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’m currently making this recipe, I don’t have any gold potatoes or russet potatoes still work?
Hi Holly! My mom makes this with russet potatoes often and never complains, so that should be fine 🙂 I hope you enjoy the potato soup!
Since I am not the greatest cook, I followed the instructions exactly. This turned out so good- like gourmet! Thanks for the recipe and the step by step directions.
I’m so glad to hear the soup was such a success for you, Linda! Thank you so much for commenting and letting me know how it turned out 🙂
Really delicious soup! Tasted more rich as each day passed…True comfort food!
Thank you so much, David! I am so glad that you enjoyed the potato soup. 🙂
I had a few GLUTEN FREE guests in my Soup Saturday winter horse riding group and worried about how to thicken it without the flour. I made some changes to my double batch for fear of it being too thin. I didn’t use flour or any other thickening ingredient. I boiled about 6 large russet potatoes along with 2.5# of large red potatoes. I added the onion/butter/bacon fat right into the potatoes that were boiled in the chicken broth. Once I started to puree ladles of soup, adding it back to the pot, it thickened up nicely without any kind of thickener. The more I pureed the soup, the thicker it got. With my worry about getting the soup thick without flour, I added my milk and heavy cream to total two cups for the double batch along with only 2/3 cup sour cream. However, added it after pureeing. I still have a fair amount of chunks of potatoes in the soup. I split the black pepper to 1/2 fine and 1/2 course ground, just for looks. I didn’t have the ancho chili but added a 1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper to taste (Not too much. I like it with just a hint of heat) . I reserved all the bacon for topping. However, I think adding some diced ham off the bone would also really be good. Thanks for this great recipe. It’ll be a great warmer upper after our ride today here at Winterhore Park in Eagle, Wisconsin.
Thank you so much for sharing your detailed process for anyone else who may be looking for a gluten-free option. I wish you all the best during your ride and hope that everyone enjoys the soup, Barb! 🙂
Delicious! Will be making this soup again soon
Thank you so much for commenting, Julie, I am so glad that you enjoyed the potato soup. 🙂
I loved the soup, I did drain most of the bacon fat and added carrots. Turned out wonderful!
I am so glad that you enjoyed the potato soup, Cheryl! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
I want to make this, but hate sour cream. do you think it will turn out fine without the sour cream?
Hi, Jessica! There is so much flavor in this soup, you can’t really taste the sour cream, however, others have omitted it and had success. Either way, I hope that you enjoy it! 🙂
Do u use the fat from the bacon also or no
Hi, Bri! Yes, you want to leave the bacon fat in the pot (refer to step one). I hope that you enjoy the potato soup! 🙂
Tastes a lot better then another recipe i have tried that calls for cream of chicken soup. This one is my new fave! I added carrots to this, and waited til its in the bowl to add the sour cream and bacon, since my husband doesn’t like sour cream, tastes great plain as well.
I am so glad that you found a new go-to potato soup recipe, Sara! Thank you so much for commenting. 🙂
I’m making this today! Just wondering is it possible to make this in the crockpot?? I want to get it started now and let it cook slowly while I finish all the rest of my errands today before my husband gets home.
Hi, Sammy! I have never made this fully in the crockpot, only transferred it to keep warm. If you try it, let me know how it turns out. I hope that you enjoy the potato soup. 🙂
I did exactly the way I knew recipe you got a thumbs up
So glad you enjoyed the potato soup, David! 🙂
I made this last night and will definitely be making it again! My whole family loved it, including my soup hating kids. So glad I found something my whole family will eat! Thanks for the recipe! (I followed the recipe exactly, except that I substituted chili powder and red pepper for ancho chili powder.)
When you find something everyone one will eat is a VICTORY! I am so glad that your family enjoyed the potato soup, Colleen! Thank you so much for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Can I freeze the potato soup?
Hi, Candyce! I don’t usually recommend it, as it will be mushy when reheated. 🙁
This was DELICIOUS! I used the whole slab of bacon though—oops and took out some of the bacon fat. I also added about a cup of cheddar directly to the soup. That chili powder makes all the difference in the world! Thank you for the recipe <3
That is wonderful, Julie! I am so glad that the potato soup turned out amazing! Enjoy! 🙂
I made this for my husband, I was worried because I only had real bacon bits and not regular bacon but it turned out wonderful!! I am making it again today with the bacon and I’m excited to see how it is! thank you so much for sharing this recipe. It is a huge hit!
I am so glad that you enjoyed the potato soup, Alyssa! Keep me posted on how this next batch turns out. 🙂
The second batch was amazing!! And I doubled it. Thank you so much again! 😁
That is wonderful, Alyssa! I am so glad! 🙂
This was awesome, exactly what I wanted. I doubled the bacon but followed everything else exact and it was delicious!
Doubled the bacon? My husband wishes I would do that! lol. I am so glad that you enjoyed the potato soup, Misty! 🙂