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 used chipotle chili powder instead!! Amazing!!
I love this soup! Perfect for fall. So hearty and comforting. I do add some sliced celery with the potatoes, just to add a little extra to the flavor.
Great recipe!!! Will make again!!
Everybody likes potato soup tweaked to their own particular tastes. I might put a little less sour cream in it b/c my husband thinks he doesn’t like it, (even though it’s in a lot of recipes he loves) or leave out the cheese, but your recipe is my “go to” every time. It’s really a perfect blend. Thank you. 😊
I substitute fresh potatoes for frozen ones and it is soooo delicious. It’s football season and this is the most requested thing I make. It never disappoints. Thanks for an awesome recipe.
This was absolutely delish! Only thing I changed was adding 1/2 of the shredded cheese to the soup to blend, and then sprinkled cheese on top after serving.
Incredible
This was not a quick soup to make but it’s definitely rich and satisfying.. BIG YUM!
When I chopped the potatoes I actually measured 1-inch chunks and they were pretty big. It also took quite a while longer to get them tender. Next time I’m going to aim for about 1/2-inch chunks which should lessen the cooking time and make prettier little bites.
Pureeing part of the soup is brilliant! The blended part made a thick silky base nice to look at as well as to eat and plenty thick enough to support the unblended pieces.
At that step I started tasting and went to work on the flavor which seemed bland. That could be from my using Morton’s reduced sodium “lite” salt so I added a little more. Still a little too bland (for my taste) so I added some onion powder and a Tablespoon of chicken bouillon granules and stirred very very well.
I used five really big golden russet potatoes and I’m wondering if one or two too many potatoes threw the seasoning off a little. I should have weighed the potatoes before I started peeling them. Next time I will!
Thank you for publishing your delicious recipe. There will be a retry and I’ll be more careful with all those taters!
some of the best potato soup ever!
So good I used half and half instead of heavy whipping cream and added like 2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese
OH. MY. GOSH. my favorite potato soup is from a restaurant in the midwest called 54th street. I kid you not this is an exact dupe for that. INCREDIBLE. my only change was adding the white part of green onion to onions at beginning + extra black pepper
Amazing, my family loves!
We love hearing that, Sally! Enjoy 🙂
2nd time making this recipe 😋 YUMMY
Excellent recipe. ( Even better the next day.). We added some cut up cooked white chicken and it was so good! Thank you so much!
Yum! So glad you enjoyed, Cheryl 🩷
This was delicious! It is my go to potato soup recipe. The only thing I did different was to use 3 2/3 cups of 1/2 and 1/2 instead of whole milk and heavy cream. My husband ate 3 bowls, then took a nap!!!
We are so happy you both enjoyed the soup so much, Laurie 🙂
Taste like you’re eating heaven