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.
Heather
Amazing soup! Family loved it. New Christmas tradition.
Larry L Saunders
Not only is this not only a great tasting recipe but is also what I call a “more or less” recipe. If you add more of this or less of that, it is still delicious!
I am currently living in the Philippines and we don’t have some of the ingredients but with a recipe like this, it is easy to substitute. Powdered milk, knorr cubes and Eden cheese instead of Milk, broth and sour cream.
Absolutely delicious!
Kristin
I made this exactly as the recipe stated and it was Excellent!
Jenna
Hi there! This will be my third time making this soup! My boyfriend and I love it. Can I use a different type of potato other than gold? They’re a little difficult to come by.
Sam
Hi Jenna! I haven’t personally tried it with different potatoes, but I know others have with success. 🙂
Barbara
OMG! This is the best potato soup ever! I substituted red potatoes and chili powder and crushed red chilies for the ancho powder (I didn’t have ancho). My husband has never cared for potato soup loved it and said it was “pure gourmet”.
Debra F
As another person stated previously, I don’t normally leave a review but this recipe is “The best potato soup” I’ve ever had!! And super easy!
It is a keeper! I even had the Chile Ancho powder, which gave it a subtle but delicious flavor.
Thank you for sharing!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Debra! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂
Laurel Costello
This is absolutely delicious! And fairly straight forward to make. Thank you. The ancho chili powder is brilliant. I pureed a little less than half the soup and it worked great. I can see pureeing the whole thing, but we like some chunks. Because I used bacon bits instead of cooking bacon I added some ghee to replace the bacon fat. I used half and half instead of milk and heavy cream. And since I didn’t have any green onions or chives, I added a whole lot of Victoria Taylor’s Roasted Shallot pieces. (They are good to add extra carmelized flavor to soups as well as giving oniony crunch to salads.)
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Laurel! 🙂
Kathy
Can this be adapted for a crock pot?
Sam
Hi Kathy! I haven’t tried it, but I know others have done it with success. 🙂
Amy A
I don’t normally leave reviews but I thought I’d start now, because this was a great recipe. It was simple and delicious. I’m not sure what I did wrong but after blending it, the soup got super thick. I may have put too many potatoes or not enough liquid. But it did not seem to matter to my family. They only ate their soup and passed on their sammies because they loved it. Definitely will be making again. If you’ve got any suggestion on what I did to make it turn out so thick I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for posting.
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Amy! You may have needed a little more liquid. It may have simmered a little too long, but a thick soup isn’t necessarily a bad thing. 🙂
Duncan
Just made this soup. It is delicious
Patricia
Just made this soup. It is delicious
Tammy Crawshaw
This is now my husband’s absolute favorite soup. He asks for it all the time! Thanks for the recipe!
Joann Decker
Wonderful recipe. I love this soup and will be making it again.
Jeffrey Waggoner
Made the potato soup first time ever it is awsome! I used ham instead of bacon,didnt have any bacon in the freezer.made it for my wife’s aunt she is under the weather, my wife doesn’t usually try new things. Needless to say her aunt didn’t get it all.lol
Ashley
I love this recipe! My daughter has a gluten allergy so I substitute GF all purpose flour and it works fine. It is so easy and has become a weekly request from the family!