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 is absolutely amazing! I love it!! Also my brother and neighbors love it! I also thought it was fun making it! Awesome job!! Thank you for the recipe!
We’re so happy everyone enjoyed it, Brenda! Thanks for using our recipe 😊
do you have to put sour cream in it??
You can, but it adds a good depth of flavor that you’ll be missing.
Delicious. Been making this for several years. I use veggie broth instead of chicken. And turkey bacon on the side. My daughter is a vegetarian but it’s delicious
We’re so happy you like it, Susan! 🩷
I add Velveeta cheese until it’ll melted. Try it. You’ll love it.
This is delicious! Hubby loved it! I did not leave all of the bacon grease in the pan, but other than that I followed the recipe. Definitely will make again and again!
Delicious! Packed with flavor!
creamy and delicious
Sounds delish, can’t wait to try it! Is it whole milk? Can I use 2% milk?
Hi Kathy! 2% milk will work, but since it’s a bit thinner you may want to use slightly less. 🙂
Fantastic 😍😍
Can’t wait to try this next week. What would you recommend for a small side to go with this?
We love serving this soup with a side salad (cucumber salad would be tasty this time of year!). Biscuits or crusty artisan bread are also nice pairings. We hope you love the soup!
This was amazing! I’m allergic to bacon (I know sad 😢) so I used Turkey bacon. I also added broccoli when I put the bacon in.
So so good!
We’re so happy you enjoyed it, Sherry 😊
Awesome recipe. I did not use chili powder but I did add Nutmeg!
Super easy and very delicious!
Thanks for the review, Curt! We’re so happy the soup was a hit for you 😊
I stuck to the recipe but put in a little bit of minced shallots when the onions were ready for just a few. I used a bit of shredded Swiss Cheese instead of Cheddar, and added about 3/4 teaspoon of concentrated chicken stock and some black pepper. It was delicious!! Thank you for this recipe, God bless you!
Yum! Sounds tasty, Jean. We’re so happy you enjoyed it ☺️
tried it and my family LOVES it… I added extra veggies+bacon… My mother-in-law says this is a must do again ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Yum! So glad it’s a hit for you, Michelle 🥰
I’m just a dumb plumber from Maryland everyone I have had over to try it loves it I do alter a little I double recipe and use 10 lbs of red potatoes but she is genius
my granddaughter and I made this for supper last night and it turned out beautifully. Your instructions were easily followed and we did not change the recipe in any way. Our soup tasted as though we had ordered it from a five star restaurant. We served it in bread soup bowls using the rest of the bag of Yukon Golds up in making the bread. It was a perfect soup for a rainy day!
We’re so happy it was such a success, Jeffrey! Sounds like the perfect cozy rainy day meal 🥰
So delicious and easy.
Can you leave the peel on the potatoes?
Hi Stacey! If you’re using gold potatoes you can probably get away with leaving the peel on, just note you may notice the peel in the end result (mostly an aesthetic issue). Enjoy!
My family loves this soup. I cook it all times of the year, not just when the weather’s cold. I wasn’t able to find ancho chili powder, but smoked paprika gives it a great taste.
We’re so happy it’s a hit for you, Angie! Thanks for coming back to leave a comment 😊
So glad you left this comment – we don’t have ancho chili powder and I was thinking smoked paprika might work – great to know it does!