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!
It is always a pleaser.
Excellent soup! My husband loves it!
Thank you!
Just made this tonight!!! Wow!!!? delicious !! I followed the recipe as you said to do!!! Shared with my friend!! I had sourdough rolls with it! Sour cream was wonderful in it! Thank you so much! Will be sure to make it again!! Wish I could give it ten stars. You are my go to for all my recipes!!! Thanks again!! Sheilakaye
I LOVE this recipe and so does my family! But I want to make it tonight’s and only have russet potatoes… will that work just the same?
Hi Stacia! It will work just fine with russets. Enjoy!
Loved it!! Made this for my son because he remembers his grandma making it when he was little. I don’t have her recipe, but I made yours and it was absolutely delicious.
So glad our recipe hit the spot, Christine! Thanks for the review 🩷
Delicious! My family loved it so much they asked me to make it again!
We’re so happy it was such a hit, Annie! 🩷
I use canned evaporated milk instead of cream and a large package of cream cheese instead of sour cream It comes out thick with out adding any flour. I cook onion and celery in butter until soft, add chicken stock and cream cheese stir until melted then add cooked potatos and evaporated milk as needed. You c an top with bacon and chives and cheddar cheese as individuals desire.
This soup was amazing! The only thing i added was freshly shredded cheddar about a cup and a half! This was absolutely delicious! Thank you for a great recipe!
was the 2/3 cups of sour cream just toppings or does that get added when cooking it?
Hi Jessica! You will want to add the sour cream in step 9.
My family loves this recipe. I have 3 kids under 5 that love this for lunch or dinner. We made a couple of changes to the recipe which is to mix the bacon into the soup and to leave out the sour cream. My husband and I dont really like sour cream, so for us, it was too overpowering in the soup. Leaving the sour cream out has made the perfect soup for us.
Delicious 🤤
Can you freeze leftovers?
We typically don’t recommend freezing this soup because it could separate as it thaws 🙁
Fantastic!
I love this soup on a cold day!!
It’s cold weather comfort food for sure! Enjoy, Linda 😊
Made this soup many times. Very good soup.
So glad it’s a hit for you, Diane! 🩷
I just made this for the fam after several days of Christmas leftovers. We were craving something different and this hit the spot. I added some leftover ham to the recipe. Yum!
This potato recipe is exquisite at the end of the blending of the soup. I add a couple cups of extra sharp cheddar cheese and it melts right in making it a cheesy extra creamy potato soup and it is so delicious! thank you for this recipe. I have made this now multiple times for my family and it is our favorite potato soup!
Made it exactly as written and it was superb. I didn’t even add the toppings. What great flavor.
Do you think it would still be amazing if I don’t puree it at all?
Hi Stephanie! It won’t be as thick, but yes, it will still taste delicious. 🙂
I’ve been making this recipe for nearly 10 years and don’t puree at all. It is the best potato soup recipe I’ve come across. My compliments to the creator!
It really is so delicious!
I usually use instant potatoes to thicken my potato soup, adding a little bit at a time till you get the right consistency.