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Creamy Potato Soup is the ultimate comfort food. Its velvety, creamy base features blended potatoes, tender potato bites, onions, and garlic, all topped with crispy bacon! It’s the perfect meal to cozy up with on a cold day.
Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
- Super Simple: This creamy potato soup is so easy to make. It can be ready in less than an hour. Perfect for busy weeknights!
- Comfort Food: Is anything more comforting than a nice warm bowl of creamy potato soup? Add your favorite toppings to make everyone happy!
- Versatile: This soup is good anytime but the perfect dish to serve on a cold day. Your family will love it served with some sourdough bread and Caesar salad.
Creamy Potato Soup Ingredients
This soup is super simple to put together. You only need a few basic ingredients, and dinner is served. You should have most of these items already in your kitchen. Scroll to the bottom of the post for exact measurements.
- Bacon: I feel like this is my secret ingredient. You’ll cook up the bacon and use the super flavorful drippings to cook the onions and make a roux to thicken the soup.
- Onion: Adds savory and a slight sweet flavor.
- Garlic: Give me all the garlic! You can measure this with your heart!
- Unsalted Butter: Provides a smooth creaminess for the base of the roux
- All Purpose Flour: Helps thicken the soup.
- Chicken Broth: The flavorful base for the soup.
- Half-and-Half: Adds a creamy consistency that is the perfect complement to the texture of the blended potatoes.
- Russet Potatoes: I like using russet potatoes because they hold up their shape and don’t get all mushy.
- Salt and Black Pepper: Enhances the flavors in the recipe.
Easy Potato Soup Recipe
This recipe is super easy and yummy! You’ll want to make creamy potato soup all season long. Follow my instructions below for the best results.
- Cook Bacon: Heat a large pot over medium-high heat and cook the diced bacon until fully cooked. (It can be crispy or soft, depending on preference.) Remove the bacon from the pot and then set aside.
- Cook Onion: Remove all but one tablespoon of bacon grease from the pot. Add the onion, and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook for just 1 minute.
- Whisk: Melt the butter in the pot with the onion and garlic, and whisk in the flour to create a paste (roux).
- Slowly add and Whisk: Slowly whisk in the chicken broth, about ½ cup at a time, while whisking continuously to keep a smooth consistency.
- Simmer: Mix in the half-and-half, potatoes, salt, and pepper. Bring the soup to a gentle boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the potatoes are tender. Stirring occasionally to prevent them from sticking to the bottom, about 25-30 minutes.
- Blend: Remove half of the soup from the pot and blend it with a regular or an immersion blender until smooth.
- Stir and Serve: Add the blended soup back to the pot along with the cooked bacon. Simmer for another few minutes and stir to incorporate the bacon. Remove the soup from the heat and serve fresh!
Potato Soup Tips and Variations
My mom made this creamy potato soup for us for Sunday dinner a few weeks back. It was so delicious and creamy. We LOVED it! Here are some tips for making sure it suites your taste.
- Making the Roux: When adding the liquid to the butter and flour paste, I slowly add about ½ cup at a time. Make sure you whisk continually until that amount of liquid has been incorporated. Adding liquid in too quickly will break the sauce, which means the paste won’t combine with the liquid.
- Customizable: What I love about this simple soup is how customizable it is—you can easily make it your own! Add extra bacon, cubed ham, more veggies, or even melt in some cheese when you add the bacon back to the pot.
- Topping Ideas: You can serve this with so many different toppings. Think about what you would put on a baked potato. Bacon, sharp cheddar cheese, green onions or chives, sour cream, parsley, chicken for protein, jalapenos for heat, and whatever else you like!
How to Store Leftover Soup
This creamy potato soup makes great leftovers. All the flavors have time to meld, and it’s even better the next day!
- Refrigerate: Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Freeze: I don’t recommend freezing this soup. Dairy-based soups can separate once frozen, but you can store it in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 months if the separation doesn’t bother you.
- Reheating: Reheat soup on the stove on low heat to prevent scalding or in the microwave.
More Potato Soup Recipes to Try
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Creamy Potato Soup
Creamy Potato Soup is the ultimate comfort food. It has a velvety, creamy base with blended potato, tender potato bites, onions, and garlic, all topped with crispy bacon! It's the perfect meal to cozy up with on a cold day.
Ingredients
- ½ pound bacon diced
- ½ cup diced onion about ½ medium onion
- 3 teaspoons minced garlic about 3 cloves
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 3 cups half and half
- 3 pounds russet potatoes peeled and diced into about 1/2-inch pieces about 5-6 large potatoes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium-high heat and cook ½ pound bacon diced until fully cooked. (It can be crispy or soft, depending on preference.) Remove the bacon from the pot and set aside.
- Remove all but one tablespoon of bacon grease from the pot. Add ½ cup diced onion, and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add in 3 teaspoons minced garlic and cook for just 1 minute.
- Melt ½ cup unsalted butter in the pot with the onion and garlic, and whisk in ½ cup all-purpose flour to create a paste (roux).
- Slowly whisk in 6 cups chicken broth, about ½ cup at a time, whisking continuously to keep a smooth consistency.
- Mix in 3 cups half and half, 3 pounds russet potatoes peeled and diced into about 1/2-inch pieces, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Bring the soup to a gentle boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the potatoes are tender. Stirring occasionally to prevent them from sticking to the bottom, about 25-30 minutes.
- Remove half of the soup from the pot and blend it with an immersion or regular blender until smooth.
- Add the blended soup back to the pot along with the cooked bacon. Simmer for another few minutes and stir to incorporate the bacon.
- Remove the soup from the heat and serve fresh!
Video
Notes
Originally Published on November 16, 2012
Updated on November 18, 2024
Nutrition
Calories: 518kcalCarbohydrates: 43gProtein: 12gFat: 34gSaturated Fat: 18gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 85mgSodium: 1198mgPotassium: 950mgFiber: 3gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 693IUVitamin C: 12mgCalcium: 137mgIron: 2mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tried this recipe?Mention @alyssa_therecipecritic or tag #therecipecritic!
When do I add the 2 cups of cold water and also, do I set the boiled potatoes aside while cooking the base for this soup or boil them the last 20 minutes then add them to the soup portion ??
What do you do with the potatoes after they are tender? How you mash them? Thank you!
When would you add the 2 cups of water? and is that in addition to the 4 cans of chicken broth? We have tried your cheeseberger soup and it was Very Good! Thanks