Okay. Raise your hand if you remember the world before blogs. I do. At least I remember the time when I had no idea what a “blog” was. A few of my friends started writing them and I thought it was weird. And cool. At the same time.  And then I discovered food blogs. Wha?? People take pictures of their food? And put it on the internet? A whole new world of wasting time on the internet was opened up to me. I remember when my new-ish friend Kate started a personal family blog and one of the very first things she posted was a recipe for Baked Potato Soup. She had step by step pictures of all the ingredients and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It wasn’t long after that when she said to me, “Hey, we should start a blog together about recipes!” And the rest is history.
I’ve tweaked this recipe over the years and it’s one of our family favorites. The weather here in Boise has gone from scorching summer to perfectly pleasant fall overnight and I’m sooo happy about it! I finally busted out all of my fall decorations and decided it’s time for soup! (Speaking of fall, those of you who read our blog through email or google reader, you should come on over to the actual site. We’ve added lots of our favorite fall recipes in our side-bar so come on over to browse!)
The great thing is that this soup is rich and creamy and filling, but not horribly bad for you when it comes to calories. We balance out the use of cheese and bacon with skim milk and low-fat sour cream. You start with just a couple pats of butter
and toss it in a pan with some garlic. Butter and garlic cooking on the stove is one of the best smells in the world, in case you didn’t know. Someone should make a candle for that.
Then toss in some flour and low-fat or skim milk
When the soup thickens up, in goes potatoes. You can use leftover baked potatoes, or bake them before you make the soup, or use my trick- the microwave!
then add cheese and salt and pepper. Extra sharp cheddar adds great flavor, but regular plain ol’ mild cheddar works great too. One tip I have though, is to grate your own cheese. Pre-shredded cheese doesn’t work as well in things like this because it doesn’t melt as well.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in a little low-fat sour cream, some green onions, and bacon. Mmm bacon. Someone should make me a candle of that too.
To serve, top it off with some extra cheese, bacon, onions, and sour cream. And a big chunk of crusty bread isn’t bad either!
Comfort in a bowl I tell ya…
Baked Potato Soup
3 Tbs butter
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 C flour
4 1/2 C milk (low fat works great)
1 14oz can chicken broth
4 medium baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds) baked*
2 C grated cheddar (or sharp cheddar) cheese, divided
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 CÂ sour cream (low fat is fine), divided
1/2 C chopped green onions, divided
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled, divided
*don’t have time to bake potatoes in the oven? Just pierce them with a fork a few times and then pop them in the microwave. Cook in 5 minute intervals until a knife easily pierces through them. It usually takes 5-10 minutes. To bake in the oven, pierce each potato with a fork and place directly on oven rack. Bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes.
Melt butter in a stock pot over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 30-60 seconds until fragrant. Add flour to pan. Slowly add milk a little at a time while whisking constantly to eliminate lumps.  Whisk until smooth and then add chicken broth. (Now, if you get to this point and don’t have a smooth liquid. Stop! Save your soup by popping the mixture in the blender, then continue.) Bring soup just to a simmer and heat until thickened, stirring often, about 5 minutes.
Once soup is thickened, turn heat down to medium-low. Cut potatoes in half length-wise and use a spoon to scoop out potato flesh into the pot. Use a wooden spoon to smash potatoes, breaking up large clumps. Add 1 1/2 C grated cheese and salt and pepper and stir until cheese is melted. Remove pan from heat and stir in 3/4 C sour cream, 1/4 C green onions, and 4 strips of the crumbled bacon. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with each serving with the remaining sour cream, onions, cheese, and bacon.
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-Sara and Kate
I made this soup. I love it-my family loved it- highly recommended and I am willing to make it again, actually craving it right now
Kerry
pritimovThanks for the recipe when I get back from New York I am going to give it a try. We love soup in the winter. Thank Laurie….
I made this for my hubby tonight for dinner. It was very good. Thank you for the recipe.
This is a good recipe, however, it's more of a Cream of Potato soup than a Baked Potato Soup. Baked Potato soups usually are thicker & richer (because they usually have heavy cream or half & half). This is a lovely cream of potato soup. I found that I did have to transfer the liquid to a blender to get out all the lumps. But that worked wonderfully. And then after I added the potatoes to the soup, I used a potato masher right into the stockpot and mashed them to the consistency that I like – leaving still little chunks of potato. It's nice to have a lower-fat version of a potato soup.
This is THE best potato soup recipe ever! I usually have to simmer it longer than the time stated for it to thicken (I might just need to use a higher heat), but the flavor and texture is out of this world!!! One of my 8-year-old daughter's favorite Our Best Bites recipes!
I love this recipe and so does my husband. He even took the leftovers to work today for lunch…which never happens.
Kim, when I made it last night I had a bowl, my husband had a bowl and a half and I still had about a bowl and a half leftover. If your friends have hefty appetites you might want to double it or maybe make a bread to go along with it.
Maria–It doesn't freeze particularly well–it tends to curdle.
Kim–It generously serves 6-8.
How many servings would you say this recipe makes? I'm taking it to a girls weekend, there will be 7 of us and I'm not sure if I should double it?
Can you freeze this soup?
I made this soup for a party last weekend. It was a hit!! Thanks for the recipe. It is my new favorite potato soup.
Thanks so much for the recipe!!! I stumbled on it today and well my meal plan went out the door!
Oh I also forgot to say – I used just 3 cups of whole milk along with the can of broth and it was JUST the right amount of liquid. I think any more and I'd have to add more flour (ew) or add more potatoes which would kind of be overkill since I had about 3 cups of baked potato anyhow.
Oh Cruuuud! I was making this from memory and thought it was just a Tbs. of flour…good thing I checked! I was able to take some of the hot milk (even after I added the potatoes), wisk it with some flour, and thicken up the soup. WHEW.
Enjoying a bowl NOW at midnight. It just came off the stove.
I cheated on the bacon, though. Mom purchased a huge bag of bacon crumbles at Costco, so I just put a honkin handful in the soup. I also used some yellow onion with the garlic, set it aside, did the milk/flour thing, then added the onions back in when I added the potatoes.
And I left the sour cream out because EVERYTIME I add it to hot soup, it curdles. Freaks me out, so it's just a topping on this FANTASTIC soup. Yum. Yum!
Stephanie–It definitely doesn't freeze very well; it tends to curdle. Bummer, right?!
This looks so yummy, has anyone tried freezing it?
Holy cow! This soup was amazing! I ended up taking some over to my neighbor and she was in love as well. Thank you for all of the great recipes! So tasty!
I just made this tonight and it is SO GOOD!!!! Thank You for sharing, now we have a new family favorite recipe to use. YUMMY!
Thanks for this recipe! I made this soup for dinner last night and it was a big hit. I have to say that your trick with cooking the bacon in the oven is amazing! My husband said that was the best bacon he ever tasted!!! Can't wait for the Our Best Bites Cookbook!
I made this yesterday and it is so yummy! thanks for the recipe! you're totally going to win that contest, by the way! you deserve it.
I just found out about you, I voted for you and can't wait for your recipe book to be here in march!
My husband hates (with a capital H) anything soup or stew related, so for the last 6 years I have not made anything like them. However, we just moved back to Utah (from AZ, so I really had no problem not ever making soup…too HOT!) and it is cold out and the leaves have turned color. I promptly informed my husband that fall is my favorite season, and this time I was GOING to make some stews because they are my favorite part of fall. After much gnashing of teeth, I told him I would only make one a week. Knowing that he is a huge loaded baked potato fan, I figured this recipe would be failproof. I was right. He ate two bowls. And finished off the children's. Thanks for starting me off on the right foot and convincing my husband that not all soups are weak!
I absolutely adore baked potato soup. I can't wait to try this recipe out! Thank you!
I made this last evening for a church supper. I quadrupled the recipe, which made A LOT OF SOUP, but the huge stockpot that was full when I arrived was scraped down to the last drop when I left. I received so many compliments, even the children in attendance were coming up to me to tell me how good the soup was. Thank you so much for this recipe. It truly is the ultimate comfort food, even for a crowd. And you've certainly got my vote. Again and again and again.
I tried this last week and my family totally loved it. I added some carrots and celery to make it feel a little healthier. It was awesome. Thanks for the recipe!
My husband LOVED this, super easy and very yummy. THANKS!!
Love your blog, and can't wait to try this recipe!
BTW, bacon candles really do exist… http://www.veryfunnygifts.com/products/manterns-candle-bacon
I don't know about the butter and garlic though – they should get on that 🙂
Natalie- something definitely went wrong because it should be nice and thick and the only lumps are the potatoes! I'm actually not sure how you'd get lumpy sour cream, lol. You might not of simmered it long enough if it turned out thin because it has plenty of thickening agents. Hopefully you can try it again and have it turn out like it should 🙂
I'm a first time commenter, but I wanted to rave a little– in a good way. I love potato soup and so was excited to give this one a try. With all others I've made, you boil the potatoes, then do the blending. But baking them, which I did in the oven, gave SUCH a different (better) texture and flavor. This is truly the best potato soup I've ever had. I made it with the breadsticks from this site. Fabulous meal. Fabulous blog.
Followed all directions but the soup is watery and the sour cream is lumpy. Tastes good but doesn't look good:( and I was hoping for a creamy texture.
I had the same problem!
Woooow this looks awesome! Every Tuesday when I lived in the dorms they would have baked potato soup… and that's all I would eat that day. I'm going to have to try this!