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!
Just love this resipe & it’s delicious & simple to make. thanks for it.
Hi Sam, I will be making this potato soup for dinner tomorrow night. I’m super excited! I know it’s going to be good because I have used so MANY of your recipes and they are always AWESOME! Thanks Lady I’ll let you know how it turns out. Tina
Phenomenal! Served to friends who just had a baby and it was the perfect meal. Thank you!
We’re so happy it was a hit! Thanks for using our recipe Jennie 🩷
I’ve made this soup at least a dozen times and it is the absolute, hands down best recipe. Filling without being too heavy, perfect amount of bacon flavor and the ancho chili powder gives it just the right amount of kick. It’s also simple and budget friendly.
Thank you so much for the kind review, Megan! We are so happy the recipe is such a hit for you 🥰
If I half the ingredients would that work? It’s a bit too much soup for me as I live alone and my pot can only hold so much :’)
Hi Toby! That should work just fine. I’m glad you enjoy it. 🙂
I’ve made this once before, without adjustments, and it was great! This time around, I had a hankering for ham and potato soup. I cut up a bunch of ham (sorry, I didn’t measure!) and some bacon bits. Removed like the recipe said to. I used red pepper flakes instead of the chili powder. Everything was the same, but then I threw in about a cup of finely shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese. After that, the recipe stayed the same. It’s reeeeaaallllly good!
That sounds delicious, Beth! Thanks for sharing 🩷
Best potato soup recipe!! My kids love it
Hands down the BEST potato soup recipe!! My family loves it and wants to have it at all family dinners! Thanks so much for sharing!
Just a quick question. Can I sub the milk for lactose free milk? My wife loves potato soup but has issues with it as she is lactose intolerant.
Hi James! I haven’t personally tried it. I think it could work, but your soup may be a bit thinner.
Yes, you can use lactose free milk. I used the 2% Lactaid milk and it came out delicious!
Can you make it without the sour cream?
Hi Stephanie! It’s going to change the flavor and texture of the soup. If you don’t have sour cream available I would use full fat greek yogurt. That being said, I have had other commenters report the soup still being good when omitting the sour cream. Enjoy! 🙂
I made this recipe for the first time and it turned out amazingly delicious! it’s like something that would be served at a nice restaurant.
We are so happy you enjoyed it so much, Linda! We appreciate you coming back to leave a review 🩷
hi. can I double this recipe?
Sure thing! 🙂
Do I remove half 1st or boil for 30 minutes then I remove half to pre-read
I’ve been looking for a good potato soup recipe and have been unsuccessful, until now. This recipe is so good! It reminded me of the soup I used to eat at my favorite restaurant that closed down a few years ago.The only think I did differently was use real bacon bits instead of bacon strip, but it turned out so good. I would highly recommend this recipe.
This is so good! I make it often
We are so happy our recipe is such a hit for you, Valerie! 🩷
Excellent recipe. I added a diced carrot and 1 sweet potato.
Absolutely delicious!
My wife was always buying premade potato soup and it was quite expensive. I made this recipe for her and she couldn’t believe how much better it was, In fact she said it was the best she’d ever ate. I’ve made this a dozen times now and it’s always never disappoints. The ancho chili powder is a nice touch. Thank you for this recipe.