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 ¾″ 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 ¼ 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
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
Recommended Equipment
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
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Lynn
This is an awesome tasting soup!! I didn’t have any chives or green onions which I wish I did because I love them. I did use more cream than. It called for and less milk. This recipe is probably the best I have ever found and tried!!
Jim
Fantastic recipe! Dont change anything with ingredients or process. Its perfect. Whole family loves it.
Jack
Followed as per recipe but used ALEPPO PEPPER flakes.
DELISH!
Lynn
Very easy and SO good! I didn’t think I’d like the Ancho chili pepper but you’re right, it’s a nice touch in this soup! I wouldn’t change a thing!
Marie Watson
Best potato soup ever! The anchor chile really makes a difference. I didn’t have heavy cream, so a substituted a can of cream of chicken soup! This is a new winter favorite! Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Marie! 🙂
Oriana
This is a great recipe! Love it. Curious if this could be made in the crock pot?
Sam
I have not made it in a crock pot, but if you search the comments, I know others have reported how they have done it in a crock pot. 🙂
Beth
Have you ever made ahead and frozen it?
Sam
Hi Beth! I have not frozen this as I’m worried the cream would separate when freezing.
Mary Carpenter
Do you think I could freeze this soup? Sometimes soups get “grainy” and I would like to avoid that. Wonder if you have ever tried freezing.
Sam
Hi Mary! I have not tried freezing it. I would be worried about the cream separating. 🙁
Charlotte
I’d like to make this gluten free. Any suggestions what to use instead of flour? Or could flour be eliminated?
Sam
Hi Charlotte! I haven’t tried eliminating it, but I think the soup will still turn out it will just be a bit thinner. 🙂
Cheri
Flour is used as a thickener. Maybe cornstarch could be used. It’s gluten free. Just add to little cold milk or chicken broth to cornstarch first then add to soup.
JoAnn
I never use the floor. It comes out awesome.
JoAnn
pk
I’ve made it using gf all purpose flour blend and also made it with corn starch. Both worked fine for making the roux to slightly thicken the broth.
Jennifer
I just make it with a GF all purpose flour and it always turns out fine
Jeanne Kline
Best potato soup I ever made. Husband and son loved it 🥰
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Jeanne! 🙂
Selectedone
Excited to have this when my fam gets together to exchange gifts for Christmas. Can I make this 3 days in advance and warm it the day I serve it?
Sam
Definitely! Enjoy! 🙂
Susan Cook
I always leftovers and IT’S EVEN BETTER LEFTOVER!
Chandra Dhopatkar
We don’t do onion or garlic and are vegetarian, can this be made to accommodate lacto veg diet?
Sam
Hi Chandra! Honestly I haven’t tried it with these kinds of substitutions. If you do try it I would love to know how it goes. 🙂
Chandra Dhopatkar
It looks really good. I may experiment with it and see. I read your apple butter recipe about an hour ago and had three red delicious apples and thought I’d make a smaller batch. I sliced them really thin and cut them into small pieces. I figured that three apples were probably a 1/4 of your recipe. I used 1/4 cup of the brown sugar, a little less sugar, the spices and salt, and mixed — now I have it in my slow cooker with the lid on and vented. I have is set on the low setting and have it set for 10 hours. I’ll puree it tomorrow after waking up and getting going and let is simmer with the lid off until the right consistency. Do you think the measurements will hold up? I like spice so I didn’t reduce too much on the spice, maybe half the quantity. Do you think I’ll get much apple butter from just three apples?
Sam
I think the apple butter should still turn out. Let me know how it went. 🙂
Shelly
We used lactose free milk and it was great.
Shawna
Just made this tonight. Had to substitute beef broth and then chicken bouillon after that. The entire family loved this soup!! A++
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Shawna! 🙂
Mary H.
I made this soup less than two weeks ago and am anxious to make it again today. I shared it with my daughter and she now wants the recipe. It is magnificent for cold winter nights.. the best potato soup I’ve ever made and I’ve made a few. Thank you for all the details and information along with the recipe!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Mary! 🙂
Mary Jo Faggiani
Just curious how many cups does this yield?
Sam
Hi Mary Jo! It will make about 10 cups. 🙂
Kathy Charette
I made this soup today and we all loved it! I cut back the salt to 1 tsp and added about 1/2 Tbs of Cajun seasoning to add a little spice. I also used table cream rather than heavy cream to cut down on the fat.
The texture of this soup was just right.
Thanks for the recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Kathy! 🙂