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.
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Equipment
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!
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 :)