Published January 27, 2021.This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Warm-up during those cold winter months with this delicious creamy Homemade potato soup recipe that is topped off with cheese and bacon!
Soup is and has always been my first love! I love the comfort; I love being able to graze on it all day and have always enjoyed making it. If you are the same, then please check out my Mulligatawny or Pork Pozole.
Potato Soup
Potato soup is a very simple to make a thick and hearty soup that sticks to the bones. It has few ingredients and can come in the form of a thick creamy chowder or smooth and creamy, or even a combination of the two. In addition, it can be made from a russet, Yukon gold, red bliss, or even with a little sweet potato thrown into the mix.
Here are the basic ingredients in a classic potato soup:
- Bacon
- Onions
- Garlic
- Celery
- Potatoes
- Chicken Stock
- Cream
How to Make Potato Soup from Scratch
Follow along with these easy to prepare steps for making a potato soup recipe:
Render the bacon fat and cook until the bacon lardons are crisp. Remove the bacon and set it aside.
Add the onions to the pot with the rendered bacon fat and caramelize on low heat for 40 to 45 minutes.
Next, stir in the celery and garlic and cook for 4-6 minutes on low to medium heat.
Stir in the flour and mix until completely combined.
Pour in the potatoes and chicken stock and bring to a boil to thicken up.
Add the cream to the mixture and keep it at a boil to ensure that it is thick.
Puree half of the soup with a hand blender or in a blender.
Mix in the seasonings and serve with optional toppings.
How to Make it Thicker
If you get to the point in your soup when after adding cream and pureeing it that it is still thin, then you should make a slurry and mix in it. here is how to do it:
- Whisk together a ½ cup of corn starch with 1/3 cup of cold water until completely mixed together.
- Stir it into the soup and bring it to a boil to activate.
What Can I Add for More Flavor?
The most important thing to add to a potato soup to add more flavor is of course salt and pepper. The other things I like to add in are Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce. To take it even a step further place on the following toppings when serving:
- Crispy Bacon Lardons
- Sour Cream
- Shredded Cheddar
- Sliced Green Onions
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: You can make this up to 2 days ahead of time but is perfect to serve up as soon as it is made.
How to Store: Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 6 days. To freeze, cover, and keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator for up to 1 day before reheating.
How to Reheat: Add the desired amount to a medium-size pot and heat over low heat until hot. You may need to add a little water if it is too thick.
More Soup Recipes
- Beef and Barley
- Zuppa Toscana
- Pasta e fa*gioli
- Matzo Ball
- Italian Minestrone
Be sure to follow me onFacebook,YouTube,Instagram,andPinterest,and if you’ve had a chance to make this then definitely drop me a comment and a rating below!
Video
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Homemade Potato Soup Recipe
5 from 38 votes
Warm-up during those cold winter months with this delicious creamy Homemade potato soup recipe that is topped off with cheese and bacon!
Servings: 10
Prep Time: 11 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes
Ingredients
- 12 ounces of chopped bacon
- 3 peeled and small diced yellow onions
- 3 small diced celery stalks
- 4 finely minced cloves of garlic
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 pounds peeled and medium diced russet potatoes
- 3 quarts chicken stock
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- sea salt and pepper to taste
- Worcestershire sauce to taste
- tabasco sauce to taste
Instructions
Add the bacon to a large pot over medium heat and cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the crisp bacon lardons and set them aside.
Pour in the onions and caramelize over low heat until well browned for about 40 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Next, mix in the celery and garlic and sauté for 4-6 minutes.
Mix in the flour until completely combined.
Pour in the potatoes and stock and bring to a boil to thicken.
Pour in the cream and cook for 3-4 minutes and then puree half of the soup to smooth out and thicken more but still have chunks in it.
Season with salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and tabasco sauce.
Add on optional toppings of sour cream, crispy bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, and sliced green onions.
Notes
Chef Notes:
- Make-Ahead: You can make this up to 2 days ahead of time but is perfect to serve up as soon as it is made.
- How to Store: Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 6 days. To freeze, cover, and keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator for up to 1 day before reheating.
- How to Reheat: Add the desired amount to a medium-size pot and heat over low heat until hot. You may need to add a little water if it is too thick.
Nutrition
Calories: 590kcalCarbohydrates: 53gProtein: 17gFat: 35gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 96mgSodium: 661mgPotassium: 1221mgFiber: 3gSugar: 7gVitamin A: 729IUVitamin C: 14mgCalcium: 76mgIron: 3mg
Course: Soup
Cuisine: American, French
Author: Chef Billy Parisi
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71 comments
- Donna Woods
Best potato soup EVER! My family, friends and neighbors request this often.
- Reply
So good!!
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- Elizabeth
I have made this several times. It’s so good!
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appreciate you trying it
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- Marcia
My family and I absolutely love this recipe on a cold night for dinner.
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- Jill
Just made this soup today. Added some cubed ham, and this is my new favorite!!!
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- Robin A Shousky
Made this soup yesterday, absolutely wonderful and easy to make! Included all the fixins also! Had to use the slurry because my flour did not work, but the slurry worked out beautiful, This is a great tip to know! Thank you for that! Will make this again and again!
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- Carly
Literally the best potato soup I’ve ever tasted all my friends agree too
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- Angela Krivchenia
This is a fabulous potato soup, the carmelized onions max out the flavor and give a good base to layer all of the homemade goodness. I have made this several times and it is a step above most soup.
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- Sandy
It was delicious! You should try it!!!
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- Gloria
Billy, the potato soup recipe turned out delicious. I added some Virginia country ham that I had left over from Christmas 23. Thank you. I love your recipes. Please keep on doing what you love. It shows in your recipes!
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- Shiela
Best potato soup I ever made!
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- Sylvia
Made it for the American Legion Christmas gathering, and it was another hit! Thank you for sharing your recipes and expertise with us. 💕
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my pleasure!
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- Sylvia
I’ve made this a few times for potluck and it always disappears right away. So good! 😋
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- Shiela
One of my all time favorite dishes!
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- Sharalyn
So very good. Love you recipes.
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- Chef Billy Parisi
Thank you!
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- Jim
This is great soup. A little variation… Just when the potatoes are done I add chopped celery and then a thickener. Then milk at the end. I like a little crunch that the celery provides with little cooking.
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- Chef Billy Parisi
appreciate you trying this!
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- Donna Woods
Thought I could make potato soup… But this is amazing, good to the last drop 😘
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so good!!
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- Patricia CoulteR
Made this last night. So dang good!
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- Heidi Schmitt
There was a Potato soup at a restaurant in LBI, NJ that my cousin am I loved. For 20 years we tried recipes, none came close. This Potato soup blew it out of the water. I didn’t change a thing! I make a few gallons and freeze qts. 1 of my friends asks for a qt when I visit instead of a bottle of wine.
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- Robin Shelton
I loved this! I added a little bit of Tarragon and the family REALLY went for it!
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nice!
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- Jeanie Kristek
This is the bomb potato soup with the carmelized onions!!! Don’t forget a couple dashes of hot sauce and worchestershier sauce. You won’t regret it.
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- Susan Smith
I am trying, I don’t understand your conversion, I am single I found cooking for 1 , how much is 0.3 onions??
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1/3 of an onion.
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- Nancy white
I am out of heavy cream; can I use yogurt or just milk?
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milk, but you may need to thicken it with a roux or slurry.
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- Kim Irvin
The best potato soup and oh so easy to make! It is delicious!!!
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appreciate it
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- Donna Woods
Perfect!!! Always thought my potato soup was great, but this was amazing!
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thanks for giving it a shot!!
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- Diane Shoemaker
I’m a soup lover…made this and was over joyed with how good it is. Going to try to make all your soups
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Excellent!
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- Kim
I loved this recipe. I’ve made it twice over the winter. Taking time with the onions makes all the difference!
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Definitely!
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- Pat Coulter
So good! I finally found a great recipe for the perfect soup
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Perfect!
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- Anna
Cooking the onions slow and low really intensifies the flavor.
Ive been using this method for other recopes as well. It about time to make another potof soup!- Reply
Exactly!
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- Ally Coffel
I love this recipe so much. I have made it twice and it gets better every time. My kids love it too!
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so good!!
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- Norma
Excellent recipe and soup! Hubby ate whole pot!
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Love it!
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- Monica Degand
My first recipe of yours and my daughter’s absolute favorite. Like, I can’t make this enough for her. She might even be willing to learn this recipe herself she loves it so much.
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Amazing!
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- Thomas Murin
Great step by step process and taste delicious!
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- Mary
Best recipe for Potato Soup I’ve eaten, I substituted the white potatoes for sweet potatoes and the flavors were still amazing, I actually liked the sweet potatoes better (: Chef Billy love your recipes and the detail information you provide, bon appetite 😋
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- Elaine Zimmerman
Best potato soup recipe !! I have been making it and sharing with friends and family.
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- Laura Jensen
Excellent recipe as always! It was a snowy day today and hubby said it was fantastic! Perfect balance of flavors and we added sour cream, cheeses and bacon on top. Thank you!
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- Dorene
Absolutely delicious. Thank you Chef Billy. ❤
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- Deb
I made this potatoe soup today and it turned out great! I omitted the splash of hot sauce, but added a bit of fresh grated nutmeg towards the end of cooking. I used a mix of Yukon gold and russet potatoes, and found it much easier to dice the russets more uniformly. We will be having potatoe soup for a couple more days, as I made your full recipe!! So glad to have found your videos and I love learning from you!
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- Dr. Paul S. Sussman
I’ve made it twice now. It’s perfect for the winter break because my son is in university and during the break we have time to take a few extra minutes to make something really good.
This time I listened to you when you said “use what you have.’ Well, I had leeks which I substituted for onions, and I had some frozen shrimp that weren’t getting any better over time. I also have a hand powered food processor (blades rotate as you pull on a spring-loaded string.) I added some sherry while making the rough. We fried, peeled, and chopped the shrimp into 1/4 ” chunks and threw them in with the cream. Dang! So good. If I’d been served it in a well-known gourmet restaurant I seriously would not have been disappointed. I really recommend adding any kind of seafood to this, it’s such a good chowder base. Thanks, Billy. Although I am not a Christian, best wishes for a Merry Christmas to you and yours.
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- Jessica Barnett
Is there a cook time for the potatoes once they go in and boil? And then add the cream?
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Just bring the mixture to a boil. Once it’s there, you’re good.
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- Bil Spicer
Usually potatoes take about 20 minutes to cook all the way through so I would back it down to 16-20 minutes and maybe check to see how done the potatoes are with a fork.
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- Lori Dudas
I’m making this for dinner tonight! You mentioned in the lead-up to the cooking portion of the video about a pub that made potato soup with the inclusion of sweet potato. I’d like to try that but I wonder what the ratio of white to sweet potato was in the version you mentioned. Do you have a ballpark idea? I’d be curious to see you do a version of that.
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maybe 1/4 sweet potatoes to 3/4 russets.
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- Mimi
As I was reading your recipe, I noticed that you recommended using a cornstarch slurry for further thickening. Would it be advisable to use potato starch, which I often use, instead? Thanks for your hard work bringing us these fabulous recipes and info.
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- Debbie
I just found it 🤦🏻♀️1/2 cup.
I do have another question would the soup be good using all sweet potatoes?
Would I cook it the same way as the russet potatoes?- Reply
Would probably be a little overkill, but you could do 1/2 and 1/2. Same cooking time.
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- Kevin (Kevbo) Graves
My first recipe of yours. I have to say, it was worth every bit of effort I put into it. My immersion blender was MIA so I had to use a sausage smasher on half the potatoes, but it was no problem. The onions being caramelized is the star of this soup. I put on some tunes and did all my prep and enjoyed myself making this. I will be making many more of your recipes. I especially like your low-key approach. Some Chefs are absolutely neurotic about things, and you are the polar opposite. Still, when you say do it this way, I do it.
I used Better than Bullion Chicken broth and the broth in the potatoes was off the chain. You are my new hero! Thank you Chef!- Reply
- Virginia Campoy
My 87 year old mother and I enjoyed an afternoon making this delicious soup together. A wonderful time to enjoy each other’s company and a fantastic meal. Thank you!
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- Linda
I found this recipe yesterday, had all the ingredients already and it sounded so perfect for a cold night that I made it right away. Wow! My husband and I loved it! I used Yukon Gold potatoes and they took longer to cook tender but it was midday when I made the soup so it didn’t delay meal time. The only thing the recipe needs is to say when to add the bacon back into the pot. I added it back right after step 6 as I didn’t want to puree any of it. Great recipe! I love soups and stews for dinner as I can make a big batch early in the day and then just reheat.
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Hey Linda! You actually don’t add the bacon back in, you use it as a garnish at the end when serving it.
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- Rehab
Very amazing, I loved it! and watched the video on Facebook, and the way to prepare it is not difficult, and nutritious and gives us energy with this cold weather, especially there in Chicago the snow covers everything, this recipe will give them energy and warmth. It is a amazing recipe with the mixture of these colors as if it were a painting. You are great at everything Chef, you are an artist too, thank you.
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- Sharon
Making this today.. looks so good
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- Sandy
Love your recipes
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