The Best Potato Soup (2024)

This Potato Soup Recipe is loaded with queso Chihuahua cheese and bacon. So creamy and full of flavor. Super easy weeknight dinner to make in a hurry and so good.

People go crazy for this delicious recipe for cheesy potato soup when I serve it with all kinds of toppings and dunk-able dippers. We've got you covered with this easy soup recipe. Plus, we'll share with you one of our favorite go-to secret flavor-boosting ingredients that you'll love and want to use in all the time.

This potato soup recipe has all the delicious, satisfying, comfort food flavors of potatoes and bacon. It is also perfectly cheesy, and creamy, and totally dunk-able with some homemade crostini, garlic breadsticks, or focaccia. This easy soup recipe has it all!

Secret to this Recipe

Secret to this Recipe...are you ready for it? The secret flavor-boosting ingredient is Chihuahua cheese! Queso Chihuahua, or Chihuahua cheese, is a mild, beautifully flavored, Mexican melting cheese. It is our go-to melting cheese for party dips, quesadillas, eggs and tortillas, and so many other recipes.

Chihuahua cheese is similar to mozzarella, but a little bolder in taste. I like to use it in this recipe because it's so flavorful, and yet not as sharp as cheddar, which would overshadow the balance of flavors in this soup.

Mozzarella makes a good substitution if you cannot find Chihuahua cheese. But trust me, make the extra effort to find some Chihuahua cheese at your local grocery store and you'll be glad you did. It's so tasty and versatile, it's sure to become a go-to favorite!

Here's What You Need

Notes on Ingredients

• bacon - This recipe for cheesy potato soup calls for ½ pound of bacon. I may or may not be known for ignoring this limitation and use the entire pound. You can never really have enough bacon, can you?
• potatoes - I like to use yukon gold potatoes in this recipe because of their creamy texture. But really any white potato will work here. Just not sweet potatoes!
• chicken broth - I use Swanson chicken broth in a can. But you can always use any tasty chicken broth you prefer or substitute in chicken bouillon cubes and some water instead. Either will work just fine.
• cheese - Some recipes for potato soup call for cheddar cheese, which I find too strong in this soup. So if you're looking for an alternative to Chihuahua cheese, I would recommend using a mild, white melting cheese like mozzarella or provolone. I might even use a shredded monterey jack, which is a pretty mild blend.

How to Make It

The best potato soup is a tasty and satisfying easy soup recipe that you can have on the table in under an hour by following simple instructions.

A flavorful soup, like any good recipe, is built in layers; each layer building upon and enhancing the flavor of the previous layer. And at each layer, you are tasting and adjusting the seasonings as you go along. Until the recipe is finished with all the flavors having been married together to soul-satisfying perfection.

Four Layers of Flavor

Building the Base to Simmer

1. Bacon. This recipe begins with BACON. This is your ground floor flavor layer upon which the entire soup is built! Just cut a half a pound of bacon into strips and make yourself some bacon bits as seen in the four step image below.

Fry the Bacon.Fry Bacon in a heavy-bottomed soup pot on medium heat, until bacon bits are crisp. Remove from pot using a slotted spoon and place them on a plate lined with paper towel to drain. Set aside to use as a topping when serving the soup. At this point, you can, if you choose, drain soup pot of the rendered bacon fat. Otherwise, leave it and ALL ITS FLAVOR in the pan like we do!

Sauté Vegetables.Using medium heat, sauté the diced onion, carrots, and celery in the bacon fat. Here you are cooking all that beautiful savory bacon flavor into the vegetables. Adjust your seasonings with a sprinkle or two of salt and continue to sauté the vegetables for a few more minutes.

Potatoes.Next, add the diced potatoes stirring them in with the vegetables until they have softened but are not quite tender. Adjust your seasonings again by adding a few more sprinkles of salt. This time adding in the black pepper and red pepper. Thereby enhancing the depth of your flavor base even more.

Tasty Tip

Tasty Tip: By adjusting your seasonings little by little like this is how you build a depth of flavor to your recipes that you cannot get if all your seasonings are added at one time. Added too early, the pepper will over power. Salt only at the start of your recipe and the saltiness will get lost and you'll end up needing to add more later.

Broth and Simmer.Add 6 cups of Chicken Broth and bring soup to a slow boil. Once the soup starts bubbling, lower the heat and simmer until potatoes are fork-tender. Test for tenderness by using a slotted spoon to fish out a few pieces of potato. Poke a knife into the potato and if it slides right in without resistance, the potatoes are tender. If there is a little resistance, give the soup a little longer to simmer, and then retest. Another way to test for tenderness is to use a spoon, instead of a knife, to smash the potato.

Thickening and Blending

Thickening with a Slurry.Whisk together 1 cup of whole milk with 3 tablespoons of flour. Pour flour mixture into soup while stirring slowly. Turn the heat back up to medium and bring the soup back up to a low boil. Once it starts to bubble, lower the heat once again and simmer for 5 minutes. The slurry needs to reach a low-boil and return to simmer in order to thicken the soup and cook out the taste of the flour.

Blend To Desired Consistency.Turn off the heat and use animmersion blenderto blend the soup, leaving some visible pieces of vegetables. Or use a potato masher. Whatever works!

Alternate Method: Let soup cool and use a blender to puree, then transfer the pureed soup back to the pot and reheat.

Finish with Cheese and Cream

Add Cheese and Cream.Turn off the heat and stir in 2 cups of shredded Chihuahua cheese and ½ cup of heavy cream. Stir together to blend.

Taste Test - Taste the soup and adjust the seasonings one more time at this point. Your soup should be tasty! How do you feel about it? Is it delicious? Does it need something? More salt? Some pepper? See Tasty Tip below for add-in options to spice up the flavor.

Toppings and Serving

• Toppings: Serve topped with the reserved bacon bits, cheddar cheese, and green onions. Think of your favorite toppings for a loaded baked potato! They would all be delish as toppings on this Potato Soup!
  
• Dippers: This creamy, cheesy potato soup is perfectly dunk-able with dippers like homemade garlic breadsticks, crostini, or a hunk of french baguette. Or how about dipping the corner edge of a grilled cheese sandwich in there! Yum!!

Sides to Serve with Potato Soup

Tasty Tip

Spice it up! Some like it hot! Here are some tasty add-in options:
> hot sauce - Add a few drops of your favorite hot sauce, like Tabasco, Frank's Red Hot, Sriracha.
> pepper flakes - Red pepper flakes, Thai red chili flakes, peperoncino
> hot salsa - Homemade or store bought.

Meal Prep and Storage Suggestions

This cheesy potato soup is great for meal prep! Easily stored, frozen, and reheated for easy weeknight dinners.

Storage Tip: This recipe can be safely stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. It also freezes well for 2-6 months in these handy food storage containers.

🎥 Watch How to Make It

And there you have it. It's as easy as that! This is truly The Best Potato Soup Recipe. Loaded with the delicious, satisfying, comfort food flavors of potatoes and bacon. Perfectly cheesy, and creamy, and dunk-able. This easy soup recipe has it all!

Did you love this recipe? If you make this recipe and love it, stop back and give it a 5-star rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a comment. THANK YOU!! Follow Seanna's Kitchen and share this recipe with your friends on Facebook, Instagramand Pinterest and subscribe my Newsletter for ALL the latest recipes! We'd love to hear from you!

xo ~ Seanna

More Soup and Chili Recipes

More Tasty Potato Soup Recipes

• Loaded Potato Soup - Such a tasty potato soup recipe from Jessica over at A Farmgirl's Kitchen! So good!! This easy soup recipe can be made on the stove top or in a crockpot!
• Crockpot Potato Soup - A deliciously easy soup recipe from Christy over at The Girl Who Ate Everything.
• Vegan Potato Soup - A tasty vegan potato soup recipe with crumbled tempeh bacon from Melanie over at A Virtual Vegan.

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