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 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.
Shelby
Delicious! Added chicken the second time just to make a little heartier for my hubs !
Emily
I made this exactly as the recipe indicated and it is SO GOOD! Currently making another batch and will add pot roast to the top. 🤤
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you love it, Emily! That sounds tasty 😋
Barb
so easy to make and very delicious. I used smoked paprika instead of ancho because I didn’t have ancho. Making it for the second time for a soup potluck and always get asked for the recipe. thank you for sharing this gem with us!
Casey @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you enjoyed it Barb! Thanks for leaving a review!
Jill
This recipe is fabulous. It’s now my go to. I never had the ancho chili powder so I always use regular chili powder and it works great. I’ve also started to add chopped carrots in after the garlic and let it sit for a few minutes. Then continue with the recipe. After blending I add canned or fresh corn.
Fabulous recipe. Look forward to trying out some other recipes of yours as well!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy this one is a hit for you Jill! Let us know if you try any of our other recipes 😊
Lorraine McGee
My go to Potato soup. I have made many times. Once I blended cottage cheese and milk together, cause I was out of heavy cream and. or half and half.and it was Still Amazing. Thank you!
Sarah
Family favorite! We add chunks of ham. Such a great recipe. Thanks for sharing!!
Raymond
I have a leek I need to use up. Can I substitute that for the onion?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sure! Just make sure to rinse your leeks really well beforehand since they tend to be dirty–we provide instructions for this in our potato leek soup recipe 😊
Skip
Just finished the soup it is excellent couldn’t be better.
Casey @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you loved it, Skip!🙂
Ashlee E Daniel
How much cheddar cheese did you use?
Olivia O'Clair
So good!! Easy recipe and tastes amazing!!
Casey @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Olivia! So glad you enjoyed it!
Nicholas John Cullen
I’ve got a whole bunch (20) of previously baked potatoes – I’m thinking about trying this out but because they’re already baked thoroughly I may skip the pureeing entirely and just let the heat down the work. probably freeze the rest as they are. and use for another future recipe.
Angela Renfro
Super amazing soup !! We’ve made this twice and it’s better than any potato soup we’ve had. The second time, we hand mashed the potatoes rather than using a blender and liked the texture better that way. We’ll never buy baked potato soup in s restaurant again! Yum and thanks!!
Casey @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you enjoyed it so much, Angela!
nora
can this be frozen?
Casey @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Nora, I would be hesitant to freeze it as it could separate when frozen.
Denise
DELICIOUS! Everyone in my family loves this soup.
Jessica
Could I use Russets instead?
Sam
Yes 🙂
Kaye
Creamy indulgent soup! Will make again but with a little less pepper for our taste. Wonderful for a splurge day.
Jay
Ur potato soup is absolutely amazing, high class restaurant quality, It makes me look like I’m a gourmet chef when I have people over, thank you so much for the fantastic recipe 👍👍👍👍
Patty Jones
This is wonderful!! I’ve made it many times now. Everyone in family/extended family loves it. So easy to prepare. Serve it with homemade bread mm mmm
E B
This soup was very simple to make. I am gluten intolerant and missed eating potato soup. Cooking the potatoes in the broth was a definite wow moment. The potatoes were perfect. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. I will be making it again