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!
Omg! this is the best soup ever!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the potato soup, Donna! Thank you for commenting! 🙂
My parents always made potato soup when I was growing up. And while I love their recipe bc it reminds me of home it is very basic and the broth is really thin. I made this recipe tonight for my sister and her family and they said it was better than my parents! Everyone loved it. Will definitely make it again. Thanks for an excellent soup on a snowy night in Texas!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Kimber! 🙂
Turned out excellent!
This soup yesterday. Hands down this is the BEST potato soup recipe I have EVER made. Using the immersion blender was a game changer! Super flavorful and easy to make. Highly recommend!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Robi! 🙂
I made this soup last night and it was soo good! Everyone in the family loved it, I will be making it again soon!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Emily! 🙂
I made this yesterday and we really enjoyed it! Some slight changes I made to the recipe: cut it to 2/3, since it was only for me, my wife, and my teen daughter… i.e., used 1-3/4 lb (peeled weight) potatoes; used 2 deli ham slices cut into small pieces (didn’t have bacon) and cooked in small amount of canola oil until somewhat crispy; accidentally used full portion of milk (2%); substituted 3-4 oz evaporated milk for heavy cream; didn’t use ancho pepper or toppings. Rather than puree 1/2 of the potatoes, I used a potato masher and then stirred the mashed potatoes back into the pot for the last 15 minutes. I burned the onions and minced garlic somewhat as usual… 🙁 However, the soup was still really good!! We all had pretty full bowls (about 12 oz ea), then my wife and I had seconds (about 8 oz each), and we still had enough for 1 bowl leftover for someone’s lunch tomorrow. Thank you for this recipe… it was chunky and thick, and it really hit the spot on a cool day! 2 thumbs up!
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Les! Those sound like some wonderful additions. 🙂
Absolutely Delicious! We made this last year and again tonight!
I’m so glad everyone enjoys it so much, Mary! 🙂
I LOVE potato soup so I make it a lot. This recipe is by far the best I’ve ever made. Next time I’ll add more bacon because my husband is definitely a meat eater. This soup and cornbread or baking powder biscuits is the ultimate comfort food.
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much! My husband also complains there isn’t enough bacon, but if it were up to him it would just be bacon soup. 🤣
This turned out very delicious! I forgot to buy bacon from the store, so I put 1/3c butter to compensate for the bacon fat. I omitted the onion and garlic for my boyfriend’s sake. And I added a carrot, some frozen corn and leftover chicken. I definitely liked the idea of blending half and leaving the other half chunky. Thanks Sam for a delicious recipe!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Katie! 🙂
Thanks for the carrot idea! I’ll do that next time
Fixed this for my family tonight. I lost my Tried and true in my move. I have tried a couple others only to be let down. I made a change or two based on my family preferences. Instead of doing the purée I just cut some of my potatoes thin so they would mush up while cooking. This gave me the texture of the purée without the hassle.
This was great and will be added to my list of winter dishes.
Thank you so much for sharing it.
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Holley! 🙂
Made this today & it’s better than any other potato soup I’ve had. Thanks for the recipe
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂
LOVE IT! O’Charley’s is FIRED!
😂 I’m so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Absolutely delicious!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Sarita! 🙂
Can this be done in the Crockpot?
Hi Brianna! It may be tough to do in the crock pot because there are several different steps and additions that need to be made.
Haven’t made it yet but can it be made without the heavy cream ?
Hi Mary! You would need to add some milk to make up for the lack of heavy cream, but not quite as much. The soup will be thinner. 🙂