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 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.
Chainplate
I think that this recipe is extremely healthy. After all, it has three of the four of the major food groups: Cream, butter, cheese and eggs!
Sam
😂😂 Sounds about right to me!
Tonya
Easy and absolutely delicious
Sam
I’m so happy you enjoyed, Tonya! Thank you for trying my recipe! <3
Mariah
Can I cook with bacon bits if I do not have raw bacon? Also can I skip and/or substitute the heavy cream if I do not have?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Sam
Hi Mariah! Part of the flavor comes from the grease from the bacon but you could just add bacon bits at the end if you’d like. If you don’t have heavy cream you can use a milk. The soup will be a little thinner and not have quite as much flavor but it should still turn out. 🙂
Angela Stinar
absolutely excellent. great flavor, very very good
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Angela! 🙂
Nicole
Loved it! Turned our Fabulously Delicious and then it was gone! Very easy recipe to follow & Thanks for the Video also! My boys devoured this! Will definitely make again & again!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Nicole! 🙂
Amy
Very good! I did not have any heavy cream so I made it without. It turned out fine. I Puréed about 2/3 which was too much for my taste.
Easy to make with not too much mess. Thank you
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Amy! 🙂
Bri
Can I leave out the bacon and will it still be tasty?
Sam
Hi Bri! You can leave it out. You just lose a lot of flavor. I’m sure it will still be tasty. 🙂
Mimi
Can I use paprika in place of the chili powder?
Sam
Hi Mimi! You can use some but I wouldn’t use the same amount here. 🙂
Marycate
Would this be good to put in a crockpot on warm after making it on the stove??
Sam
That should work just fine. 🙂
Jennifer
Made this tonight and my picky eaters loved it too! I left the sour cream out for said picky child and just garnished with it for those of us that like it.
This made a ton of soup! I will freeze it for another cool night!
Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Jennifer! I would be worried about freezing it. The heavy cream may separate out.
Jennifer
Oops, 😂 I guess we’ll see! It’s already in the freezer.
Sam
Hopefully it will be ok!
Heathersmist
Exceptional taste! As you say, not exactly health food, hearts beware, but love will still be included!
I followed the recipe with the exceptions of using what I had on hand. The onions that I had (red and white), turkey bacon, and Aleppo pepper, along with smoked turkey broth from last Thanksgiving. I also used a mix of Yukon gold and Russet.
Hubs absolutely loved it!!! Will be my go-to recipe for potato soup for sure!
*Cautions on that last simmer though, stir often…it can stick and burn!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much! 🙂
Ruth
Great soup for this cool day.
Linda T.
Best SUPER BOWL Of potato soup EVER! Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Linda! 🙂
Jill Schenck
Best potato soup I’ve made, and the ancho chili powder adds just a nice depth. DELICIOUS
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Jill! 🙂
Laura
Wonder soup for fall!