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 made it tonight minus the heavy cream amd it didn’t make a difference at all. It was spoon licking good and is now part of my recipe box. Thanks!
I am so glad you enjoyed it! ☺️
I made this tonight but instead of using a blender I just took a spoon and mashed them up while in the pot still. It was AMAZING!!! My 6 year old even said how great it was, definitely going to make this again.
Great idea! I am so glad you enjoyed it! ☺️
If you don’t have a blender, try a potato masher. Should give same effect
I was wondering if I have to puree it at all being that I don’t have a blender?
You don’t have to puree it. It just won’t be as creamy but it won’t affect the taste. ☺️
I used a potato masher to mash it a little and worked perfectly!
Best homemade potato soup I have ever made. Your reipe got high 5’s from my entire family 🙂
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it! ☺️
I made this soup to die for but instead of pureeing the potatoes I added cheese to thicken it up and also beef cubes so it was steak and potato soup. It was awesome.
I am so glad you enjoyed it! I will have to try it that way. ☺️
Hi Sam…thanks for sharing. I can’t wait to try this soup for my Friendsgiving dinner in a few weeks. Can you tell me about how many one batch would feed? I’m feeding four couples and wonder if I should double the recipe..? Thank you so much!!!
This recipe should feed about 6 people. I think everyone is going to love it and go back for seconds so better make it a double batch. 😉
Awesome…that sounds great Sam! Thanks again and I can’t wait to make it!!
Great texture! Too much garlic though. I was questioning garlic as we don’t put it on our baked potato..so I used two large cloves and it was too much. Everything else about it was great as we ate all of it.
Can I omit the chili powder? I am looking forward to make this soup for my husband this week!!
You can leave it out, there will just be a subtle difference in flavor. ☺️
I have been home recovering with 2 broke legs. I was hungry for some potato soup. I pulled up recipes online. Yours was the one that came up. I made it and it is ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!! Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.
I’m so sorry to hear about your bad luck… At least you enjoyed the soup! ☺️
I tried this recipe today and it’s great!
Great texture, great taste! My whole family loved it!!
I am so glad you enjoyed it! ☺️
Can I freeze the left overs? This is the best potato soup I’ve had and really want to prep an extra pot of it.
My only concern is that the cream might separate after being frozen and then thawed.
Best potatoe soup I ever made. Thank you so much 🙂
So glad to hear you enjoyed! Thanks for commenting, Cynthia! 🙂
I made this tonight and it is ammmmaaazzzing. I’ve always wondered why some folks potato soup is so runny. The puree step definitely added the thickness I like in a potato soup. Thank you for this awesome recipe!
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Jamie! ☺️
Can I use red potatoes instead?
I think that should work.