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!
Oh My Goooooosh!! This soup is legit the best I’ve ever had! All the kids loved it too which is a plus!
Van you use russet? I have so many left after Thanksgiving.
I love potato soup and this is one of the best ones I have ever made. It was delicious. My family loved it. I will definitely make it again and again.
I’m so thrilled to hear this, Cathy! Thank you so much for trying my recipe and letting me know how it turned out for you, I hope you find even more recipes on my website that you love just as much!!
I made this soup using a combination of red potatoes and goldens as that was what I had on hand. It was amazingly delicious! The combination of cream and sour cream was perfect.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Perfectly delicious and so satisfying in this cold drizzly weather. This recipe needed no tweaking. Just 2 of us. Made the whole thing. Have lots of leftovers!
Can this be made gluten/dairy free?
Hi Jenny! I think you could swap the flour for cornstarch (maybe use just 4 Tbsp) and the milk for a non-dairy milk like a nut milk. However, the heavy cream and sour cream are throwing me a bit as to how to properly substitute those. I’m hoping perhaps someone else can chime in regarding how these could best be substituted!
Delicious! I’m lactose intolerant and used Lactaid 2% Milk, Organic Valley lactose free butter & Sour Cream & Lactose free heavy cream! I skipped the cheddar cheese, but there is dairy free cheddar out there also! Great recipe!
I have been using this recipe for years. It’s delicious. You don’t need to make any changes to this recipe – it’s perfect as is.
I’m so thrilled to hear this, Nana! Thank you so much for trying and trusting my recipe, and for letting me know how it turned out for you! I really appreciate it!!
One of the BEST soups ever. We are obsessed in my house. I’m not much of a soup person but do love a nice creamy soup with some warm sourdough bread for dipping. Very easy to make.
Hello can’t wait to try this recipe tonight! Is there a reason I need to peel the potatoes, or is it just for aesthetic/color? I like the nutrition the peels provide and I’m also lazy.
Thanks in advance!
Hi Autumn! I hope you love the soup! Thank you for trying my recipe! If you’re using thin-skinned gold potatoes as written you should be fine to leave the peel on. The soup may look a bit “dirtier” because the flecks of peel won’t completely be blended, but personally it wouldn’t bother me too much. If you were substituting a different potato like a russet I would not leave the peel on. 🙂
Looking forward to using this recipe for an early Christmas get together event with kids and grandkids.
This sounds amazing and simple.
I will update after tomorrow
I hope you and the family love it, Deborah! Can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks! 🙂
I have chipotle chili powder and hot Mexican-style chili powder on hand. Can either of those be used as a substitute for an o chili powder?
Hi Kelly! They won’t provide quite the same flavor, but if you like the flavor of those, it will work. I’m not sure how spicy they are so the amount you use will be a personal preference. 🙂
this recipe is delicious! and really easy to make. I didn’t use a blender or anything for mine because I like a lot of chunk in my potato soup, so I just used my potato masher and it came out perfect for what I like. I’ve made this recipe a few times and tonight I added sliced kielbasa sausage (pan fried a bit) when I added the bacon and sour cream. I highly recommend trying that topped with sharp cheddar and some green onion 🙂
WOW!
100% five star recipe! It is so delicious and probably one of the best I’ve ever made! Easy and simple. I couldn’t be happier in finding this recipe. Highly recommend. I was out of chicken broth so I used turkey broth, oddly enough, I think that added in the most amazing flavor! I was also out of sour cream, and I used the same proportion of plain yogurt! It came out fantastic.
This Is The Best Soup 5 +Stars
Absolutely the best !!
This is the best potato soup I’ve ever made! Flavorful, great texture, just yummy!