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!
Excellent recipe! Husband loved it! 😍
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it, Susan! 🙂
Great
Absolutely love this recipe! But I do have a question. If I don’t have milk, can I substitute the two cups of milk for half and half instead? Saves me from going to the grocery store!
Hi Maddie! That should work fine. The soup will probably even be a little creamier. 🙂
Omg this recipe was amazing !!!! Thanks
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Thresa! 🙂
Delicious and easy to make! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Janet! 🙂
This recipe is amazing!!
I used truffle salt when I added the salt. Added another layer of flavor. But it would be absolutely amazing if I had used regular salt.
Yum! Love the sound of the truffle salt! Thank you so much for commenting and letting me know how it turned out, I appreciate it! 🙂
Just made the potato soup Fantastic!!
Omg this recipe is simple and amazing. This is a keeper and my son who doesn’t like soup actually loves this. This is a must try and your family and friends will not regret it. Thank you and this is better than subway’s.
I am so glad that everyone enjoyed it, Sophia! Thank you for trying my recipe. 🙂
I do not have ancho chili what can I use instead?
Hi Heidi! You can substitute regular chili powder or leave it out.
I didn’t have ancho chili powder either, so I used a couple of dashes of cayenne pepper and it was SO good!
Today is my first time to make this recipe and all I can say is: Yummy!😋
This is the best recipe that I have ever used for Potato soup.
Thank you for sharing.
JoNell Robbins
I am so glad that you enjoyed it, JoNell! Thank you for trying my recipe. 🙂
This is the first time making potato soup and I used your recipe. It was absolutely delicious! I made a double recipe so I can drop some off with my Dad and my fiancé. I will be using this recipe again. I wanted to ask you if the soup can be frozen?
I am so glad that you loved the soup, Kathy! I hope that your loved ones do too! Unfortunately, I do not reccomend freezing it as the potatoes will become too mushy. 🙁
Just made it and I love it
I am so glad that you loved the soup, Brenda! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Just made this potato soup. It was absolutely comforting and delicious!
I am so glad that you enjoyed the soup, Brenda. I am glad that it made for the perfect comfort food. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Just made this potato soup. It is absolutely comforting and delicious! I also added a little more seasoning and heavy cream.
This was delicious, very flavorful!! Only thing I did different was purée about 3 cups because I like it chunky. I definitely recommend this recipe. Thank you for sharing 🙏
I am so glad that you enjoyed the soup, DeeAnna! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Today is my second time making this recipe… the first time I follow recipe exactly and we loved it. Today I’m changing a few things. Since we have leftover ham from Mother’s Day dinner I made my own ham broth and used that instead of chicken broth. And then the bacon in the soup(still frying some for the topping) I subbed for tiny bits of the said leftover ham. We love it both ways just depending on what we have in the house!
I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe and that you were able to make adjustments to use the ingredients you had on hand the second time around, Katlynn. I am happy both ways turned out so well and everyone loved it. Thanks for commenting. 🙂