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!
Is this a spicy potato soup? Also I’m not a fan of sour cream, any substitutes. Also, my husband and I love a chunky potato soup, do you really need to purée it?
Hi Kathleen! This is not a spicy potato soup. You can use greek yogurt. The sour cream really helps to enrich the flavor and you shouldn’t be able to taste it in the final product. You don’t have to puree the soup if you don’t want. It just really changes the texture here. 🙂
Easy to follow recipe. I added celery, red bell pepper and cayenne pepper to mine. Absolutely delicious, taste just like a baked potato.
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Keith! 🙂
Truly the best recipe! I’ve made it multiple times, and it’s everybody’s favorite!
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Emily! 🙂
Can you substitute yogart for heavy cream or sour cream?
Hi Angela! If you want to substitute yogurt you could do it in place of the sour cream. It won’t work for the heavy cream. Enjoy! 🙂
Can this be made in a crock pot?
Hi Sophie! Unfortunately it will be pretty tough to do in a crock pot since you have to cook the bacon and add things at different times.
Was delicious! I subbed heavy cream for equal parts Greek yogurt and whole milk, didn’t have ancho chili, so I used regular chili powder with a little cumin and turmeric. Tasted awesome and will be saving also!
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Brooke! 🙂
I absolutly love this recipe. Potato soup is my favorite soup, I like mine also with chunks of potatoes but I like it heartly as well. So, I added carrots and celery cut very thin and more bacon (7 slices of the thick cut) bacon. I try to make each recipe as organic as possible (there’s not a Whole Food store where I live so I use what I can find at our Food Lion) I used organic organic pototoes, milk, onions, bacon without all the added stuff and I would have used organic carrots and celery but had some someone had given me. I can’t wait to try the Lasagna Soup.
I am so glad you enjoyed this soup so much, Barbara! I think you’ll love the lasagna soup just as much! 🙂
Made it, loved it. Our 9 year old ask for seconds.
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it, Mary! 🙂
This was so yummy. Comfort food for sure. I did cut back on the spicy stuff and used scallions and it was wonderful. Keeping this recipe!
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Carla! 🙂
Delicious!
Wondering if I can use russet potatoes in place of gold?
Thanks?
Hi Danielle! That will work just fine. 🙂
very tasty. Made for my dad. Painful for him to chew due to effects of radiation to teeth. Just processed the cooked bacon so its a finer consistency
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Wendy! I hope your dad feels better soon. 🙂
Can this soup be frozen?
Hi Kerri! I don’t recommend it as it could separate in the freezer.
Absolutely the best potato soup recipe!
I followed it to a T as much as possible, but they were out of ancho chili powder at the store… so I used 1/4 tsp of regular chili powder and a very light dusting of cayenne over the top. And I forgot to get a yellow onion, so I used 2/3 of a large white onion I had laying around. It worked!
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Chris! 🙂
Made this tonight and it was a hit!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it, Mischelle! 🙂
Made this tonight, it was delicious. Made as directed. Creamy warm delite!
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Anita! 🙂