I love fall for a lot of reasons, but one of the largest is that I can make soup again. I love, love, love a bowl of soup with some fresh bread, and this is one of my favorite soups.
I got this recipe from the a piano students’ mom way back when I was pregnant with Joshua, and I think she got it from one of those community recipe compilation books.
There are a number of baked potato soup varieties out there, and having tried a couple at restaurants, I can say that this one definitely leans toward the indulgent side. It’s rife with dairy fat (the best kind!) in the form of milk, butter, sour cream, and cheese, which makes it super delicious and probably super caloric.
So, maybe just don’t eat this every week. 
I wouldn’t say this is a super fast soup, but neither is it an all-day affair.
First, you’ll need to bake 4 russet potatoes. You can do this in the microwave, but by the time you microwave 4 russet potatoes, the microwave is not a particularly large time-saver. Plus, if you’re baking bread the same day, it’s not like the oven heat goes to waste.
When the potatoes have cooled, slice them open and scoop out the potato insides into a bowl (or measuring cup, if that’s what’s handy!).
Next, cook the bacon until it’s crispy and browned. Since the bacon is going to be chopped up for use in the soup, you may want to chop it up before you cook it. That way you don’t have to bother with flipping the bacon and can instead stir it around with a spatula.
On to the soup base! Melt the butter in a large pot, and stir in the flour. Stir and cook the flour/butter mixture for 1 minute.
Add the milk, stirring constantly, and cook and stir frequently over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. This process takes a while, so if you want to speed things up, you can microwave the milk before adding it to the pot.
Don’t be tempted to skimp on the stirring or to turn up the heat…a mixture like this is quite prone to burning, so a low heat and regular stirring are essential.
Once the milk mixture has boiled for a minute, stir in the cheese, bacon, green onions, and potato pulp.
To finish the soup off, stir in 1 cup of sour cream. After you’ve added the sour cream, be very careful not to boil the soup, as that will cause the sour cream to separate, and your soup will have an odd texture.
Ladle the soup into bowls, and top with additional cheese, bacon, and green onions.
The bacon flavor in this soup gets better after a day or two, so if you’ve got the time, you may want to make the soup one day and then heat it up for dinner the following day. If you go that route, I recommend leaving out the sour cream until just before you serve the soup. That way if you accidentally boil the soup as you heat it up, the sour cream won’t suffer.
Baked Potato Soup
Printable Baked Potato Soup Recipe
4 large baking potatoes
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup flour
6 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
4 green onions, chopped
12 slices bacon, crisp-fried and crumbled
1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream
Bake potatoes until tender; cool. Scoop out pulp into a small bowl and break up into pea-sized pieces.
Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat; stir in flour. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the milk gradually. Cook over medium heat until thickened and bubbly, stirring regularly. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the potato pulp, 2 tablespoons green onions, 1/2 cup of the bacon, and 1 cup of the cheese. Cook till heated through.
Stir in sour cream (do not boil after this point). Sprinkle each serving with reserved green onions, bacon, and cheese.
Today’s 365 post: This is me.
One of my favorites! Yours looks rather delicious!
This looks delicious! I’ll give it a shot! Thanks!
One of our favorites too! I think the only thing I ‘hate’ having to do is cooking the bacon. I’ve tried baking the strips in the oven and that helps with the mess. And if a recipe says 1 lb bacon, I find I have to make more because of the many pleas from family member for ‘just one piece’.
That looks so yummy! I’m making my favorite potato, leek, bacon soup tomorrow. It’s one of my favorite fall recipes.
If you wanted to up the bacon flavor, you could replace some of the butter with a little bacon fat, to increase that smokey flavor. Yum.
Looks delicious!!!! It would be perfect with a slice of garlic cheese toast!
This looks great! Due to our schedules I often have to make dinner a day ahead and warm it up so this fits in well. I think I will make it tonight for tomorrow’s dinner!
Looks amazing! Just the right thing to take the chill out of the air.
This looks fabulous – I too love soups and the beauty of them is that they can be prepared in adance, reheated and are fabulously nutritious and frugal in many cases. We have just finished off my batch of slow-cooked carrot and coriander which I prepped night before left simmering overnight all through till lunch then blended – now that’s what I call convenience food!! I’m definitely going to try your recipe out…
What kind of milk do you use? Do you think skim would work?
I bet you could. With the sour cream, cheese and butter/fat content it is fairly rich soup. If it seems a bit weak, you can bump up the creamy factor by adding a little powdered milk to your skim milk, it makes it creamier.
I used skim milk, low fat cheese and light sour cream and it was still delicious!
Mmmm…I’ve made this before and we all love it. Good idea for dinner tomorrow. We sometimes leave the peels on the potatoes (if I’m feeling especially rushed and/or lazy). No one complains and it’s an added bit of fiber!
Thank you! I can’t wait to try it…I’m putting bacon and potatoes on my list for the store this weekend
Funny! This is exactly what I made for dinner tonight!! With Ham and Cheese sandwiches on deli bread….Mmmmm! Excellent!
I’ve been looking for a potato soup recipe. I’ve tried two in the past that were so so. Made this for tonight’s dinner and it’s fantastic! I used skim milk and it worked just fine. I also used swiss cheese since I was out of cheddar and it was delicious. Can’t wait to try it with cheddar! Thank you for the recipe!
I love only baked potato or tomato soups. My mom has just figured out that she is gluten intolerant and is coming for a visit. She loves any soup so I’ll have to make it to surprise her.
This is the BEST potato soup ever! You brought this to a church potluck (like 10 yrs ago!) and my husband loved it. He told me to get the recipe from you because it was soooo good. This recipe has been a regular in our meal rotation ever since. It is definitely indulgent but so worth all those calories.
Think I could make this in a slow cooker throughout the day?
I just bought the ingredients for this. It looks great!
I made this tonight and it was fantastic! I used a little less butter than called for (just because I was running low), skim milk and lowfat sour cream. It was really creamy and so good!
I made this last night & it was a huge hit in our home. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I made this today for our lunch. Mr. V and Lil Mr. V are sick, so I figured that soup was the best thing on the list. And it was a hit with everyone. Which is amazing because Lil Mr. V is almost 2 and at the stage where EVERYTHING I cook is “YUCK!”
Thank you for posting this.
I appreciate it.
Provided my potatoes haven’t gone to waste (and probably even if they have, I’ll just get more) I will be making this tonight! I LOVE Panara’s Baked Potato Soup so I can’t wait to try yours! Definitely a LOT cheaper!
I made it tonight! Aside from the excitement of being able to use up some potatoes that were starting to grow eyes, it was a total hit! Thanks for the recipe! I plan on making it more often this winter!
I made this Saturday, I’m having leftovers today.
It is DELICIOUS! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!
I can’t wait to make this! I’ll probably tweak it a bit and use lower-fat substitutes like fat free shredded cheese and skim milk, etc. And I’m sure you know this but if you cook your bacon in the oven on a slotted broiler pain you won’t have to fry it. It stll gets crispy and then you can just crumble it up. Or if $$ isn’t an object you could use that kind you microwave that’s pretty much already prepared. It’s like $4 a bo and you don’t get much so we don’t buy it but my parents do and it’s pretty tasty. I ate it when bacon grease gets everywhere when it splatters so I like to cook it in the oven.
I LOVE potato soup, just about every way you cook it.
Hey Kristen,
Recently my Mom and I visited my niece who is recently married and is working on being a stay at home Mom and she made your potato soup for us for lunch. It was very good. I had a picture of it but can’t find it now. Thanks for sharing.
I just wanted to say thanks again for this recipe! I’ve made it twice already and I can’t wait to make it again! It’s officially a family favorite already
It’s soooo gooooood!!!
I loved this recipe! Thanks so much for sharing. My husband said it was the best potato soup he had ever had….paired with homemade fresh from the oven bread it was the perfect winter dinner!
I know you shared this recipe a while back, but I had to share… I took this soup to our Ladies Bible Study tonight and it got rave reveiws! Everyone wanted the recipe. Thank you so much for posting it!
Kristen, do you think it would be ok to make the potatoes in the microwave? It would really cut down the cooking time?
Thanks
Yep, you sure can!
We had this for dinner tonight, and it was delicious! My husband and I were the only ones to eat it, my 2 and 4 year old didn’t like it *sigh*. Do you think that it would freeze well? I’d love to freeze it for another dinner later in the month.
can anyone speak to how many people this serves? I plan to make it for my small group with church and will probably double it. Also for those who hate to make bacon, i feel the same way. I buy the REAL bacon bits and use them when a recipe calls for bacon…it has changed my life!
maybe some people will think that’s awful, but I think it works great!