Loaded Potato Soup – todaystats

This Loaded Potato Soup is the ultimate bowl of comfort, a velvety, decadent, and deeply satisfying homage to the classic baked potato with all the fixings. Imagine a creamy, flavorful base packed with tender potatoes, crispy bacon, sharp cheddar, and fresh chives, delivering the perfect balance of rich and bright in every spoonful. This recipe skips the canned soup shortcut, building layers of flavor from scratch for a homemade result that’s hearty enough for a main course yet elegant in its simplicity. It’s a one-pot wonder that promises to warm you from the inside out.

Ingredients

For the Soup Base:

6 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 lbs Russet potatoes (about 4 large), peeled and diced into ¾-inch cubes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon kosher salt (plus more to taste)
½ teaspoon black pepper (plus more to taste)

For the Creamy Finish & Toppings:

1 ½ cups whole milk, half-and-half, or heavy cream
1 ½ cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, plus more for serving
½ cup sour cream or full-fat Greek yogurt
3 green onions, thinly sliced
Fresh chopped chives or parsley
Additional cooked, crumbled bacon
Extra sour cream for dolloping

Equipment

Large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed soup pot
Wooden spoon or spatula
Whisk
Potato masher or immersion blender (for optional texture)
Measuring cups and spoons

Instructions

1. Render the Bacon & Build the Aromatics (15 mins)

In your large Dutch oven, cook the chopped bacon over medium heat until crisp and browned, about 8-10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. Reserve for garnish. Leave 2-3 tablespoons of the rendered bacon fat in the pot—this is liquid gold for flavor. Add the butter to the fat and let it melt.
Add the diced onion to the pot and cook over medium heat until soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 more minute until fragrant.

2. Create the Roux & Simmer the Potatoes (25 mins)

Sprinkle the flour over the onion mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 full minutes to form a light roux and cook out the raw flour taste.
Gradually pour in the chicken broth while whisking constantly to prevent lumps. Add the diced potatoes, dried thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Stir well.
Increase the heat to bring the soup to a gentle boil, then reduce to a steady simmer. Cover partially and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until the potatoes are very tender when pierced with a fork.

3. Thicken and Cream the Soup (5 mins)

Remove the bay leaf. For a classic loaded potato soup texture, use a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon to gently mash about one-third of the potatoes directly in the pot. This releases their starch to naturally thicken the soup while leaving plenty of chunks. (For a completely smooth soup, use an immersion blender.)
Reduce the heat to low. Stir in the milk or cream. Warm gently, but do not boil. Gradually add the shredded cheddar cheese, stirring until completely melted and smooth. Finally, stir in the ½ cup of sour cream until fully incorporated. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper as needed.

4. The Rest & Serve (5 mins)

Remove the soup from heat and let it sit, covered, for 5 minutes. This allows the flavors to meld and the soup to thicken to its perfect serving consistency.
Ladle into warm bowls. Garnish generously with the reserved crispy bacon, sliced green onions, chopped chives, an extra handful of cheese, and a dollop of sour cream. Serve immediately with crusty bread for dipping.

The Last Bite: The Alchemy of Texture and Flavor Layering

This Loaded Potato Soup transcends mere comfort food through a deliberate, scientific layering of fats, starches, and umami, creating a complex flavor profile and a perfectly balanced texture.

The process begins with flavor extraction via fat. Rendering the bacon does more than create a crispy garnish; it releases flavorful compounds and smoky fat-soluble aromas into the pot. Using this fat to sauté the onions and garlic (the soffritto) creates a foundational flavor base where the sweetness of the onion and the pungency of the garlic fuse with the bacon’s smokiness.

The roux (cooked flour and fat) is the critical structural agent. It is not merely a thickener, but a flavor conductor. The flour particles coat in fat and then, when liquid is added, swell and gelatinize. This traps the broth and, later, the dairy in a stable emulsion, preventing separation and creating a velvety, clinging mouthfeel that’s neither gluey nor thin. It ensures the soup is substantial enough to support the hefty potato chunks.

The potatoes themselves are dual-purpose. Their primary role is as a hearty vegetable, but their secondary, scientific role is as a starch reservoir. When some of the potatoes are mashed in the pot, they release free amylose and amylopectin starches. These starches interact with the liquid, further thickening the soup and giving it a rustic, satisfying body that feels natural and unprocessed. This is the key difference between a soup that tastes “made from a box” and one that tastes genuinely homemade.

The dairy addition sequence is calculated science. Adding the milk or cream after the soup has thickened prevents the dairy proteins from curdling in the acidic environment of a long simmer. The final stir-in of sour cream and cheese off the direct heat utilizes their fats and proteins differently. The sour cream’s tang cuts through the richness, while its cool temperature, when stirred in at the end, helps prevent the cheese from “breaking.” The cheese adds glutamates for umami and casein proteins that melt into the creamy matrix.

The five-minute rest is the final act of integration. It allows the intense heat to subside, letting the starches set slightly and the fats to distribute evenly, resulting in a soup that is luxuriously creamy yet perfectly spoonable. This recipe is a lesson in building depth: each step, from the rendered fat to the final garnish, adds a distinct layer, transforming simple potatoes into a rich, cohesive, and deeply comforting culinary experience.

Nutrition Information (Per Serving, about 1 ½ cups soup with standard toppings)

Calories: ~520 kcal
Total Fat: 32g
Saturated Fat: 16g
Cholesterol: 85mg
Sodium: 880mg
Total Carbohydrates: 38g
Dietary Fiber: 3g
Sugars: 7g
Protein: 20g

Note: Nutritional values are estimates. Using lower-fat dairy (like 2% milk and light sour cream) will reduce calorie and fat content but will also result in a less rich, luxurious texture. For a gluten-free version, substitute the all-purpose flour with a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend. The soup will thicken upon standing and refrigeration; when reheating, add a splash of broth or milk to return it to the desired consistency. The bay leaf is a subtle but important flavor component—do not skip it.