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!
very good.
Best potato soup ever! I doubled the bacon. Like duh
Followed directions to the letter with the exception of ancho chili pepper. Used plain chili pepper. Nothing short of delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
Can this be cooked in the crockpot?
Hi April! We’re not sure how this recipe would go in a crockpot since there are a few steps involved that really help develop the flavor of the soup. You could always keep it warm in a crockpot though!
it’s delicious. . I’m 67yrs old first time making patatoe soup. came out so good
Wow! Very good flavor. Perfect for the below zero weather!
Just made this and She’s a keeper. I added a whole teaspoon each of cayenne pepper and pepper and although it’s not terribly hot, I think I’ll halve that next time. Smooth and delicious.
Absolutely delicious! Best potato soup I’ve had!
Yummmmm
Great soup ! We really enjoyed it. We like our soup chunky and we skipped the blending part. The potatoes break down on their own as well.
This is the best soup I have ever eaten. My family loved it as well. I have made it four times since I downloaded the recipe last month.
MAKE THIS MASTERPIECE POTATO SOUP❣️ 11 STARZ🥰
The two of us ate nearly half of it in one sitting.🫣😜
I peeled the taters night before and submerged them in cold water and refrigerated overnight to save time. I used some Jimmy Dean bacon, which I won’t buy again, because the browning was uneven. The butter,onion, garlic smelled delicious, but will look kinda brown from the bacon bits n grease. When I added potato’s next, I liked stirring them with the pot ingredients BEFORE adding wet ingredients. Flavor was all over those taters. I found the ANCHO chili powder at Ingles and used 1tsp. as Sam suggested. I almost had a HEART ATTACK after putting in 1 tsp of pepper tho. When I tasted it, all I tasted was pepper😲…but somehow it cooks down and mellows out. Trust the pepper.
I had an IMMERSION MIXER ,which made that part so simple….But instead of trying to put that hot liquid in a mixer, if you just use a slotted spoon and get several potato pieces you could squish them with a fork and mash them really good & drop em back in the pot. Same thing. It’ll thicken just fine.
Soups are normally so much better next day…but this one was OUTSTANDING the day of.
*I paired it with Jesus bread… CHEF’S KISS.💋
SAM, you are brilliant.
Thank you thank you thank you🫶
1/4 tsp of ancho….sorry…I couldn’t correct it OR edit in original review. It was 1 tsp of SALT tho….
This soup…Chefs 💋
I just drooled thinking about it. It’s BANGING❣️❣️❣️
OUTSTANDING! Michelin star restaurant quality! I followed the recipe exactly as written but I did add a bit of smoked paprika since I didn’t have ancho chili (just regular chili powder). It was amazing!
Think I can substitute russet potatoes? I have an abundance of them.
You sure can! Enjoy 😊
This recipe is a staple in our home. my daughter asks for this all the time! the ancho chili powder really does bring a whole new level to this soup. Thank you for sharing!
This is one of my go to favorite recipes for potato soup! Comfort food on cold or rainy days.
We are so happy to hear it, Kathryn! Thanks for the review 🩷