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!
Really good! I had some leftover shredded zucchini from the bread I was making so I decided to add it in and added shredded carrots too. It was really good even though I burnt a lot of the bacon lol!
Hi Cassie! We’re glad to hear the soup turned out well for you. Love the addition of the carrots and zucchini too!
I made this once and love it but just wondering why do you have to remove the bacon then add it back? What happens if you leave it in the whole time?
It will get pretty tough/chewy in the cooking process and you’ll end up blending it in the final steps, which isn’t ideal.
I made this for my finicky 96 year old mother for our evening meal today.She loved it I’ll be digging into your other recipes. Thank-You Sam,very tasty !!!
That is so awesome! I’m so glad she enjoyed it so much, Gary! 🙂
I add cheese green peppers and shredded carrots to this all the time kids love it that way and keeps the family happy that i am eating some type of rabbit food with it lol.
This is by far the best soup I’ve ever made. If you are a potato lover do yourself a favor and make this recipe you won’t regret it. Family and friends will love it.
Can you make this with regular brown potatoes?
Hi Renee! Do you mean russet potatoes? My mom uses them in this recipe all the time with no problem at all. 🙂
So this recipe is really tasty however I do have a question… On step 2 when it says leave the bacon fat are you talking about the grease or just the fat pieces of the bacon because I left all the grease and my stomach is MESSED all the way up. It’s only been like thirty minutes since I’ve eaten it. If it was to only leave the fat pieces of the bacon then I feel like an idiot but it you leave all the grease in the soup like I did don’t make any plans the rest of the night y’all. Sorry for the honesty but we all need that once in awhile. Other than the pure pain I’m in right now the soup was AMAZING! Lol
I’m so sorry for the confusion, Sarah! You should leave the bacon grease in the pan. You should get only about 2 TBSP of grease from the 6 strips of bacon. It shouldn’t be a lot of grease. It’s really there to add some flavor. I hope you feel better soon. 🙂
I’ve tried several different recipes for potato soup and have been disappointed every time.This soup recipe was wonderful! It was so flavorful and delicious! The consistency was great, too. Thank you for making the video and sharing your recipe. (The Ancho chili powder was an excellent addition.)
We’re so glad this one was a winner, Myra! Thanks for commenting 🙂
This recipe is fantastic! I havent even finished eating it yet and had to stop to say its my new favorite soup. Cant wait to share it!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Jennifer! 🙂
Have you ever tried it with a block of Velveeta cheese?
I have not, maybe someone else has though!
Do you have an instant pot version of this recipe?
Hi Caitlin! Unfortunately I do not have instructions for making it in an instant pot. 🙁
Yes, it’s very good.
I use tillamook cheese in mine
This soup is awesome, and I can’t get the ancho, so I use smoked paprika, and I have my in-laws wanting me to make it periodically! 😋 Thank you for sharing!!
I’m so glad everyone enjoys it so much, Jennifer! 🙂
This is so delicious! Will definitely make again.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Kim! 🙂
I’ve made this for my husband and I multiple times and he always loves it. Him and I both like spicy, so we add a little Cholula Sauce and Jalapenos, we also add chicken sometimes, and its just amazing!!!
I’m so glad everyone enjoys it so much, Shelby! I’ll have to try it with the spicy addition. 🙂
Can you cook the soup in a Crockpot?
I never have, but I don’t see why not.
This is so incredibly good that after I made my first pot, it was gone immediately so the next day I made a double batch!!! And BAM my wife shared with family and our neighbors =)
Can you believe the following weekend I made another double pot so I could have some leftovers to freeze.
Thanks for sharing such an excellent recipe.
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Brian! 🙂
I cook for my niece and her sweet family (3 year old, 8 month old) a few times a month. This her and her hubby’s most requested recipe! They love 💕 it, making it tomorrow for them. Thank you!
I’m so glad everyone enjoys it so much! 🙂
This is delicious my go to recipe the family LOVES IT!
Also we did it without any chili powder it was still to die for!😍 DELICIOUS like we were at a restaurant!
So freaking good! Next time I’m going to home make some bread bowls to go with it.
So glad you enjoyed, Jim! I have a recipe for homemade bread bowls, too!
Hi! My family and I loved this easy potato soup recipe! I also did not have ancho chili powder and used regular chili powder… AMAZING!
Thanks Sam❤️
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Sarah! 🙂