Creamy Potato Bacon Soup

Name: Creamy Potato Bacon Soup
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 10 strips bacon (plus more for garnish if desired); 2 tbsp salted butter; 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; 6 cups 2% milk (or whole milk); 2 cups chicken broth; 2 lbs russet potatoes (peeled, cubed (~2 inches)); 1 tsp salt (plus more to taste); 1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded, plus more for garnish); 1/2 cup sour cream; black pepper (to taste); 2 tbsp chives (chopped)

Jump to Recipe

Kicking off soup season strong with this classic Creamy Potato Bacon Soup! Potato soup combined with bacon pieces, cheese, sour cream, and topped with fresh chives. Yep – it’s basically loaded baked potato in soup form.

So yummy, so cozy, so needed as the weather gets colder! You are welcome.

Three ramekins filled with potato bacon soup, topped with toppings

If you love cozy soups, I’ve got more for you! Also check out some of my other favorites on the blog such as Texas Chili, Ground Beef Vegetable Soup, Stovetop Beef Stew, and Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup.

Table of Contents

Creamy Potato Soup with Bacon

Any dish that involves potatoes, bacon and cheese is most likely going to be a dish I end up loving. And this Creamy Potato Bacon Soup is no different.

That magical combo has proven to be well loved in so many recipes on the blog: Cheesy Bacon Potato Casserole, Baked Cajun Fries with Cheese Sauce, Loaded Baked Potato Salad…

And oops we totally did it again!

Creamy potato bacon soup is the latest potato/bacon/cheese recipe that you will love, crave and yes even have dreams about.

It is thick and creamy, yet not overly heavy, loaded with chunks of soft potatoes, flavored with bacon, cheese and sour cream.

Our creamy bacon potato soup is also the epitomy of coziness. Warm those cold hands by cupping a bowl of it. Snuggle up under a fuzzy blanket while you take bites into your potato bacon soup. Decompress by eating it in front of the television after a long day.

In addition to being the awesome comfort food that it is, I love that this creamy potato bacon soup recipe is super simple to make! Ready under 35 minutes and it calls for a short list of pantry-friendly ingredients.

Besides that, you can also prepare and freeze bacon potato soup ahead of time and it still taste like you just made in a few minutes ago.

A Dutch oven filled with creamy potato bacon soup topped with bacon, cheese and chives

Gather up the ingredients

For this creamy potato bacon soup recipe, you will need a large pot or Dutch oven 6qt or larger, a baking sheet to bake the bacon, and these simple, pantry-friendly ingredients:

Potatoes – I typically use russet potatoes for my creamy potato bacon soup, but any potato works great!
Bacon – Five strips of good quality, delicious bacon. You can, of course, add more if you really want to. Go crazy with the bacon – I can’t blame you for that. Trust me when I say – this is the magic ingredient. So yeah, go crazy…
Butter – preferably salted, and no you shouldn’t skip this! 😉
All-purpose flour – this will help thicken the soup and make it rich and creamy. Yum…
Milk – 2% or higher works best for this. For a creamier potato bacon soup, you can substitute half of the milk with half and half or heavy cream.
Chicken broth – I find that ‘free range’ chicken broth has the best flavor.
Shredded cheddar cheese – sharp, medium or mild. Whatever you prefer!
Sour cream – rounds out the flavor and makes it tastes like loaded baked potato
Salt and pepper – so important to open up flavors for all the ingredients above! You won’t believe how a little bit of added salt can bring so much flavor to this soup. If soup taste bland, try adding a little salt.

Let’s Make It

Two bowls of potato bacon soup topped with bacon, cheddar cheese and chives

Once you have all the ingredients, it’s time to make this Creamy Potato Bacon Soup happen!

Step 1: Cook bacon

First, we will need to cook the bacon, unless you are using ready-cooked bacon (which works as well). There are two ways to make this:

Oven-bake – less clean up, bacon cooks more evenly, and by far my favorite way to make bacon. To do this, bake bacon on a lined baking sheet for 15 minutes, or until it reaches your desired doneness.
Pan-fried – it takes less time to pan fry the bacon than it does to bake them, but there’s more clean up, grease will splatter onto your stovetop, and you’ll have to attend to the bacon while it cooks, compared to oven baking the bacon.

Step 2: Make the soup

Next, bring butter and flour to a large pot or a Dutch oven 6qt or larger. Set heat to medium high and stir to combine. Immediately after that, add milk and chicken broth and bring to a boil.

Once soup boils, add potatoes and salt. We will be adding more salt later but we are adding salt here to season the potatoes while they boil.

Using a potato masher or immersion blender, mash potatoes in soup briefly until they are in small chunks. If you don’t have either, you can use a fork to break potato into smaller pieces.

By breaking up the potatoes, we are also thickening the soup. Because potatoes are starchy – after breaking them into smaller pieces, soup will appear chunkier and thicker.

Keep in mind that potatoes don’t have to be mashed until fine. Just break it into smaller pieces to give creamy potato bacon soup a chunky texture.

Cooking potato soup in a pot, and then mashing up the potatoes

Then add cheddar cheese, sour cream and bacon to Loaded Baked Potato Soup. Stir and cook for a few more minutes to combine the flavors.

A large pot of creamy and thick potato soup

Boil creamy potato bacon soup until it reaches desired consistency. If soup gets too thick, add more chicken broth to thin it out.

Stir continuously so that the bottom of the pot doesn’t burn. Add salt and pepper to taste to open up the flavors.

Once potato and bacon cream soup is done, remove from heat and serve immediately!

Don’t forget to garnish! I like to add more bacon pieces, cheese, and chives to my Creamy Potato Bacon Soup.

I highly recommend serving with some crusty bread to soak up all that yummy soup! Yum yum yum!

A large pot of thick potato soup topped with shredded cheese, bacon pieces and chives

Tips and Tricks

A few things to take note when making Creamy Potato Bacon Soup:

Cut potatoes in small cubes (~2 inch) so that it doesn’t take long to cook and soften.
To thin out soup, add more chicken stock. Too thicken soup, boil for longer and stir continuously until creamy potato bacon soup reaches desired consistency.
Salt added at the end is to open up the flavors, not just to add saltiness. So taste and add salt until you can taste yummy flavors in the soup!

Substitutions and Variations

To make soup even creamier and richer, use whole milk instead of 2% milk, or substitute part of the milk with half and half and heavy cream.
Add herbs such as thyme, parsley to the soup for more flavor.
Recipe calls for russet potatoes but feel free to use yellow potatoes, red potatoes, or any potatoes!
Other cheese to use: Colby jack, mozzarella, any cheese that melts easily works well for this! Avoid hard cheeses.

Spooning out some potato bacon soup from a bowl

Frequently Asked Questions

What to do to thicken or thin out my creamy potato bacon soup?

To thicken, simply cook for longer until soup reaches desired consistency. To thin out soup, add more chicken broth.

Can you freeze potato bacon soup?

Yes! It freezes really well. Bring soup to cool completely and store in an airtight container. Do not add garnish before freezing. Freeze in freezer for up to 3 months.

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