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).
]
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.
Roger Plank
Holy Cow! I am a 78 year old retired cop. My wife discovered Sam’s recipes and every one of them is great, but this potato soup recipe is my favorite. Her video is just what I wanted in order to go into this project with some degree of confidence.
Kudos to Sam!
Sam
Thank you so much, Roger! I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂
Sarah
Could this be made ahead and frozen?
Sam
Hi Sarah! I don’t recommend freezing this as it can separate. 🙁
Valerie Steen
I’ve made this several times and always my go to.
Patrisha
my husband and I LOVE this soup, it has become a somewhat regular dish at our house, thank you sooo much for sharing.
Annie
I went and bought ancho chili for this recipe and it is one of my favorite spices of all time! So thank you for that, it’s lightly smokey and sweet always adds a nice depth. the soup was fantastic. I made it a few years ago and am making it again today
Sam
I’m so glad I was able to introduce you to a new spice! I’m happy to hear the soup has been such a hit! 🙂
Stacy
We love this soup so much!! I’ve been making it for years and I make mine more like a chowder! I add chopped celery (about 3 stalks) and sauté it w/ the onion. I don’t blend mine, I use a potato masher and mash it up after the potatoes have cooked/softened and we serve it as a chowder. I love to serve it with fresh sourdough and tobasco hot sauce- reminds me of the clam chowder at Brophy Bros in SB or on the wharf in Monterey (minus the clams). Love, love, love it!! Thank you for sharing!
Joseph Johnson
Best tasting potato soup I ever had.
Cindy
Thanks for the great soup recipe. So delicious!😋
Michelle Gourley
I made this last night and it was amazing! Very flavorful and perfect just the way it was. The only thing I did different was I didn’t blend the potato’s cause I like the texture and it was creamy enough. I used cooper and sharp cheddar at the end and I didn’t have ancho chili powder so I used chipotle chili powder. Your right, you need this extra boost of flavor! This is definitely a keeper in my house!
Sarah
How many servings does this make? I want to make it for a party with 12 people but I’m not sure if I should double or triple the recipe?
Sam
Hi Sarah! It makes about 3.5 qts of soup (roughly 8 servings). It depends how much you’d like for each person to have, but doubling should work. 🙂
Taryn Clark
just made this for dinner tonight. Absolutely delicious. Wouldn’t change a thing about the recipe. but I do have one comment/concern. You forgot to include where you hide the reserved bacon from your husband
Sam
🤣 If you figure out the answer to that question please let me know the answer. 🙂
LD
Honestly the best potato soup quick and easy too!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you like it 😊
Melisa Hansen-Giles
I am making it today! Sounds delicious!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We hope you love it, Melisa 😊
Krystina
Hubby says it’s his new favourite soup!! 10/10 would make again!
Natasha
SOOO good. I substituted evaporated milk for milk (with almost equal proportions of evaporated milk and water- 2 cups total- so it’s the same consistency as milk) and I used paprika because I didn’t have the chili powder it called for.
Highly recommend!
Leticia
I made this today since it’s a rainy damp day and thought ideal for soup. Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I made a couple of variations to it, I didn’t have ancho chile powder in my pantry and used half smoked paprika and half cayenne pepper for a wonderful subtle kick to it and the slight smokey flavor. Also didn’t have cream, ran out just this morning buy I didn’t think it was missing, I also added bay leaves while the potatoes were cooking, I add it to my bechamel sauce and I love the results and thought it’d be good here too, I was not wrong. We enjoyed it so much I had to post my comment to let you know what a great recipe I found on your blog!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Leticia! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I hope you love everything else you try. 🙂
Melisa Hansen-Giles
I’ve always heard not to add the cream until the end & not to boil. Have you had any problems with seperation of soup? I would love to just add all at once and be done like you did.
Sam
Hi Melisa! It’s not an issue that I’ve run into and I haven’t gotten any complaints about it, either. I hope you love the soup! 🙂
Margie
can I make this in the crockpot?????
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Margie! It could be kept warm in a crock pot, but we’re not sure it would work well to cook it in one 🙁
Eileen Bell
can you freeze?
Sam
Hi Eileen! I don’t recommend it because it could separate. 🙁