This easy potato soup recipe is absolutely delicious. It's easy and quick to put together and definitely a meal the whole family will love!
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Quick Potato Soup Recipe
This quick potato soup recipe is a perfect dish for a quick dinner anytime. I've used this recipe for everything from family dinners to parties! It's a hit every time. It also freezes really well which makes it great for meal planning, delivering dinner to a friend, or storing leftovers.
Best Potato Soup Ingredients
- Bacon
- Onion
- Carrots
- Celery
- Potatoes
- Chicken Broth
- Milk or Half and Half
- Season Salt
- Pepper
For a full list of ingredients and measurements, see the recipe card below.
What potatoes should I use for easy potato soup?
The texture of this simple potato soup greatly depends on what kind of potatoes you use. Russet potatoes will have a more fluffy texture, while red potatoes or Yukon gold potatoes will have a creamier texture.
I love it both ways, so use whatever you have on hand. I also like to thin mine down quite a bit - it can get pretty thick! Keep some extra milk on hand to get it to your favorite texture and consistency. Either way, this turns out to be a really creamy potato soup recipe.
How To Make Homemade Potato Soup
- In a large dutch oven, cook strips of bacon until crispy. Remove from pan.
- Cook the carrots, onion, and celery in bacon grease until the onions are translucent.
- Add potatoes, salts, and pepper. Mix well, and let cook for a few minutes.
- Add chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the potatoes are very soft, about 15 minutes.
- Blend the soup, if desired. I do this with an immersion blender but you can also transfer the soup to a blender. Be VERY careful when doing this, as hot liquids will expand. Never fill the blender over halfway with hot soup.
- Add the hot sauce and milk. Add the milk gradually until the soup is as thick or thin as you prefer. You may not need to use all of it.
- Add the chives and parsley and adjust seasonings or consistency, if needed.
I like to serve with sour cream, cheese, and then crumble the bacon on top.
Tips For Perfectly Making Potato Soup
Potato soup will be more creamy if you use a potato with a creamy texture like yukon gold or red. Using half and half will also contribute to that perfectly creamy potato soup texture.
Can I freeze this easy potato soup?
Yes! A definite resounding yes. This potato soup is one of my favorite recipes to freeze - and you should all know by now that I love my freezer.
When I freeze this potato soup I still make it according to the recipe, but I don't add the chopped bacon because it gets squishy. This soup definitely qualifies as a potato bacon soup so don't skip adding it or cooking with the grease, those steps add great flavor. I usually save the bacon and use it in another recipe and then make fresh bacon to serve with the frozen soup.
When serving this easy potato soup after freezing, you may need to adjust the consistency a little bit with water, broth, or milk. Use whatever you prefer to get it to your desired consistency.
As always, my favorite way to freeze soup is to portion it into plastic zipper bags and lay them flat on a cookie sheet until they are frozen, then I stack them upright in my freezer. You can also use disposable soup containers that stack and those are super handy as well!
FAQs Homemade Potato Soup
There are several different ways that you can thicken up your potato soup recipe.
The simplest way is to take some of the soup and blend it into a puree before stirring it back into the soup mixture. This is best done for the chunky potato soups.
If you have a creamy potato soup that needs thickening, adding in some instant mashed potato flakes can get the job done well. You could also stir in a cornstarch slurry to help get the soup a bit thicker as well. All three of these methods work well, so use whichever method is most convenient.
If using russet potatoes then the answer is yes. Russet potatoes (baking potatoes) have much thicker skin than red or yellow potatoes and will result in chewy skins throughout the soup that many people will find to be unpleasant.
Red and yellow potatoes have much thinner skin that once cooked, becomes virtually unnoticeable. You can choose to peel these potato skins or leave them on.
Flour is a thickener when added to soups and stews. It helps to make the soup slightly thicker, giving it more of a body and making it less broth-like.
Possible Variations
There are so many different potato soup recipes out there that the variations are limitless. Some great options include:
- Ham and potato soup
- Cheesy potato soup
- Potato leek soup
- Loaded potato soup
Ham and potato soup
Cheesy potato soup
Potato leek soup
Loaded potato soup
Can I make this easy potato soup in my slow cooker or crockpot?
Absolutely! I make this in the slow cooker all the time. There are a few different ways you could approach making it in the slow cooker:
- Skip the saute steps and simply add the veggies, potatoes, seasonings, and broth to the slow cooker. Cook on low up to 8 hours and high up to 4 hours or until the potatoes are tender. Blend and add the remaining ingredients. Cook an additional 30 minutes.
- OR: Do the saute steps in a skillet, combine the sauteed veggies with the potatoes, seasonings and broth in the slow cooker and then continue as described above.
- OR: If you have an Instant Pot, follow the recipe as written except instead of simmering, slow cook as described in the first bullet point. I haven't tried the pressure cook setting on this recipe yet but will update when I do!
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Easy Potato Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 strips of bacon
- 1 medium onion (diced)
- 3 medium carrots (diced)
- 2 stalks of celery (diced)
- 3 lbs potatoes (rough chop, russet, red or gold, medium sized)
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 2 cup whole milk (or half and half, divided)
- 1 teaspoon season salt
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 3 teaspoons hot sauce (optional)
- 2 tablespoons chives (fresh, chopped)
- 2 tablespoons parsley (fresh, chopped)
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven, cook strips of bacon until crispy. Remove from pan.
- Cook the carrots, onion, and celery in bacon grease until the onions are translucent.
- Add potatoes, salts, and pepper. Mix well, and let cook for a few minutes.
- Add chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the potatoes are very soft, about 15 minutes.
- Blend the soup, if desired. I do this with an immersion blender but you can also transfer the soup to a blender. Be VERY careful when doing this, as hot liquids will expand. Never fill the blender over halfway with hot soup.
- Add the hot sauce and milk. Add the milk gradually until the soup is as thick or thin as you prefer. You may not need to use all of it.
- Add the chives and parsley and adjust seasonings or consistency, if needed.
- I like to serve with sour cream, cheese, and then crumble the bacon on top.
Mary
Made last night. Was delicious. Husband said at least 3 times how good it was..I modified to what had on hand.
Brittany
Question...I am using potatoes from my garden which are all different sizes. Can you estimate about how many pounds of potatoes you use in this soup? That will help me a lot!
Alli
Hi! Yes, I need to update that in the recipe card. It's about 3 pounds of potatoes. Thank you for clarifying!
Alli
Great for a dreary day!
Rich
Bacon, Num, num!