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Loaded baked potato soup has a smooth, creamy base, soft potatoes, topped with cheese, bacon, green onion, and whatever else you like. It is hands down the best potato soup I have ever had. It is creamy and delicious, with all the goodness of a baked potato, made right in your slow cooker!

Loaded baked potato soup in a white bowl with a spoon garnished with chopped bacon, cheese and onions.

Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe

  • Convenient: Slow-cooker meals are my favorite! My house smells amazing, and I don’t have to think about dinner!
  • Customizable: The great thing about this recipe is the base is delicious on its own, but you can customize it to suit your tastes with a variety of toppings!
  • Comfort Food: This loaded baked potato soup is rich, creamy, and hearty. It’s the perfect comfort food to come home to on a chilly day!

Baked Potato Soup Ingredients

Loaded baked potato soup only needs a few basic ingredients but is loaded with flavor! The heavy cream, potatoes, onion, chicken broth, and the other items slowly cook all day to create the most incredible flavor. Check the recipe card at the bottom of the post for exact measurements.

  • Potatoes: You can use russet, yellow, golden, or red potatoes for this soup. They hold together and don’t become mushy in the slow cooker.
  • Onion: Chop up to your size preference. I like mine smaller so I can have a little bit of that flavor in every bite!
  • Chicken Broth: Add in for a smooth, flavorful broth. You can also use vegetable broth or beef broth if that’s what you have on hand.
  • Butter: I used unsalted butter in this recipe.
  • Flour: All-purpose flour works best for this soup. It helps thicken the base.
  • Sour Cream: This adds a delightful flavoring that creates a rich, creamy broth.
  • Heavy Cream: Adds the rich, velvety texture and flavor that will make this the best soup you’ve ever tasted!
  • Salt and Pepper: Enhance all of the flavors in the soup!
  • Optional Toppings: Bacon, cheddar cheese, and green onions are what make this turn from potato soup into delicious baked potato soup!
Overhead shot of labeled ingredient.

How to Make Baked Potato Soup

This loaded baked potato soup recipe is perfect for an easy dinner meal. Once it’s done cooking, you can add the best part, the toppings! Your family will love how they can make it their own.

  1. Combine and Cook:  Add potatoes, diced onions, and chicken broth to your slow cooker. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 3-4 until potatoes are tender.
  2. Make the Roux: Melt the butter in a medium saucepan about 30 minutes before it is done. Whisk in flour and cook until bubbly.
  3. Stir: Slowly add heavy cream and sour cream. The mixture should be thick.
  4. Combine: Add the butter and cream mixture to the crock pot and stir. Continue to cook for 20-30 minutes.
  5. Serve with bacon, cheese, and green onion on top and enjoy!

Additional Toppings

It is fun to add toppings to make soup just the perfect combination. Mix and match your favorite toppings to make the best and ultimate slow cooker loaded baked potato soup recipe.

  • Bacon bits: If you prefer to buy the bacon bits instead of cooking your bacon beforehand, you can! It’s a great way to simplify the recipe.
  • Shredded cheese: Instead of cheddar, you could try Colby Jack, American or even mozzarella!
  • Sour cream: Add an additional drop of sour cream to the top of your soup. It’s delicious!
  • Diced avocado: This is perfect for adding that extra texture and flavor.
  • Cooked Corn Kernels: Such a fun way of adding a southern twist to the soup.
  • Croutons: These add in a delicious crunchy texture. You can even make them at home with this recipe!
  • Chives: Green chives never looked so good on this creamy baked potato soup.
Russet potatoes wit onion, scissors nad a knife.

Tips for Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Check out a few ways that you can make substitutions in this soup to make it work better for you and your family.

  • For a creamy potato soup: Cook the potatoes ahead of time until they are tender. Once they are tender, blend or mash the potatoes until smooth and creamy. Add to the slow cooker.
  • Mashing potatoes: Use a fork, blender or a potato masher to blend potatoes together.
  • Gluten-Free:ย This loaded baked potato soup can be made gluten-free by substituting the flour mixture with cornstarch to thicken it.
  • Less salt: To control the amount of salt in the soup, substitute low-sodium chicken broth and bacon as a topping.
  • Low Fat:ย Instead of using heavy cream, you can substitute half and half for a low-fat option.
  • How to thicken soup: Using flour and butter to make a roux helps thicken the potato soup at the end of its cooking time. Simply add the roux to the soup and let it cook for another 20 to 30 minutes to thicken.
Slow cooker loaded baked potato soup in a slow cooker garnished with chopped bacon, cheese and onions.

Storing Leftovers

This loaded baked potato soup makes fantastic leftovers! You can even double the batch and freeze some for a later day!

  • In the Refrigerator: Once your soup has cooled, you can store it in an airtight container in the fridge. It will last about 3-4 days.
  • In the Freezer: You can make this soup ahead of time and freeze it for later! Once it has cooled, then you can place it in a ziplock bag and lay it flat. It will last for about three months!
  • To Reheat: If you are reheating from frozen, then take your soup out the night before and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. Then, you can either reheat it on your stove or in your slow cooker until it is warmed through
Two bowls full of loaded baked potato with a spoon garnished with chopped bacon, cheese and green onions.

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Slow Cooker Loaded Baked Potato Soup

4.82 from 22 votes
By: Alyssa Rivers
Loaded baked potato soup has a smooth, creamy base, soft potatoes, topped with cheese, bacon, green onion, and whatever else you like. It is hands down the best potato soup I have ever had. It is creamy and delicious, with all the goodness of a baked potato, made right in your slow cooker!
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours
Total Time: 6 hours 20 minutes
Servings: 8 People

Ingredients 

Optional toppings:

Instructions 

  • Add potatoes, diced onions, and chicken broth to your slow cooker. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 3-4 until potatoes are tender.
  • Melt the butter in a medium saucepan about 30 minutes before it is done. Whisk in flour and cook until bubbly.
  • Slowly add heavy cream and sour cream. The mixture should be thick.
  • Add the butter and cream mixture to the crock pot and stir. Continue to cook for 20-30 minutes.
  • Serve with bacon, cheese, and green onion on top, and enjoy!

Video

Notes

Second Update on September 13, 2024
Updated on September 29, 2022
Original Post on January 22, 2015

Nutrition

Calories: 323kcalCarbohydrates: 6gProtein: 7gFat: 31gSaturated Fat: 19gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 93mgSodium: 525mgPotassium: 91mgFiber: 0.1gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 1090IUVitamin C: 0.4mgCalcium: 193mgIron: 0.3mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dinner, Main Course
Cuisine: American
Tried this recipe?Mention @alyssa_therecipecritic or tag #therecipecritic!

About Alyssa Rivers

Alyssa Rivers is the author of 'The Tried and True Cookbook', a professional food photographer and experienced recipe-developer. Having a passion for cooking, her tried and true recipes have been featured on Good Morning America, Today Food, Buzzfeed and more.

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Recipe Rating




136 Comments

  1. Yummy. Made this tonight for dinner. So good! We added a can of cheddar cheese soup to make it a little cheesier! Loved it. Will be making it often. Thanks for the recipe.

  2. I used an immersion blender in the potato mixture before I added the cream mixture. I like my potato soup to be creamy and it would have been too chunky. Great recipe though!

  3. May we reprint the recipe portion in our school newspaper? The students used this recipe for their science at home class. We are a residential Deaf school and publish four times a year.

  4. what happened to the Cream Cheese that was supposed to be added to this, you do not have anything about cream cheese in your recipe,

  5. Carla, The only times I’ve made this soup have been on high and it has cooked pretty well. The recipe makes it a little bit chunky, but not like a stew. I added more cream and it made it more manageable to eat as a clam chowder-ish consistency. How big did you dice the potatoes? They might be too thick.
    Nats, there are some cooking time conversions on Pinterest if you wanted to make it in a soup pot on the stovetop. Try looking at those to see what you can find!

  6. OMG!!! this looks divine!! I want to make this but I do not have a slow cooker. Can I use a pressure cooker instead? or bake it in the oven? In either case how much would the cooking time be?

  7. This soup is going on it’s 5th hour and my potatoes are still not soft enough to mash. Are the potatoes supposed to be firm? Whats the consistency supposed to be for this soup? Chunky? Debating if I should let it cook for 6 hours on low? Can anyone advise?? I’ve never made potato soup before so not sure what to expect! Thank you!

    1. I diced the potatoes fairly small and cooked them in my slow cooker on high for 1 hour, and then on low for 5. The potatoes still had shape and were soft, but not mashed.

    2. I cut my potatoes into small chunks (about 1 cm), had them in the crock pot on high for 4.5 hours, and they are not yet soft. I can bite through them, but they still crunch a bit. Quite disappointed in this recipe. Sticking to my recipe from college.

  8. Have it in the crock pot right now!! Smelling really good, I know it’s going to be delicious ๐Ÿ™‚

  9. I tried this recipe and it was amazing! The only thing we changed was to add a whole pint of half and half instead of what the recipe said, and also used pre-cooked bacon from the store. It turned out much creamier and the flavor was awesome! Definitely keeping this recipe. My husband loved it from the first spoonful.

  10. This was the first time I ever made bake potato soup, and it was amazing. The whole family enjoyed it, even the pickiest 10 year old you will ever meet. I mixed the bacon and cheese right in!!

  11. I had to read the recipe twice because it’s SO easy I thought I was missing something! Pinned =)

  12. I tried one almost the same only difference more potatoes where used it was excellent I made it again as my husband even liked it.

  13. I’m freezing! This soup looks wonderful! You can also substitute cream with evaporated milk. I do it all the time and I’ve never noticed the difference.