I’m not sure about you, but when I get cold, I am cold until some outside force (think heated blanket, hot tea, thick, rich soup) heats me back up again. It’s always been this way for me, and it always reminds me of my Grandma T. She would reach down to hold my hand and I would nearly jump out of my own skin with how cold she was. She would then smile sweetly and say with a shrug: “Cold hands, warm heart!” Without a doubt, she had one of the warmest hearts a soul could ever meet.
Generally, she would make us delicious hot, home-cooked meals every day of our visits, and you could honestly tell that giving was in her blood. Or maybe it was that cooking warmed her up. I’d like to think it was the former reason mostly, however I can’t help but speculate that a tiny part of it was the latter.
On a frigid cold winter day, there’s nothing I love more than slaving over a big pot of hearty, rich soup that will warm me up in two ways. The first of which being up close and personal with a gas stove top.
Secondly, it goes down smoothly and heats you from the inside out with the world’s best insulator: potatoes.
That being said, my favorite type of soup has a full, velvety background with nice crispy bacon for crunch, reminiscent of your favorite side: baked potatoes. You know the week after Thanksgiving you have a half a bag of potatoes sitting around getting ready to sprout, so let’s use those suckers up!
I made a couple modifications to the original recipe as I had things to do but wanted to have dinner on the table at a reasonable time — I used a crock pot where the original recipe called for a Dutch oven, and a potato masher instead of an immersion blender. That being said, with a Dutch oven you could fry your bacon and caramelize your onions in the same pan.
Loaded potato soup
6 strips (uncooked) bacon cut into small pieces
3 Tablespoons butter unsalted or salted will work
1 medium yellow onion chopped
3 large garlic cloves minced (or a hefty spoonful of minced garlic)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 lbs potatoes peeled and diced into pieces no larger than 1” (this was about 8-9 medium red potatoes for me)
1/4 teaspoon ancho chili powder
Shredded cheddar cheese, chives, and additional sour cream and bacon for topping optional
1. Place bacon pieces in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat and cook until bacon is crisp and browned. (I used my cast iron skillet)
2. Remove bacon pieces and set aside, leaving the fat in the pot.
3. Add butter and chopped onion and cook over medium heat until onions are tender (3-5 minutes).
4. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds).
5. Sprinkle the flour over the ingredients in the pot and stir until smooth (use whisk if needed).
6. Add diced potatoes to the pot along with chicken broth, milk, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and ancho chili powder. Stir well.
7. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork (about 10 minutes in a Dutch oven, about 3-4 hours in crockpot on low).
8. Reduce heat to simmer and remove approximately half of the soup to a blender and puree until smooth.
9. Return the pureed soup to the pot and add sour cream and reserved bacon pieces, stir well. 10. Allow soup to simmer for 15 minutes before serving and top with additional sour cream, bacon, cheddar cheese, or chives.
