Loaded Baked Potato Soup (Crock Pot Recipe)
This is the best potato soup recipe! It's loaded with flavor, along with cheese, bacon, and chives. Using the crock pot makes for an easy home cooked meal!
Ingredients
- 1 pound bacon
- 1 medium white onion diced
- 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes peeled and diced into ½” pieces
- 6 cups chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 8 oz. cream cheese cut into cubes
- ½ cup sour cream
- 3 cups grated cheddar cheese medium or sharp cheddar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup chives finely chopped
Instructions
- Chop bacon into small pieces (about ½”). In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from the grease with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add the diced onion to the bacon grease in the skillet and saute (over medium heat) until translucent. Transfer onion to the bottom of the crockpot, reserving about 2 tablespoons of bacon grease in the skillet.
- Add potatoes and chicken stock to the crockpot.
- Cook on HIGH for 3 hours.
- Add cream cheese, sour cream, and 1 cup cheddar cheese to the crockpot and continue cooking an additional 30 minutes until the cheeses have melted.
- Use a potato masher or immersion blender to break down some of the potato chunks until desired consistency is reached.
- To further thicken the soup, add the 2 tablespoons of flour to the reserved 2 tablespoons of bacon grease in the skillet. Cook over medium heat until the flour is bubbly. Whisk in heavy cream until a smooth, but thick paste forms.
- Stir the flour/cream mixture into the soup. Cook 15 more minutes.
- Stir in ½ of the bacon pieces.
- Serve soup with reserved cheese, bacon, and chives.
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Notes
Storage: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Because of the cheese and cream in this soup, freezing is not recommended as it may change the consistency of the soup.
Notes:
Cooking the onions and, later, the roux (flour and cream mixture) in the bacon grease adds a ton of flavor and depth to the soup. If you are not using bacon or do not wish to add the extra fat from the grease, you can use olive oil or just a tablespoon of butter to cook the onions. You can also make a roux to thicken the soup using 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of flour, and cream.
You can substitute milk for the heavy cream.
The soup is rich, hearty, and packed with flavor. We used sharp cheddar, but mild or medium cheddar can be substituted if you prefer.
For a thicker soup, use just 4 cups of chicken broth, keeping all other ingredients the same. This will make a smaller quantity of soup overall and it may be thick enough that the flour/cream roux is not needed.
Some recipes add the cooked bacon to the pot to cook along with all of the other ingredients. We prefer to add the bacon flavor by cooking the onion in the bacon grease. When bacon cooks for a long time (such as in the crockpot), it can get rubbery and take on an undesirable texture. By stirring in the bacon just before serving, it maintains its nice, crunchy texture and full flavor.
Nutrition
Calories: 749kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 24g | Fat: 61g | Saturated Fat: 30g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 19g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 154mg | Sodium: 1415mg | Potassium: 769mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 1469IU | Vitamin C: 25mg | Calcium: 391mg | Iron: 2mg
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