious will definitely make again!
My boyfriend claims it is the best soup he has ever had!
Delicious soup! I make it regularly as the requests are frequent. I like the half puree and half potatoes to be chunky. Thank you!
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Colleen! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Can you make this soup ahead of time and heat it the next day to eat?
Absolutely, my family does it all the time. Enjoy, Ginny!
Is there a way to make this gluten free?
Hi Stevie! Unfortunately I am not familiar with making gluten free dishes so I wouldn’t be able to advise on how to do it.
Use corn starch or Rice flour for thickener.
Or just use the pureed potatoes as the thickener.
This was easy to make and was DELICIOUS!!
I follow the recipe to the letter and it is always superb. One thing I did notice was that there is a slight difference between the video and the text recipe. The video you simmer the soup 30 minutes somewhere along in the recipe; whereas the text recipe does not mention that. Also I do use a tad bit more flour. Thank you for this awesome dish!! 😻👌‼️
Delicious! I made this tonight and it was a hit. Followed directions exactly as written. Adjusted seasoning for personal preference.
Made this X3…. Thought it wasn’t going to work out… in the end it did. Next time I will adjust how I cook the potatoes so it doesn’t stick to yhe bottom of the kettle.
flavor was good!!!