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!
I cut the flour and used potato flakes to bring the thickness to my liking. so good.
This is so delicious! I added celery, ham, and extra bacon. You cannot go wrong with this recipe!
this is a keeper…make again…maybe try the suggestion to use potato flakes to thicken
omg! slap yo mama. I made with flour first time. no flour second time cause I forgot and just not as thick but still thick. I don’t think needs flour. less calories the better on this one. But AMAZING!! I saute onion and garlic in left over bacon grease and butter to add. Heart attack waiting to happen but Full and happy when it does. Had an amazing life. No regerts ( spelled wrong tattoo joke) !! LMAO hahaha
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much! Thanks for the little laugh this morning. 🙂
Best potato soup recipe I have ever come across. My whole family loves it! Keeping it in my rotation. The only thing I did different is, I added a little bit of carrot and celery sautéed with the onion
My husband was raving about this recipe (he never raves about any meal). Definitely worth the time ND effort. Making again today and doubling so I can share with my parents.
We are so happy it was such a hit, Ang! Thanks for commenting 😊
Hi, this looks delicious and I’m going to make it. I’m wondering if this freezes well as it’s just the two of us and I like to have homemade soup handy. Thanks!
Hi Stacy! We typically don’t recommend freezing since the cream tends to separate as it thaws.
This was absolutely amazing and definitely worth making. Soooo good. Bomb.com! We will be adding this to our fall soups this year, just made it tonight and so happy I did. Thank you! 🙏🏽
We are so happy it was such a hit, Cherie! 😊
Is this a recipe that can sit on the stove and simmer a couple hours for family functions or will it separate?
Hi Miranda! It should be fine to simmer for a couple of hours. I would probably keep the heat lower than a simmer as it will become really thick if simmering that long. 🙂
Potato Soup recipe was awesome
I’ll be saving the recipe for future use.
Thank you.
Thanks for giving it a try, Susie! We appreciate the review 🥰
can you use russet instead of gold potatoes?
Sure! Enjoy 😊
This is the best potato soup I’ve ever had! Thank you for sharing ❤️
We are so happy you like it, Danielle! Thanks for the review 🥰
This soup is a crowd pleaser! It is delicious! thinking about trying to cooking it in the slow cooker. do you think it will work?
We’re so happy you like it, Megan! Honestly we’re not sure how it would work in a slow cooker since there are multiple steps involved.
I’ve loved this recipe for a long time and still do! Always a favorite. There is nothing I would change except I do add a lot of bacon to mine. Other than that this is one of my favorite soup recipes I’ve ever found.
We are so happy you love it, Carly! We like adding extra bacon too 🥰
This soup was amazing, my mom absolutely loved having this when she was sick. I will definitely be making this again!
We are so happy she enjoyed it, Rayne! 🩷
Can I save this overnight and reheat the next day?
Absolutely! Enjoy 😊
Yes you absolutely can refrigerate and reheat!
Do you think I could put this in the crockpot instead of on the stove? Would the directions be about the same?
Hi Ashley! Since there are many steps to be done I’m not sure a crock pot would work here. 🙁 You could use a crock pot to keep it warm after making it though. 🙂
This was the most delicious recipe for potato soup that I’ve found! Very satisfying and looking forward to making many more times this fall!