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’m not the cook of the house and somehow it turned out amazing! Didn’t need salt and my boyfriend had seconds.
I just made this. super easy, and tastes great! I would like to you it I can freeze the leftovers?
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Amanda! I would be worried about the soup separating when being frozen so I don’t recommend it. 🙁
This is the best potato soup I have come across. My partner and I love it, especially when the weather starts to get chilly! I’m making this for us tomorrow.
I freeze it all the time!
This soup is so good! It’s a family favorite. So I thought I’d comment to ask does it freeze well? I’m due with my 3rd next month and thinking about freezer meals, but I wonder about the dairy separating or soemthing.
Congratulations, Carolyn! What a wonderful time! Unfortunately I don’t recommend freezing this, as you are correct, it could end up separating. Good luck! I wish you a safe delivery, a healthy baby, and a speedy recovery. 🙂
Can I use russet potatoes? It’s what I have on hand
Russet potatoes will work here. 🙂
can you freeze it?
Hi Ava! I don’t recommend it as it could separate.
I have followed this recipe to a T and 30 minutes after adding the potatoes, they aren’t even softening.
It’s very frustrating.
I’m so sorry to hear this, Tammy! How big were your potato chunks? What kind of potato were you using?
If I wanted to double the recipe, would I just double everything? I’ve made this recipe many times and my family loves it! Thank you.
Yes you would! I’m so glad it’s been such a hit! 🙂
This is the best potato soup and I’ve been making potato soup for a lot of years. My husband was leery of a new recipe with ancho chili powder but I added it, just a 1/4 tsp and we both loved it. I told him it was a recipe that got zillions of 5 stars and Sam, my favorite recipe blogger, has never let me down yet. It was delicious and I think next time I’ll add another 1/4 tsp. of the ancho chili powder, it really does take it up a step. Thanks again!!
Thank you so much, Liz! I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much and I appreciate your support. 🙂
Do you need to puree? Chunky potato soup sounds good as is?
Hi Kathy! That’s a preference thing. Your soup will just be a bit thinner if you don’t puree it. 🙂
Kathy,
I’ve tried it both ways and while it’s still delicious without pureeing it, it’s much better with it. That’s my opinion!
Would it be ok to substitute with russet potatoes instead? Or does this change the consistency?
Hi Kathryn! I think russet will work here. 🙂
Family loved this. We did not blenderize any of it, just cut the spuds up small. I’ve made it adding a habanero pepper and smoked turkey too. That was also great. Be careful adding salt if your broth is salty. Thank you!
My first time cooking or even having potato soup…my husband and I agreed it was the most amazing soup we have ever had!!!! We loved it!!!! Would not change a thing your directions were spot on!!! I had thought of adding corn and may do so in a future batch as make no mistake there will be many more in our future!!! Thank you for creating this goodness and for all you do for the culinary junkies out there such as ourselves!!! Happy Cooking!
I’m so glad to hear everyone enjoyed it so much, Mona! I hope you’ll try some of my other recipes as well. 🙂
Have all your ingredients prepped before starting as is goes together pretty quickly! I learned that the hard way!
It is a wonderful eat!!!
I’m planning to make this for a gathering tomorrow – can it be made in advance/the night before and reheated on the stove? Thanks!
Hi Jocelyn! You can certainly make this the day before and reheat it. 🙂
First time making potato soup and this recipe was absolutely delicious!
loved making and eating this soup.
I’m going to try this with frozen hash browns because I’m lazy. hope it works out!
I made this at my son’s house today and realized after starting that he was almost out of potatoes. I used what I could, about half what I needed, and then chopped added frozen French fries and frozen sweet potato fries to get enough potatoes. It worked out just fine. Soup is usually pretty forgiving, right?