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.
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Bravo perfection!
Made it with skin-on red potatoes and this is the best potato soup I’ve ever eaten! I didn’t change a single thing in this recipe, it’s perfect as is! Thank you!!!!
I made this last night and it’s the best I’ve ever made!!! i can see why it had so many 5 start ratings! any chance you have a crock pot version of this recipe?
We’re so happy you enjoyed it so much Diana! We don’t have a crock pot version, but you can certainly prep the soup and keep it warm in the crockpot 🥰
Out of this world delicious.
We’re so happy you enjoyed it so much, Kyndall!
I followed this recipe to the letter and OMG! it is by far THE BEST potato soup I’ve ever had! Im a novice cook an and had no issue putting this together. It’s so thick a creamy, you could hang wallpaper with it! :0 on to the next!
I made this with half stick of butter instead of milk and cream. (I’m slightly lactose intolerant) It came out delicious. Thank you!
We’re so happy you were able to adapt the recipe to your needs, Ruby! Enjoy 😊
How long can I keep leftover soup in frig?
It should be good in the refrigerator for 4 days. 🙂
I forgot to buy the heavy cream. Can I just increase the amount of milk?
Hi Kim! The soup will be much thinner. You could use all milk, but I would probably reduce it slightly so the soup isn’t too thin. 🙂
Thank you for the recipe! I didn’t use the sour cream, and I added a partial bag of frozen mixed vegetables. I put the veg’s in a bit too soon so I used a potato masher instead of an immersion blender. Left out the ancho chili and topped with bacon instead of stirring it in.
Served with grated cheese, chopped green onion, and a big pan of East Texas cornbread. Heaven!
This was so amazing my boyfriend loved it
Can I make this and keep it warm in a crockpot for about 3 hours before serving?
Sure thing! It will thicken as it sits so you may need to stir in a little extra cream or milk shortly before serving. 🙂
This looks delicious! Any thoughts on what i can substitute the flour for? I have a wheat allergy.
Hi Amber! You can use a 1:1 gluten free flour substitute. 🙂
Great Recipe – Easy, was delicious as is with cheddar and the bacon on top.
We also used it as an easy clam chowder base – added two cans of minced clams with the clam juice and adjusted seasonings to taste, no additional cheese or sour cream.
We also liked the texture and used a potato masher or very limited immersion blender
Thanks very much
Can I use sausages instead of bacon?
It will change the flavor a bit, but it should work. 🙂
Made the soup, and kind of just winged it off the recipe. Delicious! Didn’t add a bunch of bacon, and forgot the chives.
Will russet potatoes work for this recipe?
Yes they will. 🙂
I made this potato soup for my husband and he loved loved loved it! I followed your recipe to the T. Wow! What an amazingly flavorful creamy yummy soup. I pureed about half with an immersion blender as I also prefer chunks of potato. I’ve never made potato soup before but I have had other versions made by people and although theirs was good, yours is stellar! This is a new staple for cold months at my house. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. We will enjoy it for years to come.
Unbelievably good and perfect in single digit temperatures on a snowy day
I did add a little Cumin, so delicious.