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!
Can I use a substitute for the sour cream? More heavy cream?
Hi Shelly! You could use plain greek yogurt here. You could use a little bit of cream cheese cut into cubes and stirred in. The sour cream adds a nice depth of flavor and texture, but the soup should still be pretty tasty without it. 🙂
I once had to make my own sour cream (because I realized after I started that I was out) using heavy cream and lemon juice. It worked like a charm and the consistency was exactly like sour cream
Can I freeze this
I don’t really recommend it. I’m afraid the heavy cream might separate out. 🙂
hi
i love it and i try think how make small one becasue this batch make more but i love it and i eat twice. and full sotmach. and drink soda. yummmy.
Excellent better than I expected.
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Gloria! 🙂
I am going to try your recipe for potato soup but if you ever want to try an alternate potato soup that is good also, use fresh group pepper (a LOT), make it using a hamhock or leftover ham bone, just boil the bone for about 45 min with onions, salt, pepper and garlic and add the potatoes about 30 min after you start cooking the ham bone and add the milk and cream just like yours. I put sour cream in mine also. But I never have used chicken stock, just water, milk, cream and bacon or ham. Otherwise, your recipe is almost identical to mine. Oh, and I use a LOT of black pepper, but I am going to try with the chili powder. I got my recipe from my mom, who made it in the depression style, as they didn’t have a lot during that period.
That sounds like a great recipe, Cheryl! I will have to try it some time. 🙂
I’ve made this recipe twice now! Perfect for a cold rainy day and very simple to follow. My husband & love this recipe, definitely added to our saved recipes list! Thank you😊
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Alexys! 🙂
The BEST recipe! My family is raving about this and I’m typically a terrible cook! Thank you!!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Kim! 🙂
I have this soup cooking on the stove. Can’t wait until it is done. I was wondering what immersion blender you use. I searched this page and didn’t see a link. Do you mind sharing which one you use?
Hi Jeanette! I just added a links into the post right above the instructions so you can see the exact one I use. 🙂
Amazing, soup. Flavorful with a velvety smooth texture!!
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Levi! 🙂
Just made this for my grandma and her eyes lit up. Amazing!!!!! Thanks so much for sharing. My new go to potato soup! ❤️❤️
I am so glad she enjoyed it so much, Bernadette! 🙂
Absolutely love this! Made it tonight for dinner. Did not have Ancho so used Chipotle powder, and then threw is some sharp cheddar. Totally did not need the cheese mixed in but man it was tasty. Super recipe, thank you!!
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Jen! 🙂
It was super delicious!! 🙂 I didn’t have garlic and my husband is allergic to onions so I use 3 tsp of garlic powder and a heaping tsp on onion powder. Definitely will make again!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it, Bri! 🙂
It was amazing!!! My family and neighbors enjoyed it greatly!! It feed a whole family and then some!!!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Kristen! 🙂
Rave reviews from my entire family! This has been our go-to recipe for potato soup. I haven’t been disappointed in any of your recipes! Thank you for sharing them. I feel like a 5 star chef after all the compliments! ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Jennifer! It’s a nice feeling when everyone compliments your cooking. 🙂
This was delicious, and it had to be made after learning my boyfriend had gone his entire life potato soupless. His grin, thumbs up, and high fives validated all of the prep work, which did take a while. Tips: Learn from my mistake and start doing most of the prep work after you’ve started the bacon – it takes a while to crisp up, so you’ve got time. Use a big cauldron-y pot because this yields a lot of soup. I used a slotted spoon to fish out half the potatoes and mashed them with a fork in a bowl in lieu of the blender, and it worked very well. Bonuses: It had a divine texture, and it yielded plenty of left overs. Warning: I did find that some of the potatoey-bacon flavor were buried beneath the milky/creamy flavor, so I loaded it up with more bacon bits right before serving. If you don’t have more bacon bits already in your refrigerator, I would think about cooking up a few more strips of bacon for toppings. The chives and cheese were a must. Bravo!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Sarah! 🙂
Awesome recipe! My husband called it “restaurant quality.” I didnt have ancho for this time, but I am looking forward to trying it next time. Thanks!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Marie! 🙂
Ok, this soup is the truth!! I added 2 sliced stalks of celery, didnt have any heavy cream so I left it out, I used russet potatoes, and all I had was regular chili powder so I added 1/2 tsp of that. Everything else stayed the same and OMG its delicious!!! The soup itself tastes cheesy without any cheese. Its so creamy and perfect.. yummmm!!
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Jamie! 🙂
Wow this is so good. My boyfriend and his whole family loved it.
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Hali! 🙂