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!
Sorry, I am not a fan. It probably would have been ok without any chili powder. The chili powder must have confused my pallet. I will try again without any chili powder and hope for better results.
I’ve made a few different potato soups for my family and they all agreed that this was the best recipe by far. This is a keeper!
This soup was amazing. Definitely a keeper. 😋
Tastes amazing! Great recipe, thank you for putting it out there.
This makes the best potato soup ever.
I used russet potatoes but otherwise followed the recipe and it was DELICIOUS! Will be making again for sure.
Great soup. I love using a little more bacon than the recipe calls for
oh my, this was so much fun to make and was absolutely delicious. Thank you for the recipe!! Hi Good Job!
Such a wonderful surprise. This was soo
delicious. While my husband was out working, making the roads safe clearing them of snow and ice. I made this for him.
I also made fresh bread in the machine.
Great way to scoop up ever last bit in the bowl.
He said it was his favorite.
After eating two bowls, he went to sleep very happy
Thanks for this great recipe
Best potato soup
This was the best creamy potato soup I have ever made. Everyone loves it.
Can I use russet potatoes?
Sure thing! 🙂
Delicious!
I made this soup for my terminally ill father, he had just gotten out of the hospital and said he wanted potato soup, so I googled potato soup and I came across your recipe!
He said it’s the best potato soup he’s ever had in his life, he is a light eater
But he ate an entire bowl! I couldn’t believe it! Thank you so much for the recipe! I appreciate you very much!
This is one of my favorites it’s easy and my boys love it. Although I alter it and add cabbage ,breakfast sausage with it makes it much better. Comfort food for the weekday or weekend.
AMAZING !!
can I used a potatoes masher? old blender has blended its last blend
..
That should work just fine. It won’t be pureed quite as much, but if that’s all I had, that’s what I would use. 🙂
Says there are 4K reviews but where are all the comments?
Hi Patrick! If you scroll all the way to the bottom you can see the comments. There is a “See older comments” button you can click on if you’d like to read a lot of comments. 🙂
Is there a substitute for the Ancho Chili Powder?
Hi Ainsley! You can leave it out or use regular chili powder, but regular won’t have the same flavor. 🙂
Modified just a tad. I always put cabbage in my potato soup..it adds sooo much flavor! Also, couldn’t find any ancho but I saw a packet of ancho stew seasoning and it worked out. Also, added 1/2 block of cream cheese. Chef’s kiss!!
This soup is absolutely amazing!!!
I made this tonight, both my husband and I throughly enjoyed it. I made it exactly to your recipe, except for the ancho chili powder. I just used Mexene chili powder. I used the immersion blender while it was still in the pot. Worked great.This recipe is a keeper for sure. Thanks for posting it!
YUMMY
I’m not sure that I would want to boil a potatoes with the milk and cream it would seem to me like everything would kind of curdle am I wrong
Hi Charles! You shouldn’t have any issues with the milk curdling here. 🙂
I added 3 pounds of potatoes because I love potatoes. I never made potato soup before but it reminds me of clam chowder without the clams. The sour cream added the kick to it. It could use more salt but that’s me love salt also!