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!
Amazing soup! Thank you for posting this recipe. I love to cook but never prepared potato soup. My family loved it! I couldn’t keep them out of the kitchen while I was making it.
I’m so glad to hear that you and your family enjoyed it, Molly! Thank you so much for commenting! 🙂
Oh my! This Recipe turned out delicious. Thank you so much!
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it 🙂
Thank you for commenting, Emily!
Thanks for the recipe! I made this vegetarian (extra butter instead of bacon fat & imagine’s no chicken broth) and it turned out great! Even my non vegetarian family members enjoyed it.
I’m so glad to hear it was such a hit, and thank you for sharing the vegetarian substitutions! Thanks for commenting, Lenny! 🙂
Tried this recipe tonight and it was absolutely delicious! Even our 3 yr old enjoyed it! Thank you for sharing the recipe. Have you ever tried freezing it? Was thinking about putting part of the leftovers in the freezer for later.
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it, Karissa! ☺️
This soup was wonderful. Everyone in my household went back for more and my daughter said it was the best soup she ever had. I will definitely make it again!
I am so happy to hear this, Lori! Thank you for letting me know how it turned out for you! <3
I’m a potato soup snob and this was THE BEST potato soup recipe! Huge thank you for sharing!!
I am so glad you enjoyed it! ☺️
This recipe was one I haven’t tried….. I was a little skeptical about the ancho Chile powder ( though I do use it in other things). But I must admit this soup recipe is phenomenal and I will be using it again and again, along with recommending it to everyone! Great job Sam and keep up the good work!
Thank you so much, Jason! ☺️
I am making this today.. can I fry the bacon and then crumble it instead of cutting it in small pieces before frying? Thinking it might be easier
That should work fine, but I do recommend cooking the bacon in the pot you will be making the soup in to make sure you get that bacon flavor. ☺️
Delicious soup. Easy to follow recipe.
I used this recipe tonight exactly as posted. It was everything I wanted and more! This was my first time ever making homemade soup and the directions were clear and easy for me to follow. Having never used ancho chili before I heeded your suggestion to use 1/4 tsp to start. I found this to be perfect! The flavor was amazing! Normally, I feel overwhelmed by cooking. But now, I am looking forward to exploring more of your recipes. Thank you for sharing this. I have bookmarked it as a favorite!
I hope you love everything you try Stacey! ☺️ Thank you for the feedback!
Omg awesome!! From husband to baby and all ages in between everyone loved it!! Movie time with stuffed bellies!!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it! ☺️
How do I change servings or what is servings for three people
This recipe serves 6, so if you just halve the ingredients you will make enough for 3 people. Enjoy!
Can I substitute the sour cream for plain Greek yogurt?
I think that would work 🙂
Great recipe, I always wanted to know what was used to make potato soup milky, cause I had a friend who did a wonderful job making potato soup, thanks to your recipe, now I know. Good job, Sam, keep it up.
Thank you, Sybil, I’m glad this was helpful <3
I don’t have a blender. Do you think I could just mash instead of purée?
I am not sure exactly how it will work. It may make the soup much thicker than intended.