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This easy loaded baked potato soup recipe is simple to make, thick, and creamy. All your favorite baked potato flavors are packed into this comforting and warming meal!
You might also enjoy my Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole or Potato Soup with Bacon next.
Why you’ll love it
This baked potato soup is a favorite since it’s a hassle-free way to get all the cozy flavors of a loaded baked potato in a soup. Some readers have even said this is the one they’ve been searching for. It’s super hearty, and you’ve probably got most of the ingredients on hand.
In case you’re wondering, we’re not actually baking the potatoes for this soup. Techniques for making this recipe vary, but I find it easier to just get on with the soup and cook it all in one pot. I always go with the simpler option if the taste is there! And it definitely is.
What you’ll need
- Bacon – I’m a big fan of using bacon to enhance the flavor in dishes. Instead of using butter or oil in this recipe, I use the leftover bacon grease after crisping up the bacon for sautéing.
- Garlic and onion – my go-to is sweet (Vidalia) onions
- Potatoes – I like Russets best for this soup
- Flour and milk – while this baked potato soup is creamy, it doesn’t actually contain any heavy cream. I used whole (3%) milk along with some flour to thicken it.
- Chicken broth – to add more dimension to the broth
- Toppings – I chose sour cream for that classic baked potato flavor and creaminess, scallions for a pop of freshness, and freshly grated sharp cheddar along with the bacon!
What’s the best kind of potatoes to use?
- I prefer using Russet potatoes in this soup, which are often just labelled as baking potatoes at the grocery store, because they’re starchy and help thicken the soup nicely and are the preferred variety for baked potatoes. They also fall apart fairly easily, which is great for soups.
- I peeled them, but you could always scrub them and skip the peeling step. It’s totally up to you! Some people like the added texture.
Tools for this recipe
Check out Natasha’s favorite kitchen essentials, gadgets, and cookware!
- I like to mince garlic with this garlic press. It’s so handy.
- This is the Dutch oven I use, and kitchen shears make cutting up the bacon easy.
- I recommend grating your own cheddar from a block with a grater rather than using the pre-shredded kind in a bag. It melts way better and has a superior taste as well.
How to make baked potato soup
This is an overview with step-by-step photos. Full ingredients & instructions are in the recipe card below.
Cut up the bacon, and fry until crispy in a soup pot. Remove the bacon and set aside, and leave behind about half the grease. Add the onion, and sauté until softened. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Slowly whisk in the milk until the flour is dissolved.
Pour in the broth, and add the potatoes and garlic. Scrape up the browned bits, and increase the heat. Right before it boils, turn it down and simmer until the potatoes are tender, then mash if desired. Stir in the sour cream and most of the cheddar and bacon, leaving some for topping.
Garnish with the scallions and extra bacon and cheese, season generously with salt & pepper, and enjoy.
Pro tip
As with any creamy potato soup, it’s very important to add enough salt to bring out all the flavors.
Substitutions and variations
- To give this soup more texture, I like mashing the potatoes a little bit (I just use my potato masher and do it right in the pot), but you can skip that step if you want them to be more intact.
- Want to add a little heat? Add a generous pinch of cayenne pepper or some crushed red pepper flakes.
- You could always add some ham or shredded Easy Baked Chicken Breast if you want more protein in here.
What to serve with baked potato soup
- This soup definitely eats like a meal, but some sourdough bread would be the perfect thing to serve it with if you’re looking for something else.
- If you are looking for an all-out comfort food meal, however, try a slice of my Cheesy Garlic Bread.
- A side salad makes a great pairing since this soup is pretty rich. I recommend mixed greens with my better than Olive Garden Italian Dressing.
Leftovers and storage
- Store any leftovers of this soup in an airtight container for 3-4 days max in the fridge.
- When reheating this creamy baked potato soup, do it on a low heat, stirring often. You will likely need to add some more chicken broth because the potatoes continue to release starch. The longer the soup sits, the more it will thicken up.
- This soup is okay frozen, but I do find that freezing potato soups can make them a little grainy when reheated. It will still taste good, though. Freeze for up to 3 months.
More cozy soup recipes
Let me know if you’ve tried this loaded potato soup recipe in the comments below. You can also find me on Instagram. Tag me #saltandlavender to showcase what you made!
Easy Baked Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 6 strips bacon
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 4 large Russet potatoes diced
- 1/4 cup flour
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese or more to taste
- Chopped scallions to taste
- 3/4 cup sour cream or more to taste
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cut up the bacon and add it to a soup pot (I use kitchen shears to make this job easy). Fry the bacon over medium-high heat until it's nice and crispy (about 10 minutes).
- Meanwhile, prep your onion and potatoes. You can peel the potatoes like I did, or scrub them and leave them unpeeled if you prefer.
- Once the bacon is done, take it out of the pot and transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Leave about two tablespoons of the bacon fat in the pot (it's fine to eyeball it). Discard the rest of the bacon fat or reserve it to use in another recipe.
- Add the onion to the pot and sauté it for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the flour and cook it for about a minute.
- Whisk the milk in slowly until the flour has dissolved.
- Add the chicken broth, garlic, and potatoes. Increase the heat to high. Scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. When the soup is almost boiling, reduce the heat and cover the pot with the lid slightly open. Let the soup simmer gently for 20 minutes.
- While the soup's cooking, get the cheddar, scallions, and sour cream ready.
- The potatoes should be quite fall-apart tender by now. I like to take my potato masher and mash the potatoes a little bit right in the pot, but if you want to leave the potatoes as-is, that's fine too.
- Stir in the sour cream and most of the cheddar and bacon (I reserve some to top the soup with). Season the soup with salt & pepper as needed. Top each bowl with the scallions and remaining cheddar and bacon.
Notes
- If at any point the soup is too thick for you (especially when reheating it), add in some chicken broth slowly until your desired consistency is reached.
- I suggest reheating this soup on a low heat and stirring it often. The potatoes can cement on the bottom if the heat is too high.
- This recipe is also on page 165 of the Salt & Lavender: Everyday Essentials cookbook.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Is there a substitute for the sour cream? Is it required? Or can it just not be added at all?
I suppose you could leave it out, but it gives that signature “baked potato” flavor. You could try Greek yogurt (I’d use something higher fat so it’s less likely to curdle).
Hi Natasha! Just wanted to say I made this last night and used whole fat Greek yogurt as a substitute for the sour cream because it was all I had on hand. It turned out perfectly and tasted so similar to sour cream!
So glad you enjoyed it!! Yup, full fat Greek yogurt is very similar. Thanks for your review! 😀
Is there anyway I can use 2% milk instead of the canned milk? Help!
Hi Crys! Not sure what you mean about canned milk? The recipe calls for whole milk (homogenized) which is around 3% fat. I think 2% should be fine, but I will say there is a chance it could curdle if you boil it too much (perhaps let it warm up on the counter for a bit… don’t add it cold from the fridge straight into the soup), and the soup may end up slightly less rich, but hopefully not noticeably so.
Okay sounds good! And sorry I noticed I said canned milk after I posted it / and couldn’t edit it. I’ve been following another recipe that requires evaporated milk and my brain decided to put that lol thanks for the help!
Ohhh ok!! No worries haha.
Question. When you say prepare the potatoes- how exactly do I do that ? I know it’s a stupid question but I’m not much of a cook. Lol. Do I boil them and if so , do I use broth or water ?
Oh no worries!! That’s a perfectly good question… we all learn somewhere. 🙂 So, for this recipe, prep means to peel them (if you want) and then cut them up into cubes/dice them. That’s it. If you look at the ingredients list in most recipes, you will see that there’s usually preparation hints next to some of the ingredients. So, in this case, I put “diced” right in the ingredients list in grey text beside the potatoes, and then in step 1 of the recipe I indicate you can choose to peel the potatoes or not since there’s an option there. If the potatoes had to be peeled, I would simply put “peeled & diced” in the ingredients list and nothing in step 1 other than to prep the potatoes (or sometimes I would even leave that part out since really the ingredients list tells you that and it’s redundant info). In my recipes (and most recipes, in fact), unless otherwise indicated, you can always assume that ingredients are uncooked. If I wanted you to boil the potatoes first, I would clearly explain that because that would be a huge leap if I didn’t explain that in the recipe (or I’d put something like “1 pound of cooked potatoes” in the ingredients list, and then I’d probably put a note somewhere in the recipe itself, blog post, or recipe card notes section to explain how you should cook them). I hope this helps!! And let me know if you like the soup.
This was a great question because most of the recipes I looked up everyone says to bake the potatoes first so when I was reading your ingredients and you said prep potatoes I was kind of curious to that’s why I started looking through comments to see if anyone asked so I’m glad I found this to clear it up for me! Going to be making this for dinner tonight 😄🤞🏼
I’m glad you found your answer, Candace! I actually say in the blog post too (second paragraph) that I opted not to bake the potatoes and my logic as to why, but I am guessing you just skimmed thru! No worries, and I hope you enjoy the soup. Let me know how it goes. 🙂
Can you boil the potatoes first to speed the process?
Hi! I suppose you could give that a go.
This soup is delicious! I smashed most of the potatoes just like the recipe suggested and it made all the difference. It made it even more creamy. I agree that more cheese is nice and I would fry up more bacon too! But, it was so good!
I’m so pleased you enjoyed it, Pam!! 🙂
If I wanted to use heavy cream instead of milk would I use more chicken broth and less cream? Four cups of heavy cream would be a lot I would think…
Yes, that’s what I would do. Perhaps 1.5-2 cups cream and the rest with broth. Let me know how it goes! 🙂
Fantastic recipe! Easy to make and delicious. Its only 67 degrees today, but can’t wait to make it again when it gets cooler.
I’m so pleased you enjoyed it!! 🙂
Absolutely Delicious! I substituted yellow potatoes for preference and because that’s what I had on hand; it was still fabulous. Perfect fall weather soup😊 I will make this again!
Excellent! 🙂 So happy you enjoyed it!
Excuse me; 15 minutes prep time? You’re obviously not counting the time it would take to chop 6 slices of bacon, half an onion, however many scallions you want, and to peel and slice four potatoes.
Doing all the prep at once takes me about 10 minutes or less (I’m pretty fast), so yes, I figure 15 minutes isn’t exactly a bad estimate for most people. Everyone goes at a different pace, I guess? I use kitchen shears for the bacon and it takes like 2 minutes if that. In the recipe (step 2) I suggest to prep the onion and potato while the bacon is cooking, and some recipes wouldn’t even count that as separate prep time since cooking is already underway. So yeah, 15 minutes is pretty generous, actually. You can also prep the scallions and cheese while the soup is cooking (like I suggest in step 8).
I love your prep time response, and can’t wait to make this! Jess okay
🙂 Enjoy!
Eyeing this recipe for a future meal – but I had to LOL at this comment. You are notorious for your “30 minute meals” that always take me a full hour and 30 minutes. I am just such a newbie. It’s just a given. I still enjoy all of your recipes so much, so thank you!!!
Hahaha ah I’m glad for your sense of humor, Angela!!
I thought 15 minutes was pretty generous as well!!!!!! Lol… On any rate.. great recipe! We loved it!!!!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Nikki! 🙂
Took me 12 min. She is right on. Thanks!
okay let me just say YUM!! This was the best potato soup that i have ever made!! It was super easy to make and already had most of the ingredients on hand so can’t beat that! it was a super rainy and cold day so this was the perfect dinner ! thanks so much for an awesome recipe
Yay!! That’s great!! You’re welcome. 😀
This soup was absolutely delicious
Thank you!! Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Hi there-
Is it possible to use 1% milk for this recipe?
Thank you!
Hi Sara! I’m hesitant to recommend it. It is very thin and watery and you may not get the expected results. It could also curdle, which would not be good.