Description
This Ultimate Potato Soup recipe delivers a creamy, comforting bowl of goodness made with crispy bacon, tender gold potatoes, aromatic onions, and a hint of ancho chili powder. Perfect as a hearty meal or a cozy starter, it blends smooth pureed potatoes with chunky bits for the ideal texture, topped with cheddar cheese, sour cream, and chives.
Ingredients
Scale
Main Ingredients
- 6 strips bacon, uncooked, cut into small pieces
- 3 tablespoons butter, unsalted or salted
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 1.5 cup/200g)
- 3 large garlic cloves, minced
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (42g)
- 2 ½ lbs gold potatoes, peeled and diced into pieces no larger than 1 inch (about 6 large potatoes/1.15kg)
- 4 cups chicken broth (945ml)
- 2 cups milk (475ml)
- ⅔ cup heavy cream (155ml)
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon ancho chili powder
- ⅔ cup sour cream (160g)
Optional Toppings
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Chives
- Additional sour cream
- Additional cooked bacon pieces
Instructions
- Cook bacon: Place bacon pieces in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat and cook until crisp and browned; then remove bacon and set aside, leaving the fat in the pot.
- Sauté onions and butter: Add butter and chopped onion to the pot and cook over medium heat until onions are tender, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add garlic: Stir in minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add flour: Sprinkle flour over the ingredients in the pot and stir until smooth, using a whisk if needed to avoid lumps.
- Add potatoes and liquids: Add diced potatoes along with chicken broth, milk, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and ancho chili powder; stir well to combine.
- Cook potatoes: Bring the soup to a boil, then cook until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork, about 10 minutes.
- Puree soup: Reduce heat to a simmer and remove about half of the soup to a blender (or use an immersion blender) to puree until smooth; carefully return pureed soup to the pot.
- Add sour cream and bacon: Stir in the sour cream and reserved bacon pieces until well combined.
- Simmer and serve: Allow the soup to simmer gently for 15 minutes before serving. Top with additional sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, bacon, or chives as desired.
Notes
- Start with less salt and adjust to taste, as saltiness depends on the broth brand used.
- If unfamiliar with ancho chili powder, start with ¼ teaspoon and increase to ½ teaspoon if desired after tasting.
- For a completely creamy soup, puree all of the soup in batches; pureeing half keeps some chunky texture preferred by many.
- Use an immersion blender for easier and safer pureeing directly in the pot.
- Choosing gold potatoes helps achieve a creamy texture without disintegrating too much.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 320 kcal
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 700 mg
- Fat: 20 g
- Saturated Fat: 11 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 8 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 28 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 8 g
- Cholesterol: 50 mg
