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!
I thought this was going to be good when I saw it online, but it is SO DELICIOUS. Exceeded my expectations. I doubled the recipe for a family dinner and we had grilled cheese quesadillas with it. We couldn’t get enough! Definitely sharing this one!
I am so glad you enjoyed the soup, Toya! The cheese quesadilla sounds like an incredible pairing!
This was THE BEST potato soup I’ve ever had!
I tweaked it to my liking & used ceyenne pepper instead of ancho.
I actually cubed the potatos & they cooked down perfectly and as I stirred them around, they began to sort of puree themselves & thickened the pot but I did add about a 1/4 cup flour to thicken it a bit more. I also added 3 strips of smoked bacon to the pot as it cooked.
Followed all other instructions. Has lasted 3 days so far and is still fresh & delicious.
I am so glad you enjoyed the soup, Robyn! 🙂
If you don’t have heavy cream can you use something else?
Hi, Kathie! You can use a little bit of milk, but I wouldn’t use as much as you would with the heavy cream. The cream really helps thicken up the soup. 🙂
Just wonderfully delicious! My family all had seconds….
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it, Phyllis! 🙂
This was my first time ever making potato soup! It turned out GREAT! I added a bit of extra bacon and next time I might even do more for topping (because you can never have enough bacon, right!?). Will definitely make this many more times this winter!! Thanks for the recipe!
My husband would certainly agree that there is no such thing as too much bacon! I am so glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Once cooked on the stove top can it be placed in a crockpot for serving many hours later?
I think that would work just fine. 🙂
Hi,
Everybody loved your potato soup! It was hearty and delicious. It was a fun project. I have never made a soup from scratch. Following the recipe was easy and the end result very tasty and satisfying mmm😀
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it, Steve! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
Made this yesterday. My wife and I both loved it. I messed up a little bit and accidentally put the sour cream in with the milk and heavy cream, so it got to simmer as well haha BUT still came out fantastic. Looking forward to leftovers tonight 🤤
What are leftovers? 😂 I am so glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Can you make this, freeze it, and thaw in a crock pot?
The soup has cream in it so it may separate when it is reheated.
It reheats pretty well!
This is the best potato soup that I have ever had. I used all organics as well as unprocessed bacon and it was absolutely amazing. Thanks.
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Kim! 🙂
This is a VERY good recipe! I used russet potatoes instead of golden potatoes. I also used an 8oz package of cream cheese instead of sour cream i also used bacon bits cause I didn’t have any bacon thawed out. I’m sure the fried bacon would have been WAY better! But it turned out great!
The real bacon is a game changer! You should try it out and let me know how you like it. I am glad you liked it even without the real bacon. ☺️
Turned out pretty good. However, was a little bland. Added more garlic and seasoning. Next time, I’ll roast garlic to include. 😀. Thanks for posting,
I used Goya Sazon seasoning packs instead of salt. Granted it turned the soup a very pretty light orange color but the flavor was phenomenal.
This was pretty decent. It’s def a Creamy, cheesey comfort food you would want on a cold day:) will make again. Next time I will need to add a bit more potatoes
I just made this tonight and it was so good!! I added 3 diced carrots, 2 diced stalks of celery, and a pinch of garlic salt. This was very tasty, and the technique of blending half the soup and returning it to the pot made this the perfect consistency. I will be making this recipe many more times this fall and winter.
Nice recipe, calls for 21/2 lbs. of potato’s, which is good as other recipes have a crazy low amount OF POTATOS recommended 4 potato soup , Yknow?
Still, I added carrots and celery tons of fresh garlic in the beginning, middle and end of cooking!
Also I added the dairy later as I let the soup cook some while the bayleafs I added married the broth, vegetables and bacon fat and I have a Cajun spice I put 2gether myself with chili powder, salt, turmeric,parsley etc,. so that was in there 2.
Then the dairy went in .
Awesome with Parmesan instead of cheddar, fresh chives
moi!
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Jack! You can never have enough garlic in my opinion. ☺️