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!
Tried this for the first time trying to use up milk, heavy cream and baby red potatoes. Excellent- can I freeze it?
I am so glad that you enjoyed the soup, Desiree! Unfortunately, when frozen I find the soup turns mushy so I don’t reccomend it.
This is the best potato soup recipe ever!!!
I am so glad that you loved it, Penny! Thank you for commenting. 🙂
Can you double this?
Hi, Kerri! Yes, this recipe can easily be doubled. I hope that you enjoy it! 🙂
This is an awesome recipe. my wife said it was better than her mothers, and hers is really good.
I am so happy that your family loved the soup, Jason! Thank you so much for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Delicious thank you for sharing the recipe
I am so glad that you enjoyed the soup, Erika. Thank you for commenting. 🙂
Tried this recipe tonight for my sick husband, you know how they are 😉. I used small red potatoes with the skins on and it was delicious!
Your comment made me laugh, Hollie! I can relate all so well! I hope that this soup provided him comfort and that he feels better soon. Thanks for trying my recipe and for the good laugh. 😉
It was fantastic and everyone went back for seconds! Sooo yummy!
I am so happy to hear that everyone enjoyed the soup, Chrystal! Thank you so much for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Outstanding Recipe! I just made it, and it’s sooo good! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
I am so glad that you enjoyed the soup, Shelley! Thank you for commenting. 🙂
Oh my word….this recipe is wonderful!!! I had some left over smoked ham that I diced and added to the soup then used the bacon just as a topping. I think the addition of Sour Cream made all the difference. Very tasty and easy! Will surely make it again.
I am so glad that you enjoyed the potato soup, Kathy! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Hello, thank you for the delicious recipe 😊. I’m a vegetarian so didn’t include the bacon 🥓 lol but it was still yummy 😋
Yasi
Thank you for trying my recipe, Yasi! I am so glad that you enjoyed the potato soup! 🙂
Hello from Gensac, France. It’s a chilly rainy day so this will be perfect for supper with a fresh baguette! Thank you for the recipe.
Hello, Amy! Thank you for trying my potato soup recipe. I am so glad that it was the perfect comfort food on a chilly day. 🙂
OMG so good! Sent a picture to my adult kids and they are wanting me to make it for them when home again!
Thank you so much, Melanie! I am so glad that you enjoyed the potato soup. 🙂
Made this today and it was great! I ended up buying the Braun immersion blender and that made things very easy. I cooked this in the instant pot. I did an 8 minute high pressure cook after adding the potatoes. I wanted to make my soup cheesy. I added nacho cheese sauce after blending and adding sour cream. I got some ideas while doing this. I think I am going to try a cheddar broccoli soup using a modification of this recipe. Thanks Sam!
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Jarrod. I am happy to know that you were successful in making this in the instant pot. Stay tuned, later this week I will be releasing a broccoli cheddar soup that may interest you. 🙂
Hi, Jarrod! New on the blog today- Broccoli Cheddar Soup! Enjoy! 🙂
I don’t have heavy cream can I use half and half
Hi, Patti! Yes, you can, however, it will not be as creamy. I hope you enjoy the potato soup! 🙂
Absolutely my new dish for my UC flares. I omitted the bacon and heavy cream, just used my normal Lactose free Milk. I did add a bit of sour cream and cheddar cheese, perfect!
This recipe has been a god send since its hard to eat anything with my condition.
Thank you!!!
I am so glad that you could easily make adjustments to suit your needs, Lisa, and that it still turned out delicious. Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂