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!
My husband said it was the best soup I’d ever made!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Pam! 🙂
Very good… The only thing I would do differently is adding more potatoes. It was not as thick as I would have liked it. Or maybe more flour? Either way, the soup itself was soooo good.
I’m glad you enjoyed it overall! 🙂
This soup thickened up the next day. So I may make this the night before. I don’t think I will add extra potatoes if I plan to make ahead. Very good.
Loved it!!!
Could I sub sour cream or not use it?
Hi Fallon! You could use greek yogurt here. 🙂
Best potato soup ever. I have never been a fan until now.
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Jackie! 🙂
If i want to leave all the potatoes chucky would that work too?
Sure thing! 🙂
I see it says to add flour, but there’s no measurement of flour?? Or I can’t find it?
Hi Sarah! Just under the garlic and above the potatoes is the flour measurement. 🙂
Hey, what if I wanted to put this in a crock pot?
Also, I do not have an Emersion blender, could I low blend it?? Or just use my potato masher?
Hi Kim! I think it would be difficult to make in a crock pot since there are so many different steps where things are added. You can certainly use a regular blender, just spoon it into the blender then return to the pot, although it may make a little bit of a mess. You could alternatively use the potato masher. 🙂
Do not use a blender. Do you have a potato ricer or a potato masher tool? A blender/mixer makes it have a weird stretchy texture.
AMAZING!!!!!!
I’M THE PICKIEST COOK AND EATER
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Desiree! 🙂
The best potato soup ever!
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂
Can I freeze the leftovers?
Hi Anne! I don’t recommend it. The heavy cream may separate. 🙁
This was a hit with all my boys! We used “fake bacon” and it turned out delicious.
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Tori! 🙂
I also use pre cooked Bacon so I just sauté the onion, garlic, celery and carrot until tender then add the potato ( all small chopped) and than the broth cook for a few minutes until potato is tender add bacon and finish it off like you said. my hubby like this if we want clm chowder I add a couple of cans of clams
I’m so glad you enjoy it so much, Pamela! Thank you for your feedback. 🙂
This soup was AMAZING!!! It did take me about 2 hours to get finished. Prep took a bit of time. But I don’t care because it was well worth the wait!!!
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Gina! 🙂
Very tasty! I used pancetta along with the bacon & added green onions. My family raved about it. Thank you
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, James! 🙂
When I puréed the potatoes it was very gluey, I doubled the recipe but if I did it again I would only use a smaller amount of flour. I made it ahead for a small family meal but I am not confident it’s suited for serving.
Very strange! I don’t think the flour was the issue unless it could have been accidentally mis-measured?
So I’ve made this a million times now but with my own little twists to it (totally recommend a little paprika, fresh parsley, and green onions mixed in after its blended)and and love it. I’m guessing what happened was their bacon didn’t produce enough grease, or they used a bit more potatoes or had starchy ones, or a mix of those all. Less grease for the roux would make it thicker, which isn’t a huge difference but might be noticeable. The potatoes are the most likely part, since when blended the starches from it do thicken the soup which could make it a bit gluey. Because of that, if I make it totally smooth (occasionally for my son because he hates any chunks) I make sure to add less flour so its not too thick/gluey.
Thanks for your feedback, Lauren! I’m glad you have enjoyed the soup so much! 🙂
The Gluey texture is from blending it too fast. Use a potato ricer or a potato masher.
Most important: This is delicious as the photo and introduction suggest. What I would like to know… 30 min/prep, 30 min/cook??? I started prepping (portioning ingredients… peeling potatoes… chopping, dicing, cooking bacon) around 4:15 pm and I’d say we had complete soup and toppings around almost 6:30pm at best! Who on earth made this soup start to finish in one hour?! Its a lovely potato soup but I would not suggest you could whip it up for the fam after work on a weeknight like no big deal. Thank you for the recipe!
I’m glad you enjoyed it so much, Megan! The prep times are of course always an estimation. 🙂
if I am using yukon golds I just scrub them . don’t peel them.