Loaded baked potatoes are amazing, but you can’t cozy up and warm your hands on it like you can with a big bowl of soup! So let’s turn that baked potato and all of its delicious toppings into a thick and creamy, warm and cozy, delicious and filling bowl of Potato Soup to get us through the last couple of months of winter. This potato soup recipe has all the usual fixins like bacon, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and green onion all piled into a thick and velvety potato soup base. Soooo cozy!
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Potato Soup is an absolute must-make for cooler weather. It’s a recipe that anyone can make, and should be in your arsenal when craving a super easy comfort food recipe. This is a recipe I find myself making time and time again, and it’s always as good as the first time I tasted it. Readers agree, giving it a 5 star rating!
Ingredients
The ingredients for potato soup are very similar to a loaded baked potato or mashed potatoes, but the ingredients are mixed until they form a rich and creamy soup. Here’s what you’ll need to make this decadent potato soup:
- Bacon: Bacon gives the potato soup a deliciously smoky flavor, a rich mouthfeel, and a little bit of extra salt to help the other flavors pop.
- Onion & Garlic: Every great soup starts with onion and garlic for a deep savory base.
- Butter & Flour: Butter and flour combine to create a “roux” which thickens the soup and gives it that rich, silky texture.
- Chicken Broth & Milk: A combination of milk and broth ensures that the soup is creamy AND full of deep flavor.
- Potatoes: The star of the show, potatoes give the soup body while keeping the price low.
- Seasoning: We use a simple mix of smoked paprika, cayenne, salt, and pepper to season the soup.
- Sour Cream: To add even MORE rich creaminess to the soup, we add sour cream which also helps thicken the soup just a little bit more.
- Cheddar Cheese: Cheese gives the soup just a little bit more of a flavor punch.
- Green Onions: A much-needed pop of fresh flavor adds an incredible top note to every bowl.
What Kind of Potatoes Are Best for Soup?
I chose to use russet potatoes for this potato soup recipe for a few reasons. They mash easily and are a bit starchier than other potato varieties, which helps make a nice thick soup. Yukon Gold, which are slightly starchy and slightly waxy and hold their shape better, so they are a good option if you like your soup to be more on the chunky-soupy side rather than thick and velvety.
Looking for a Sweet Potato Soup? Check out my Creamy Sweet Potato Soup.
Optional add-ins
I love recipes that allow for fun add-ins or toppings, and this loaded potato soup recipe is definitely one of them! Here are a few other ingredients that you can add, if you have them on hand:
- Hot sauce
- Ranch seasoning
- Sweet corn
- Italian sausage
- Cauliflower (see my Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup)
- Garlic herb seasoning
- Everything But the Bagel seasoning
- A drizzle of BBQ sauce over each bowl
- Sometimes I also love to serve with tortilla chips
Loaded Potato Soup Recipe
Servings 6 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 4 oz. bacon ($1.37)
- 1 yellow onion, diced ($0.32)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced ($0.32)
- 3 Tbsp butter ($0.33)
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour ($0.03)
- 2 cups chicken broth ($0.26)
- 2 cups whole milk ($0.40)
- 2 lbs. russet potatoes, peeled & diced ($1.20)
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste) ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
- 1/2 cup sour cream ($0.37)
- 4 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded ($1.15)
- 3 green onions, sliced ($0.30)
Instructions
- Add the bacon to a large soup pot and cook over medium heat until brown and crispy. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a clean bowl or plate, leaving the bacon grease in the pot.
- While the bacon is cooking, dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add the onion and garlic to the pot after the bacon has been removed and cook over medium heat in the bacon grease until the onions are soft and translucent.
- Add the butter and flour to the pot and continue to stir and cook over medium heat for about two minutes to form a roux.
- Add the chicken broth and milk to the pot and whisk to dissolve all of the flour and butter.
- Add the diced potatoes to the pot, cover, and turn the heat up to medium-high to bring the broth up to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low and let the potatoes simmer for 15 minutes, or until they are very tender (easily pierced with a fork).
- Use a potato masher or immersion blender to mash the potatoes until the soup is to your desired thickness.
- Season the soup with smoked paprika, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Once seasoned, stir in the sour cream.
- Serve the soup hot and top each bowl with the crumbled bacon, sliced green onions, and cheddar cheese.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
Nutrition
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How to Make – Step by step
This potato soup recipe starts with BACON! Cook ¼ lb. of bacon in a soup pot over medium heat until brown and crispy. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a clean bowl or plate and leave the bacon grease in the pot.
While the bacon is cooking, dice one yellow onion and mince four cloves of garlic. Add them to the pot after removing the bacon and continue to sauté over medium heat in the bacon grease until the onions are soft and translucent.
Next, add 3 Tbsp butter and 3 Tbsp flour to the onions and garlic. Continue to cook and stir over medium heat for about two minutes. The butter and flour will form a roux that helps thicken the soup.
While the onions are sautéing, peel and dice 2 lbs. russet potatoes into ½-inch cubes. The smaller the cubes, the faster they’ll cook.
Add 2 cups chicken broth and 2 cups whole milk to the pot. Whisk to dissolve all the flour and butter, then add the diced potatoes.
Simmer the potatoes in the soup for about 15 minutes, or until they are VERY soft. The total time needed will depend on the size of your potato cubes, but you need to let them simmer until they’re easily pierced with a fork so that they’ll be easily mashable.
Use a potato masher or immersion blender to partially mash the potatoes or until the soup is to your desired thickness (some like it chunky, some like it smooth!).
Then it’s time to add some more seasoning. I added ½ tsp smoked paprika, ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, ½ tsp salt, and ¼ tsp freshly cracked pepper.
And lastly, to make the soup extra creamy and extra baked-potato-like, stir in ½ cup sour cream.
Slice three green onions and shred about 4oz. of cheddar cheese. Add the green onion, cheese, and crispy bacon to each bowl (or to the pot if you want to make a nice presentation for the dinner table).
Delish!
This is a very good recipe for potato soup!!!!!
This was a big hit at our house, my husband said he prefers this soup to baked potatoes which is high praise. I did modify it to make it vegetarian (for me) by cooking the bacon separately (non vegetarians used the bacon as a topping while I used Bacos) and cooking the onions in an extra tablespoon of butter. I used Better Than Bouillon Onion Base (because I ran out of the terrific No-Chicken Base) as the broth and it was delicious. Threw in a scoop of mushroom powder because it’s like nature’s MSG. Totally tasty and great as leftovers the next day, very filling and satisfying.
Wow!! So easy to make and so flavorful! My husband said this is the best soup I’ve ever made!
Ive used this recipe about 15 times now, or more. I was using this recipe when it was on an app before they rebranded. This is so so good! I love it, every time it comes together and it’s a comfort food. I just use way more bacon! I also sometimes don’t smash the potatoes, it still is delicious
I made this tonight to use up some russet potatoes I had it came out perfectly even though I added about a cup of extra broth because at first I thought it was too thick, I think it will thicken as leftovers though. Even my 6 year old who hates everything gave this a thumbs up. I took liberty with the seasoning as I always do in recipes. Really delicious!
Great recipe! I would love to know where you shop to get those good prices on ingredients. Or possibly these are before the big grocery inflation happened?
We do a lot of our shopping/pricing at Aldi and Kroger and these grocery prices were at the time of posting almost 2 years ago. The recipe prices are for the specific amount of that ingredient used, so for example, the price is for 4oz bacon, rather than the whole package of bacon, so $1.37. A package of bacon at Aldi at the moment is $4.69 for a 16oz package, so 4oz would actually be $1.17! :)
We love this recipe! Our younger children don’t exactly love the kick from the cayenne, but they still eat it up. It does thicken as leftovers, but that’s easy to thin out with milk or water when reheating. We haven’t done bacon b/c of being short on time, and it still is flavorful.
Where is the cream cheese that the narrative stated were used in combination with the sour cream to make it extra creamy? The cream cheese never showed up in the recipe instructions or the ingredient list.
Oops, that was a typo. I added that section of the blog post recently and was mixing this potato soup up with a different one. This one does not contain cream cheese. :)
Great recipe, but my potatoes did NOT cook in 15 minutes. It took closer to 45 minutes and that was with the potatoes diced into bite size chunks. I tried it with russet and yellow potatoes and ran into the same issue. Still good but may just need to account for extra cooking time.
Okay, I think I am the exception to the rule. I used yukon gold potatoes because it’s what I had on hand. I also used condensed milk. Otherwise, I followed the recipe to the letter. I ended up with a pot of wallpaper paste. Kind of sad.
Condensed milk is a thick syrup and sweet. That does sound like a recipe for disaster.
Condensed milk is very concentrated and sweetened. It’s not a suitable substitute for milk in this recipe at all. You could use evaporated milk, but you would have to dilute it. When you don’t have a good understanding of the ingredients and how they work, then you should follow the recipe to the letter. Like actually follow it.
Can one freeze this soup? (I would freeze 1-2 portion sizes).
While we haven’t tested freezing this soup, I would guess that it is not a good candidate for freezing because it has so much dairy, and a flour-thickened broth. Both of those elements tend to separate upon freezing and thawing.
I am teaching a young teenager to cook and follow directions EXACTLY. We noticed your directions left out the step of adding bacon, onions, and garlic back into the soup pot. I told her this was a good learning recipe to test how far she had come reguarding her culinary skills. Also, fir the garlic and spices, they need to say something like, “Optional, amounts are left to your liking.” This young lady doesn’t like the taste of onions so we used onion powder and less than a substitution chart would suggest. We also add diced ham to our soup. We just freeze the small chuncks of ham from a shank then use it here, green beans, eggs, pizza. Just an idea other than ham Salad. Thanks for posting this recipe and please do not let my comments stop anyone from making this delicious recipe. Last thought, I used just 1 cup of 2% milk, and had 1 cup of slightly outdated heavy whipping cream so I used that too. This gives a slightly sour cream taste.
What do you mean “back into the soup pot”? You’re never supposed to take the onions and garlic out. They cook down into the roux. The bacon that you cooked in the first step is topped on the soup at the end.
Made this for my family and it was a hit all around. I didn’t have sour cream but nobody noticed. It was really creamy and delicious anyway. Will definitely make it again!
Can i use 2% milk? I don’t have whole milk.
I made this. It’s good. I just found that my butter and flour burn in the bacon greese. So I ended up started over making the roux with butter, flower and a little chicken broth. I guess I should have turned the heat down after adding the butter. Can’t decide if I want to add sour cream or cream cheese. But it’s good without either one.
Yes, it will just be slightly less rich. :)
Love how delicious this soup is. I made a big pot over the weekend while friends were visiting. Big hit!
THIS WAS SO GOOD! My husband absolutely loved it. Made enough for 4 hearty bowls. My potatoes took about 18 minutes to get soft. Just so delicious!
Absolutely fabulous. I like a potato soup that has aspirations of being mashed potatoes in texture. I added a potato or two extra and this was perfect.
My first time making potato soup and it’s AMAZING! Will definitely make again.
If I wanted to add some broccoli, what would be the best place to do so? Cooked and at the end?
I’d add it uncooked with the raw potatoes or just after. It will only take 6-8 minutes to cook through. If frozen, I would thaw the broccoli slightly in a colander, salt it (to season it as well as draw out some extra moisture), and then add it directly to the pot. Frozen broccoli will also cook a bit faster than fresh, ~4-6 minutes. ~Marion :)
I wish it was possible to give more than four stars!! This is the best potato soup I’ve had and it’s so easy and it’s been a hit with everyone I’ve made it for.
Delicious soup! Absolute comfort food. My brother (with the appetite) came for some and left with some. I will make it again (double recipe) and freeze it. Thanks for the recipe.
Can I use red potatoes?
Sarah, while Beth prefers Russet and Yukon Gold (which she covers in the section called, “What Kind of Potatoes are Best for Potato Soup?”), I think red potatoes would be a great option, too! They would likely provide a texture somewhere in the middle of the other two (creamier than russet, slightly less so than Yukon.) If they are a larger variety, go ahead and peel them. If they are the smaller, “new” potatoes, and you don’t mind some flecks of the skins throughout the soup (I wouldn’t!) you could skip that step. ~ Marion :)
Followed recipe minus the sour cream (didn’t have any) and 2% milk (what I had) and it was fantastic! Excellent comfort food, thank you!
This soup is really good. It has layers of flavors. Sadly, it confirmed that I have become lactose-intolerant. Oh, well. But I recommend it highly.
So delicious! This is my new go-to potato soup. Thank you for this great recipe!
Absolutely love your soups! Easy to follow recipes and sooooo tasty. Thank you!
This is SO GOOD. I made it last night with extra potatoes from Thanksgiving and had the leftovers for lunch today. I don’t even particularly like potatoes, but this is delicious!! Thank you for another keeper. :)
I’m 61 and have never made potato soup before, so I was nervous. I shouldn’t have been – this was excellent! No whole milk but 2% worked fine. Mashed probably a quarter of the potatoes because we like potato soup chunky and it was plenty thick as is. We’re on a pretty strict budget but still like good food – this works well for us.
My one and only potato soup, so easy to prepare and flavour is delicious.
Wonderful!!!!
Really good but I felt it was somewhat bland. Had to add a fair amount of Cajun seasoning and extra pepper, to bring the taste up. I added the bacon, cheese, and green onions directly to the soup, at the end.I doubled the recipe because there’s so many of us {and so I won’t have to cook tomorrow night}. The family loved it and asked me to add broccoli next time, which I think will be awesome!
AMAZING as is or you can tailor it to what you have spice-wise. The first batch was devoured between my daughter and I with a lot less leftover than we should’ve had lol. The second time I just subbed a creole seasoning I had bc why not. It’s so good – can’t wait to make it a 3rd time even though it’s currently 1,000 degrees down here in the south. Thanks!
Can this be frozen?
Absolutely! Allow it to cool first. Then, place it in a freezer-safe container or a freezer bag. Consider freezing it in smaller packages (i.e. portioned out) so that you don’t have to eat it all in one sitting when you thaw it. XOXO -Monti
Great!!!!!!
Will Try it.
Wow wow wow. Amazing. Another huge hit in my house. I cut back on the milk and broth, didn’t blend anything, and am always generous with spices. Used all your ingredients except green onion because I didn’t have any. Didn’t add anything extra. I double every recipe on this site and only had 2 single meal size containers left of this lol. Thank you for such a tasty budget recipe!
Really great, versatile soup that was comforting and hearty. We added cannellini beans for added protein and it worked out perfectly! A great vehicle for all the delicious toppings :)
Bacon in my neighborhood in New York City is now $14.00 a pound!!!
even after having it for three days in a row, we were disappointed when it was all gone
Has anyone ever used cream cheese instead of sour cream?
Yes and it’s delicious! I have made it a few times already and use 2 tbsp to 4 tbsp of cream cheese.
Hello Beth. Thank for a perfect potato soup. Comforting and I had all the ingredients!! I followed your recipe and the second day I added some chopped, cooked broccoli that needed to be used. Still very wintery where I’m at so excellent supper choice.
This was so delicious! I had it with some baguette slices and it was amazing. I mixed in the bacon, cheese, and scallions instead of serving it with them on top and I thought it was delicious and decadent.
**With a gluten-free adjustment!** I was expecting generic baked potato flavor, in liquid form, and boy was I wrong. Such a satisfying dish!
A few adjustments I made: I cooked the bacon whole and crumbled later, used 3 T. gluten-free flour blend (BRM) instead of the 1/4 cup all-purpose (I find a 1-to-1 swap for a roux is a bad idea due to the xanthan gum, which turns it all into a paste), and I cut the cayenne in half for a bit more of a “comfort” soup, but I’m sure I’d have liked it with more kick too.
Amazing. I went running back for seconds.
This was delicious. I followed the recipe exactly and it came out great.
Hi Beth!
Is there a type of gluten free flour you would recommend for this? I’ve often found that any type of GF flour with rice in it never works out well in soups. Possibly almond flour? Thanks!
Hi! Unfortunately, I have zero experience using gluten-free flours, so I’m not sure what type would work for this recipe. :(
Your best bet would be to thicken with a cornstarch or arrowroot starch slurry at the end rather than to start with the roux.
I LOVE this recipe, so easy and delicious. I find it harder to reheat with the sour cream in it, so I just plop a dollop of sour cream in the middle of a hot bowl of soup, with the toppings, it looks fancy
This is going on the menu soon! Honestly I might just skip the roux and use more potato. The husband ran out to get potatoes last night. I needed 2lbs, it would’ve been fine and great if he chose a 5lb bag. He came home with a 10lb bag!
I have a 5lb bag of russets I got free at the grocery store last week, and was just baffled as to what to do with them, other than mashed potatoes. You have SAVED ME! This will be great in my Souper Cubes for a week’s worth of lunches!
One of the easiest and cheapest soup recipes known. Also fast. Beth, your version is particularly tasty. We ate delicious creamy potato soup at least once a week during the lockdown months of spring 2020 when my supermarket shelves were nearly empty during my twice monthly visits except for produce and dairy–8 lb bags of smaller and imperfect russets were only $2.79. My version is very similar except I don’t thicken with flour–just more potato, and if the finished soup is a little thin, instant potato flakes. And hooray for Better Than Bouillon–for which discovery I totally credit you! I also like to use a larger proportion of diced onion, possibly 6-8 oz onion to 1 lb potato. Like you, I prefer adding milk and not cream, and always save the bacon fat to saute the onion and garlic–with no butter in a roux, the fat calories are less an issue. Like you, I use a hand masher to get a more textured soup. It’s also a way to use up leftover baked, roasted, or mashed potatoes. Baffles me why anyone would ever order this simple and delicious favorite at a restaurant.
Trying this tonight- can’t wait!! Love all your recipes so much, they have always come out perfect!
Even better when you bake or roast the potatoes first!
Looks great! You have a small typo that could confuse some like it did me… “washable” instead of “mashable.” :)
Ha! Thank you for catching that! 😅