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
- 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 was AMAZING. I used only 2 tbsp of butter and 1/3 cup of sour cream and it was still 10/10.
This recipe is just normal. It took well over 2 hours to make and only makes about 4 normal bowls. I would suggest double checking the portion size as advertised in the recipe. There is absolutely no way. The prep time is only 15 minutes and the entire process is less than an hour based on all the chopping in the stirring in the sautéing and making the roux.
Awesome and easy! Vegetarian so I left out the bacon and doubled the salt. Made it for friends and served with salad. Got compliments from everyone. Been using Budget Bytes for around 8 years now and Beth 👏🏻 Moncel 👏🏻 never 👏🏻 misses 👏🏻!
YUM!! This soup is tasty. Full disclosure – I do not like smoked anything, so I replaced the smoked paprika with regular paprika, and left out the cayenne pepper. I did add a bit more salt and pepper to it. I would definitely make this again!
This is a go-to for me! I meal prep it and it is good every time I heat it up! The recipe is easy, and quick. I also enjoy that I can substitute things I might not have and it is still so tasty!
This recipe’s amazing! Made it today, and it was delicious. Thanks! Potato soup’s a fave but I’d never made it before seeing this recipe 😋❤️
This potato soup was delicious! I added some ham because I had some and decided not to add sour cream only because it was plenty thick for me. I might try it with sour cream next time because we do like sour cream.
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. :)