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!
Delicious!
OMG so yummy! One of my favorites so far.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Gerri! 🙂
Can you freeze this? I am wanting to make some freezer meals for someone.
Hi Connie! I don’t recommend freezing this soup as it could separate.
I made this last night for my boyfriend who told me when we met that he only liked his mom’s potato soup. I’m not much of a cook and have never made soup in my life so I was a little nervous to serve it to him but figured with all the positive reviews I’d give it a try. Suffice it to say that he has a new favorite potato soup and I have a new sense of self confidence in the kitchen. The recipe was simple enough that I didn’t ruin it but with enough flavor it tasted like someone with actual cooking experience made it. I’m putting this recipe in my little book of recipes that I’ve made that were a success, (and it’s a VERY little book!) and it’s going right in front so I can access it easily next time. Thanks for sharing!
What an amazing compliment, thank you, Traci! I am so glad that it was boyfriend approved and that you both enjoyed it! Thanks for trying my recipe. I can’t wait to hear what you try next! 🙂
This soup is amazingly delicious! Super excited to share with others. 😊
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much! I hope everyone else does too. 🙂
Excellent soup ! I’m not much of a cook so from start to finish to cut and make and cook, took me 3 hours, but totally worth the time !? Thank you
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed, Kristi! Thank you so much for commenting! 🙂
Delicious my 16 yr old grand daughter Loves it!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Billie! 🙂
Hello! Trying out this recipe and wondering what I can use if I don’t have ancho chili powder?
Hi Rocky! You can substitute regular chili powder or leave it out.
Maybe cooking isn’t Jpo’ s thing! I’ve made your recipe so many times I cannot count ( this is only ONE of my favorites), NEVER changing a thing! Do your thang girl. Always gotta have them haters to keep you doing it right! Love you dear!
Thank you so much, Jennifer! 🙂
Isolation has me doing a lot more trying of new recipes.
I love potato soup, and the addition of ancho chili had me intrigued.
I made the recipe as written and it is delicious.
All soups are better one they “ripen,” and potato soup is definitely one I try not to eat the same day. However, after tasting this at the end of the cooking, it was so good we ate it for a hearty mid-day snack.
I cannot wait to have it tomorrow when all of those subtle flavors have melded.
I boldly added the higher amount of ancho, and now that soup has cooled, upped it to a full teaspoon . It still doesn’t have a tex-mex vibe (which I was worried about), just lovely umami.
This has made it into the permanent recipe rotation. I do hope I can make it with gluten free flour, potato starch or cornstarch next time as gluten is not my friend. I will also use a full 3 pounds of potatoes. I strained out about three cups of potatoes after cooking, pureed the rest with immersion blender and added back the potatoes. I prefer more potato chunks in my soup. I will say that the greek yogurt blended into the soup was a brilliant finish for the soup. The pureed soup was velvety smooth and rich.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Thank you so much Cindy! I am so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂
This soup is so delicious and easy to make.
I didn’t have any sour cream on hand so I substituted cream cheese and it was still great.
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, John! 🙂
This was easy and absolutely WONDERFUL! My blender recently broke (which I had forgotten about before beginning this recipe), so I was unable to blend it, and it was STILL terrific! The whole family loved it! Next time I will blend part of it for a creamier soup, but know it is still great without!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Melissa! 🙂
ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!! Perfect for a chilly fall day. This ones a keeper!!
I am so happy you enjoyed, Sandie! Thank you so much for commenting! 🙂
I am going to print this out and try it this weekend. it looks soooo yummy!!!!! Thanks for relating this recipe for us. Do you have a broccoli cheddar soup also??? I love that too!!!
Hi Rani! I actually do have a broccoli cheddar soup! 🙂
Are you kidding…5 stars? I followed the recipe exactly with the exception that I used only 2 small cloves of garlic and that was too much…very strong garlic flavor. I’m not sure garlic belongs in a cream of potato soup but as I said I followed the recipe. Also, the soup is lacking a foundation of depth of flavor…even using ancho chili powder. I will try to rescue it with cheddar, bacon and scallions for a topping. Otherwise I would not recommend using this recipe. I would stick to my traditional one. Sorry…
Hi Pjo! I’m so disappointed to hear this, but honestly this sounds like simply a matter of taste preference. Do you just not like garlic? Not to sound defensive (though it’s possible I am a little defensive, this is one of my favorite recipes 🤣) I certainly wouldn’t call the flavor overwhelming but rather a beautiful accent to the other flavors. It does have over 2,000 comments and over 500 ratings and this is the very first one star rating it’s ever received (honestly I think it’s the first rating this soup has ever received under 4 stars!). I am honestly wondering if perhaps something went wrong? It has a solid and flavorful foundation (and I’m super proud of it’s depth of flavor), it’s built on bacon and butter and onions and garlic (which definitely belongs here!). I do always appreciate feedback though so thank you for commenting, you’re the first to ever have such a negative experience with it 😉
I’m thinking you must just not like garlic, because 2 cloves garlic in this big a recipe is… nothing?
Made it twice in a week. So delicious! And an easy to follow recipe. I followed everything exactly as written except did not add the chili powder.
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Sana! 🙂