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!
Made the potato soup for dinner…soooo good!
Made it exactly as written and wouldn’t change a thing looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow👏🏻
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Loretta! 🙂
Can you use frozen hash browns vs potatoes?
Hmm I haven’t tried it, but I know others have done it.
One of the best potato soup recipes I’ve come across! My husband absolutely loves this recipe.
HANDS down the best potato soup I have ever had!! I am so surprised by all the flavor but it works so well!! Thank you and I will be trying other recipes of yours!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup, Audrey! I hope you enjoy the rest of my recipes just as much! 🙂
This soup is delicious. I just finished preparing it. I’m on a special diet so can’t have carbs but I made it for my husband, mom and dad. Of course I had to sample…OMG!!!! The only thing I did different was I used an entire package of bacon. Will definitely make this again. It tastes like a loaded potato.
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂
Made this tonight (perfect time if since it’s freezing raining out). This was the best potato soup I’ve ever
made!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Corinne! 🙂
What is ancho chili
It’s a spice. Similar to chili powder with a different taste. You can use chili powder if you don’t have it. 🙂
Made it, it’s awesome and nothing more really has to be said. If you haven’t made this… what are you waiting on?
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Nick! 🙂
Could this be made in a crock pot on low over a few hours?
Hi Brittany! I have not made it in a crock pot myself but I believe other commenters have if you want to search through the comments (the search function on your browser should find it quickly) I believe a few of them tell you how they have done it. 🙂
Making this tonight….glad I have all ingredients!
I hope you love it! 🙂
Would it be fine without sour cream? Some people in my family are fussy and don’t like sour cream 😂
Hi Meg! 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. Enjoy! 🙂
Hi! So I peel the potatoes? 😟
Yes you should peel the potatoes. 🙂
Simply scrumptious! It was one of those days where I had all the ingredients. Live the half purée, half chunky! It was utterly amazing!!!! Thank you for posting!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Mark! 🙂
Super yummy! Made this tonight. How does it freeze?
Hi Ashley! I haven’t frozen it myself but I would be worried the cream would separate out.
omgosh so good, thank you for this
Hello! Will be trying this recipe in the coming days but do not eat pork. Any suggestions for bacon substitutes that may heighten the flavor? I saw that you said not to use turkey bacon.
I would just use probably about 2 extra tablespoons of butter, for best results you can use a good quality European butter. Homemade broth will work really well too. 🙂
Some stores sell a beef bacon (Kroger does I believe) it would be a good substitute!