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).
]
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 ¾″ 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 ¼ 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
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
Recommended Equipment
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
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Suzanne
Delicious, even without the ancho chili powder. This will be my go to recipe for comfort soup.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Suzanne! 🙂
roselyn
Easy easy easy ! So delicious and kid approved ! Also I sub milk for unsweetened almond milk( since I didn’t have regular milk in hand) still tasted awesome.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Roselyn! 🙂
Eulyla
Excellent!!!
AWS
I made this a year ago for a pot luck soup lunch and it was the first to go empty! I could overheat people saying that potato soup was the best! When older southern ladies are asking you a young woman for your recipe, you know it’s good!! As a note, we have a pork allergy in the house so I didn’t start with the bacon and just added a pinch extra salt when tasting at the end and no one even knew. I did have bacon with the toppings as an option. Thanks for a great go to recipe. Thought about it today and making for my grandparents 😀
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much! 🙂
Julio
Just made it step by step and exactly as it is written and it was delicious!! How many days can the soup last in the fridge?
Thanks!
Sam
Hi Julio! I typically only keep it a few days in the refrigerator. 🙂
Lidia
Ok, so, I made this for my family the other night & my son who is a semi picky eater (isn’t fond of potatoes) was impressed… He absolutely loved it & asked for this to be made more often… That made me feel accomplished!!! Thank you so much!!!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Lidia! 🙂
Nicki L Jones
I doubled the amount of flour to create the creamy texture without blendong a portion. It worked great.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Nicki! 🙂
Leonard Charlebois
Fantastic soup, my wife and I are ranting and raving about it. It ended up that I puréed the entire thing because I didn’t read the recipe thoroughly enough lol. Thank you for sharing.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Leonard! 🙂
dennis e jackman
I made it as described and it was quite good. I thought the soup a bit thick and rich for my taste however, so if I make it again I would use half the cream and sour cream and puree only 10-20% of the potatoes. Even more bacon might be a good idea also.
Marlene Benitez
So this is A serving of 6, so how would I make it if I just wanted to serve three people?
Sam
Hi Marlene! You will just want to cut the recipe in half. 🙂
audreytipton137@gmail.com
Trying to control myself from eating all the bacon 😬🤣 already tastes amazing can’t wait for it to be done, waiting for potatoes to get finished to puree half yummy in the tummy:) hope family likes it tonight ♥️
Sam
🤣 I have to try to make it when my husband isn’t around or else half of the bacon goes missing! 🤣 I hope everyone loves it. 🙂
Ronda
I have made many potato soup recipes but I have to say this is the the best I have ever made and don’t plan on trying any others from this point. Thank you! My family and I just love it!!!!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Ronda! 🙂
Jessica
Can I add carrots and celery to this recipe and when should i add them. With the potatoes?
Sam
Hi Jessica! That would be fine. 🙂
Stacy M Wilson
I am curious if this would freeze well. Should I freeze before adding the cream and milk or do you think it would freeze well complete?
Sam
Hi Stacy! I would be worried the cream would separate out when you go to freeze it. 🙁
Stacy M Wilson
That was my thought too. I am going to freeze the base without the cream and milk and add it when I am ready to serve it. Thanks for such a great recipe and for being so responsive to my question.
Sam
I’d love to know how it works out! 🙂
Linda Swoveland
I pureed everything once cooked, for some reason my palate just cant tolerate chunks of potato in anything, please nary a lump in my mashed potatoes!
I didn’t use any type of milk in this recipe, I used extra chicken broth. But it was amazingly delicious!
I’m one that never follows a recipe to the letter, I change and substitute to suit my palate.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Linda! 🙂