Creamy Potato Soup

Recipe

• Grab a large pot and add the bacon pieces in it. On medium heat, cook them until they’re done, stirring here and there to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
• Remove the bacon and set it aside. Leave the grease in the pot! That’s the good stuff. 
• Add in the butter and diced up onions. Cook until the onion are tender and starting to brown a little. As the butter melts, use your wooden spoon to scrape the bacon pieces from the bottom to get all of the flavors. 
• Add in the garlic and cook until it’s fragrant (about a minute or less).
• Sprinkle the flour over the onions and garlic and whisk until it’s all mixed together. It’ll be a little clumpy which is good. 
• Add in the milk, broth, heavy whipping cream, salt, pepper, chili powder and stir until it’s all combined. 
• Add in the potatoes and stir. 
• Bring this to a boil and while stirring occasionally, cook until the potatoes are tender. They’ll be tender to a poke from a fork. 
• Reduce heat to a simmer and then using the potato masher, press the masher into the soup (careful to not touch the liquid with your hand!) and mash some of the pieces of potatoes. Don’t mash to much though. you want some pieces larger than others. This is what gives it that creamy texture. 
• Add in the sour cream and bacon pieces. Stir well. 
• Let simmer for 10 minutes or so and then serve! 
• Top with cheese, sour cream and bacon pieces. 

This simple, creamy potato soup can be made in just one pot! That’s one of the best tips I have here: I cook my bacon in the same pot that I’ll cook the soup in. When you remove the bacon to set aside, you’ll use the bacon grease to cook the onions and garlic. It’s delicious and no one wants to waste bacon grease! I guess another plus is that the bacon doesn’t splatter outside of the pot. NO FLOOR CLEANING HERE!

To make the potato soup extra creamy, I use a potato masher once the potatoes are cooked and soft. I only use it for 10 or so presses. This makes some of the potatoes a little more pureed-like so you have a lot of different textures.

Last tip that’s a MUST–I add a little bit of chili powder. It doesn’t make it spicy at all, it just gives it some depth.

Since it’s been constantly snowing here in Illinois for the last 3 days, a winter soup is just the ticket.