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 saw this and made it for dinner tonight. It is AMAZING. My wife who doesn’t eat soups had a bowl and a half! Great recipe! Keep ’em coming!
Wow, we’re so happy it was such a hit for you, Matt! Enjoy 😊
Fantastic recipe, thank you so much! My husband has Celiacs, so it’s always a hit or miss when “converting” recipes to gluten free products — but other than the chicken broth blocks (and sometimes I use vegetables when that’s not in the house) and arrowroot flour, there’s nothing here that could be a contamination issue or can’t be substituted elsewhere. I do some minor substitutions (ALL THE BACON!!!) and chili flakes instead of ancho chilli, but this is an amazing dish.
As such… I’ve made this recipe at LEAST 4 times and we never have leftovers because it’s that darn good! Thank you again for this – I can’t wait to try your other soup recipes this winter!
We’re so happy you were able to modify this for your husband, Tracey! Thanks so much for your kind review and five star rating 😊
Excellent recipe. I was wondering what is a serving? I cup? A bowl? Something?
Hi Amy! A serving is 1/6th of the total soup, it’s probably around 1 cup. I hope that helps!
My wife and I are home for paternity/maternity leave, and I do our cooking. She’s been requesting lots of hardy comfort foods, so I found this recipe last week to try. The two of us finished the entire pot by lunch the next day and she asked for me to make it again tonight. Needless to say, this has entered our regular fall/winter dinner rotation. It really is the best potato soup recipe we have ever come across.
Sounds like this potato soup was just the thing you all needed! Enjoy the soup and your time together, Jeffrey ❤️
Excellent!!!!😊
Thanks so much for leaving a five star review, Michael! Enjoy the potato soup ❤️
Does the chili powder make it taste like chili?
Hi Kelly! Not at all–it just gives it a subtle smoky flavor 🙂
For a person that promised his wife potato soup, have only made it once last year and was asked again this year I said yes, it was easy to make and the instructions were very clear. This soup is to die for! It tastes Awesome and I will make this more as the days get colder
and have when the snow is blowing. Thanks for Sharing!
Cheers
Hi Brian! We are so happy you and your wife love this soup so much. It’s truly perfect for the cold snowy nights that will be here soon. Enjoy and stay warm! 😊
Yummy! Made this afternoon for tonight’s dinner with some crusty bread and butter. Husband asked me to make it with ham instead of bacon so I did. I still made the bacon (for the grease/ taste) and will use it to garnish mine. So comforting on a cool Fall evening!
We’re so happy you like this potato soup recipe, Sarah! Enjoy your dinner ❤️
Absolutely amazing! This was my first potato soup recipe I tried and it was delicious! I made it for my family of 5 and there were no leftovers, they gobbled it up!
Hi Rheanda! Sounds like this soup was a total hit for your family! Let us know if you try any of our other recipes 😊
tried this, left out the flour and added cream cheese, left out the onion and used beef broth instead of chicken. it turned out absolutely delicious!!! i’m sick right now so this kind of comfort food soothes my throat. (and my belly 🙏). love it!! everyone went for seconds.
Sounds like this potato soup was just what you needed, Alyssa! Take care and feel better soon ❤️
Can I do this in the crockpot?
Hi Wendy! I haven’t made this recipe in the crockpot, with the different steps with cooking the bacon and veggies etc. I think it is best prepped in a pot, but it can certainly be kept warm in a crockpot.
This is the only potato soup recipe I use. My husband likes the bacon crispy, so I always set aside extra for everyone to add right before eating it. Also, instead of the immersion blender, I just take a potato masher right into the pot and mash until it’s the consistency we like. : ) Works well.
Very easy and delicious recipe!
Hi Nora! We’re so pleased to hear that you like our potato soup recipe. Sounds like you’re able to alter it to be exactly what you need. Thanks so much for your five star rating. Enjoy! ❤️
It’s that time of year again, cool and crisp out therefore Potato soup will be perfect for this fall evening.
Tonights dinner will be the 1st of many nights warming up with the perfect potato soup!
Soup weather is the best kind of weather! Wishing you a cozy evening, Tonya ❤️
This soup was super easy and delicious. I didn’t use milk I just added 1 cup of heavy cream instead. I also made a small amount of rue because I added too much chicken broth. My husband loved it
We’re so happy you and your husband loved it, Wendy! Enjoy ❤️
Do you have to use Golden potatoes in this recipe, all I have is russet potatoes
Russet will work just fine! Enjoy 🙂
Hi, I haven’t tried the recipe yet but is flour necessary? If so, could I use bread flower? I left 5 stars anyways because I already know it’s gonna be absolutely delicious. Thanks!
Hi Alyssa! You could try cornstarch instead, but you probably need quite as much. Just add enough to reach your desired thickness, and you should be good. Enjoy!! 🙂
My wife doesn’t like onions… would this work if I substitute with the same amount of shallots?
Hi Jason! Sure, that should be fine. We hope you both love the soup! 🙂
Great recipe. Wish I doubled it.
I’ve been craving potato soup, but I’ve never made it. I warned my family this would be dinner. With a few different changes: 3 slices of bacon; no sour cream; and I added a handful of cheddar cheese to the simmering soup to melt before serving. I did serve with the bacon, green onion and additional cheese. A total success. My brother made a total pig of himself with 3 bowls, my son had a bowl -which he topped off once. And very unlike my son, he said “don’t freeze it, I want it for lunch tomorrow.’ He doesn’t like leftovers. So I can see myself making this again when it gets a little colder. Really good soup!
Sounds like it was a total hit for you, Jan! We’re so happy everyone loved it. Enjoy the leftovers–if they even make it past today! 😊