Love loaded baked potatoes? Then you’ll love this baked potato soup! Top it with all the classic favorites like crispy bacon, sour cream, chives, and cheddar.
Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Here’s a classic soup that’s perfect for potato lovers—baked potato soup!
This isn’t your ordinary potato soup. This soup is made with mashed up baked potatoes, onion, celery, and stock, puréed and then topped with classic baked potato toppings like crumbled crispy bacon, grated cheddar cheese, sour cream, and chives. It’s truly a loaded baked potato soup.
Dad-Approved
My father, being the potato-craving German he is and therefore completely biased, raved about this potato soup. Of course he did. How could he not? It’s a baked potato, with all the toppings, in soup form.
If you are careful about how you cut and scoop out the potato stuffing, you can even save the skins for the perfect game day snack—baked potato skins.
The Best Potatoes for this Soup
Use Russet potatoes to make this soup since they mash more easily into a purée. (This soup is also a great way to use up leftover baked potatoes.) Red potatoes and Yukon golds are less starchy and don’t break down as easily in a soup.
How to Make a Thicker, Heartier Soup
It’s easier to thin out a thick soup than thicken up a thin soup. So if you’re a fan of thick, hearty soups, start out with only adding four cups of chicken stock. After puréeing and mashing, add as much additional broth as needed to reach the consistency you want.
How to Store and Reheat Potato Soup
The baked potato soup will keep for about five days, and reheats well either in the microwave or over low heat on the stovetop. If you’re heating it in the microwave, reheat in 1-minute intervals, stirring between each, to avoid hot spots in your soup (which tend to burst and get soup all over your microwave).
Potato soups generally don’t tend to freeze very well — the texture tends to become watery upon reheating — so plan on eating this up the week you make it.
More Stick-to-Your-Ribs Soups and Stews
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
- Ham and Potato Soup
- Black Bean Soup
- Easy Tuscan Bean Soup
Baked Potato Soup Recipe
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Potatoes love salt, so if you are using homemade stock or low sodium stock that isn’t well seasoned, you’ll need to add more to this soup to make up the difference.
Ingredients
- 4 pounds russet potatoes (about 7 medium potatoes)
- 1/4 pound thick sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1/8-inch slices (lardons)
- 1 large onion, finely chopped (about 2 cups)
- 2 ribs celery, finely chopped
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (more to taste)
- 1/8 teaspoon of ground white or black pepper
- 2 to 4 tablespoons heavy cream (optional)
Garnishes:
- Grated sharp cheddar cheese
- Sour cream
- Minced chives
- Crumbled bacon (from step 2 in method)
Method
1 Bake the potatoes: Scrub the potatoes clean and poke them all over with the tines of a fork or paring knife (this is so they don’t explode from internal pressure building up as they cook). Place on a foil lined baking sheet and bake at 400°F for 1 hour, or until easily cut through with a knife.
Remove and let cool enough to handle. (To speed up cooling, slice them in half lengthwise.)
2 Cook the bacon: Place bacon lardons in a large, thick bottomed Dutch oven (about 5 to 6 quart pot). Heat on medium high until the bacon starts to brown then lower the heat to medium.
Cook until the bacon has rendered most of its fat and the lardons are browned and crispy. Remove the cooked bacon and set aside.
Remove all but 1 tablespoon of bacon fat from the pan. (Do not discard bacon fat in your sink, it will clog the drain. Pour the fat into a jar and let it cool and solidify. Then either scoop it out and discard it or use it for another purpose.)
3 Cook onion and celery in the bacon fat: Add the chopped onion and celery to the remaining bacon fat in the pot. Cook for 2 minutes on medium high, then lower the heat to low, and cover the pot. Let cook slowly on low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.
4 Scoop out baked potatoes, add it and chicken stock to pot: When potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop out the insides to a bowl. Then add it to the cooked onion and celery mixture along with 6 cups chicken stock. Add a teaspoon of kosher salt.
Bring the soup to a simmer and reduce the heat to low.
Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes into the stock.
5 Purée some or all of the soup: Cook the potato soup for about 5 minutes, then use an immersion blender to purée about half of the soup if you want a slightly chunky soup, or purée all of it if you want a smoother soup.
6 Add cream: Stir 2 to 4 tablespoons of heavy cream into the soup if you want a creamier soup. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
7 Top with grated cheddar, sour cream, chives, bacon: Pour into bowls and top with grated cheddar, sour cream, chives, and crumbled crispy bacon.
