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!
This was AMAZING!! I peeled half of the potatoes and left the other half with the skin on. It added texture and was so good. I only used 1/3 cup sour cream because I’m not a huge fan and it turned out perfectly. Even my picky 12 yr old said it was good! I will definitely be making this again.
This is my family’s favorite potato soup! We like to leave half of the diced potatoes out to put in after the rest is blended. Great recipe!
We love hearing that Guinevere! Thanks so much for trying our recipe and leaving a review 😊
I made this tonight in celebration of one of the first cool nights we’ve had in my part of Florida! I followed the recipe exactly and it is delicious !! thank you so much for such a good recipe!
We’re so happy you liked the soup, Rosemary! Enjoy 😊
I’ve made this twice in the last month. First time I missed the flour. It was by far the best tasting and most delish, lick-the-bowl clean soup I’ve ever made. I was so happy I made it again, this time I noticed “flour” and added it appropriately. Totally changed the flavor! Not in a nice way. Had to offset by adding more broth and adjusting the season. It’s ok now but nowhere near as tasty as my first try. But I’ll still do it again 🙂
Never been a big Potato soup person, BUT THIS, THIS potato soup is super duper yummy!! Everyone loved it!!
So glad everyone enjoyed, Bonnie! Thank you so much for commenting and letting me know how it turned out, I appreciate it! 🙂
Could you add shredded cheddar cheese to mix in the soup? If so, at which step would you add cheddar cheese to mix in? Thank you!
Hi Elizabeth! You can add the cheese just before you serve it, so after the simmering step. We hope you love the soup! 😊
Soup is delicious. So glad I found this recipe for tonight’s dinner. It’s cold here and it was the perfect “warmer upper”!
We’re so happy you enjoyed it, Sheila. Thanks so much for your review! ❤️
As my husband is on a diet, I use the same ingredients, except use red potatoes (have less starch but more sugar) or white potatoes (have a bit more starch but less sugar), and use 1% milk & no cream, with light sour cream for topping; cook the bacon in the micro so the fat drains off, resulting in a delicious but calorie-wise potato soup.
We’re happy you were able to modify the soup to suit your needs, Sue. Thanks so much for commenting and leaving a review! 😊
I have made potato soup in the past but nothing like this. I followed the directions exactly like it said with the exception of not having the ancho chili powder, I used paprika instead. It was fabulous! I really enjoyed this and will keep the recipe so I can make again in the future.
We’re so happy you loved it, Annmarie! Thanks so much for commenting ❤️
It has definitely been a long time since I have made potato soup from scratch, so I decided to look up a recipe. This one caught my eye and it was pretty dang good! I love how well all of the ingredients complimented each other. Ive never made potato soup with gold potatoes before, and the only complaint that I would have is that it’s just a tad more sweet than i would have expected or anticipated. Is this because of the type of potato? I dont usually use gold potatoes for anything really. Could the gold potatoes be substituted for white/idaho russets and taste good still?
Hi Sam! The gold potatoes may be just a bit sweeter than a russet potato, but not really enough to make the soup really sweet. I’m not sure what else could be causing this though. 🙁
Made this today and it is AMAZING. Does it keep well in the fridge/reheat well? I assume it won’t freeze well because of the dairy. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed, Carla! I do not freeze it for the reason you listed but it does reheat well from the refrigerator 🙂
This is the best potato soup ever.
This soup is fantastic, I typically cook an extra couple slices of bacon for a little more grease and bacon bits for flavor. But that’s just preference. It would be great as-is!
More bacon is never a bad thing! We’re so happy you love the soup, Jerret 😊
Can this be converted to a crockpot recipe?
Hi Roselle! We haven’t made this recipe in the crockpot, with the different steps with cooking the bacon and veggies etc. We think it is best prepped in a pot, but it can certainly be kept warm in a crockpot. 😊
I tried this recipe tonight. Absolutely fantastic. My whole family loved it. Even got compliments from my mother in law. I’m not usually big on potato soup but this is so good. Tastes like a baked potato! Thank you!! Def added to my recipe box!
We’re so happy to hear that everyone loved the soup, Kelly! Thanks so much for your five star rating 😊
Fabulous recipe and I love the chili powder kick!
We’re so happy you liked the soup, Maria! Thanks so much for your five star rating 😊
Can you use a crockpot instead of pot?
Hi Holly! We haven’t made this recipe in the crockpot, with the different steps with cooking the bacon and veggies etc. We think it is best prepped in a pot, but it can certainly be kept warm in a crockpot. 😊
Thank you. I realized what a pain it would be to make it in the crockpot. I just made it according to you’re directions and it turned out perfect!!. Thanks again for this great recipe.
Wonderful! We’re so happy you liked it Holly 😊
Excellent recipe! Thanks for this one.
We’re so happy you liked it, Eileen! Thanks so much for your rating and review. 😊