Best One Pot Loaded Baked Potato Soup Recipe 

Best One Pot Loaded Baked Potato Soup Recipe 

Why You Should Give This Recipe a Try

With a little bit of a chill in the air and the leaves very subtly beginning to change color, soup season is upon us. To be honest, I wasn’t a big soup fan – until I started making them on my own, filling them with the kinds of things I enjoy most. This Best One Pot Loaded Baked Potato Soup Recipe has all of my favorite ingredients: potatoes, bacon, and corn in a creamy soup base of heavy cream and chicken broth. As if that wasn’t enough, you can finish things off with a variety of toppings like crispy bacon bits, a dollop of sour cream, sliced green onions, and a few snips of fresh chives. It is the ultimate comfort food! 

Some of the best features of this recipe:

This delicious soup is a one pot meal meaning quick clean up and less time spent washing dishes.

Using red bliss potatoes – or other small, thin skinned potatoes – means no potato peeling is necessary. 

The addition of smoked paprika and crushed red pepper flakes provides some spicy extra flavor to offset the plain potatoes.

As usual, this recipe is super easy to make and requires no special techniques, obscure kitchen tools, or weird ingredients. It is the perfect recipe for beginning cooks looking to make a hearty bowl of soup in their own kitchen – without having to resort to a can!

Recipe Ingredients

8 strips of bacon

1 medium yellow onion

1 bell pepper (red, but any will work)

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

4 tbsp all purpose flour

4 cups low sodium chicken broth

2 cups milk

1 cup heavy cream

2 lbs potatoes (red bliss, fingerling, Yukon gold)

1 8.5 oz can whole kernel corn (NOT creamed corn)

salt

Toppings:

reserved bacon

sour cream

green onions

chives

cheddar cheese

Helpful Tools

cutting board

large bowl

medium bowl

large soup pot or Dutch oven

slotted spoon

plate lined with paper towels

heat resistant spatula

sharp knife

vegetable peeler

measuring spoons

measuring cup

large spoon

ladle

Ingredient Notes

Using red bliss or fingerling potatoes means no peeling! If you choose a larger potato you may need to peel and discard skin before using.

Smoked paprika and regular paprika are not the same thing. Each is good in its own way, but this recipe relies on the warm taste of smoked paprika and some crushed red pepper flakes for some heat and flavor.

Chicken broth vs. chicken stock: chicken broth is the tastier of the two because it is made with the meat of the chicken and other herbs and seasonings. 

Remember to use whole kernel corn and NOT creamed corn. Drain the liquid off the corn before adding.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Prepare all of the ingredients before you begin cooking.

2. Use a sharp knife to cut the bacon into 1/2 chunks. You can keep the bacon assembled together as you cut as opposed to one slice at a time, but it is pretty slippery and you will need to use caution.

3. Chop one medium onion and place into a bowl. Set aside.

4. Cut the bell pepper into strips, removing the seeds and the inner membrane. Chop the pepper strips and place in the bowl with the onion.

5. Mince two cloves of garlic and add it to the onion and pepper.

6. Wash the potatoes. If you are using red bliss or fingerling, you do not need to peel them. If you are using potatoes with a thicker skin, peel and discard. Cut the potatoes into reasonable, bite-sized pieces. You do not want pieces so big you cannot eat them without a knife, but not so small that they will disintegrate when cooking.

7. Measure out the chicken broth. You can measure the milk and heavy cream later so that you only need one measuring cup.

8. Place the cut bacon in a large soup pot or Dutch oven and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until brown and crispy. Keep an eye on the bacon because it burns quickly.

9. Remove the cooked bacon from the pot using a slotted spoon and place on a plate lined with paper towels.

10. Leave about two tablespoons of bacon grease in the pot (remove the rest – check out Tips & Tricks) and add in the onion, garlic, and pepper.

11. Sauté onion, garlic, and pepper in the bacon grease, cooking over medium heat until the pepper is soft and the onion is translucent, 4-5 minutes.

12. Add the smoked paprika and the crushed red pepper flakes, stirring constantly, for one minute.

13. Sprinkle the flour over the veggies. Stir constantly to be sure that it is fully incorporated and that there are no big pieces of flour, about one minute.

14. Slowly add in the chicken broth and raise the temperature to medium high heat.

15. Pour the milk into the mixture.

16. Add the heavy cream in a steady stream, stirring with a large spoon or heat hesitant spatula.

17. Carefully add in the potatoes. Remember that the liquid is hot and it will splash.

18. Stir in the corn.

19. Return the cooked bacon to the soup, reserving the equivalent of about two slices for garnishing.

19. Lightly salt.

20. Bring the soup to a gentle boil – not a strong, rolling boil – and allow to cook about 20 minutes until the potatoes are cooked. You can determine this by piercing several potato chunks with the tip of a sharp knife as you near the end of the cooking time. 

21. Ladle the hot soup into bowls and garnish as you would baked potatoes – a sprinkle of cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and some of the reserved bacon. If you would like to add green onions, trim a bit of the green part. You can also snip chives over the sour cream (green onions and chives have a similar taste, so you may not want to use both). Above all, make this soup your own, something that will become a family favorite in no time! 

Check out the printable recipe card below for step-by-step directions!

Storage

Store leftover soup in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Tips & Tricks

Cutting an onion can be a tricky business. I have some reels on IG that demonstrate how to do so safely. Check them out for the easy to follow directions here and here.

Consider the size of the potatoes when cooking. I used very small red bliss potatoes and cut the very tiny ones in half and quartered those that were a bit bigger. If you are using medium potatoes, you will need to cut them more than that. Remember that the goal is to make eating the potatoes in the soup manageable but to avoid cutting pieces so small that they fall apart when cooking.

Bacon fat will clog your drain, so never pour it in the sink. Use a heatproof container to pour off the fat to discard once it has cooled.

FAQs

Can you change the texture of the soup – something less chunky?

This soup has a great creamy texture, but not everyone loves the chunks of potato. If that’s you, ladle out some of the potatoes and with the liquid into a large heat resistant bowl and use an immersion blend to smooth out the chunks. I would recommend doing this to only some of the potatoes as blending all would change the texture completely.

Looking for other flavorful soups? Try this Easy One Pot Chicken Tortellini Soup or Creamy Tomato Soup. Each pairs well with a side of crusty fresh bread.