CrockPot Potato Soup is very easy to prep and your whole family will love it.
Potatoes, onion, seasonings, and broth cook until tender in the slow cooker. Once cooked, they’re mashed with sour cream and cheese until rich and creamy.
Serve with more cheese and crumbled bacon! Slow cooker potato soup is a creamy comforting take on mashed potatoes and has all of the same flavors we add to our twice baked potatoes.
Ingredients in Potato Soup
- Potatoes – We use red potatoes or Yukon gold potatoes in this soup as make the best creamy texture. Russet potatoes do work in this soup but the texture is slightly more grainy and not as silky.
- Broth – I love chicken broth in this recipe, it adds great flavor! You can use vegetable broth if you’d prefer.
- Seasonings – Onion cooked in a little bacon fat adds a lot of flavor to this soup. I add dried thyme leaves and some garlic. Add your favorite seasonings or herbs.
- Additions – I flavor this soup the same way I top baked potatoes. Sharp cheddar cheese (it has more flavor than mild cheddar), sour cream, bacon, and green onions. So good!
- Variations – Add chopped celery or a chopped carrot if you’d like. Swap out the cheeses for your favorites. You can add cream cheese or even swap the sour cream for full-fat Greek yogurt.
How to Make Slow Cooker Potato Soup
Making a loaded baked potato soup is pure comfort food. A quick overview of this recipe:
- Cook bacon until crispy, set aside, and cook the onion in bacon fat until softened (per the recipe below).
- Add (raw) chopped potatoes and other ingredients to the slow cooker. Set it and forget it!
- Once tender, puree half of the potatoes with an immersion blender. Mash the remaining to reach the desired consistency. Add cream and sour cream.
Serve and enjoy with green onions, cheese, and extra bacon as a garnish!
How to Thicken Potato Soup
To Make it Thicker Mashing or pureeing the soup is the best way to thicken it. With this method, the soup ingredients themselves create a creamy base.
- Use an immersion blender right in the slow cooker and blend about half of the potatoes.
- Use a potato masher to slightly mash the remaining potatoes, you want to have some texture and smaller chunks. The more you mash, the thicker your soup will be.
- Put part of the soup into a blender (be sure not to seal the lid so the steam can escape).
- You could also add a sprinkle (or two) of instant potato flakes or a cornstarch slurry to thicken further although we do not find this to be necessary.
- We prefer a cornstarch slurry over flour for this recipe.
To Make Potato Soup Thinner If you’ve over-mashed a little or are finding your soup too thick, add a bit more broth, cream, or even milk.
Reheating Potato Soup
This crockpot potato soup recipe makes great leftovers for lunch the next day and reheats beautifully. Store it in the fridge for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
Reheat the soup over medium heat until hot (do not boil) or in the microwave. Top with extra cheese, bacon crumbles, a sprinkle of chili flakes… yum!
Oven Pour soup into a casserole dish (who knew?), add cheese as topping, and bake in the oven at 350°F for 20 to 30 minutes. Top with croutons and dinner is served!
Can Potato Soup Be Frozen?
Yes (and no). Potatoes don’t generally freeze well as they tend to fall apart.
Since the potatoes in this soup are mashed, it’s ok to freeze. The texture may change very slightly but it’ll still taste great! Do not add the dairy before freezing, stir in the cream/sour cream while reheating.
Cozy Crockpot Soups
What’s your favorite Slow Cooker Soup? Leave us a comment below!
Note: This recipe has been updated 2/11/20
CrockPot Potato Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 slices bacon
- ½ onion diced
- 2 pounds red potatoes peeled and diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme or 2 sprigs fresh
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 ½ cups chicken broth or stock
- ⅔ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
- ½ cup sour cream
- 3 green onions green tops sliced thinly
Instructions
- Cook bacon until crispy over medium-high heat. Remove from the pan reserving fat. Add onion to the reserved bacon fat and cook until it begins to soften.
- Add potatoes, garlic, thyme leaves, onion, salt to taste, and black pepper to the slow cooker. Add chicken broth and stir to combine.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours (or 6-8 hours on low) or until the potatoes are fork-tender.
- Once softened, use an immersion blender to blend about half of the soup and slightly mash the remaining potatoes. The more you mash, the thicker the soup will be.
- Combine cream and cornstarch. Add to the slow cooker along with cheese, sour cream, and half of the bacon.
- Place the lid back on the slow cooker and let the soup warm through on high, about 15-20 minutes or until thickened.
- Serve the soup topped with additional sour cream, cheese, green onions, and remaining bacon.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Slow Cooker, Soup
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Tasty soup but I do like more chunks in my soup. Between mixing and mashing, it was a little too much mush for me. Luckily I had a few potatoes left. It had great flavor and good thickness. I may try decreasing the stock a little next time, mash half and leave half diced potatoes.
Great soup!
I get it how you want the onions cooked in the bacon grease for flavor. But my soup was way too greasy. I would say just keep one tablespoon of bacon grease to sauté the onions in.
Loved this hearty soup bursting with flavor. Mine turned out pretty thick.
I followed this recipe added a diced carrot , celery, and the whole onion. It turned out beautifully. At the end I had a Roma tomato which I diced up and threw that in as well. It was yummy. I will be making this again. I love slow cooker recipes of any kind. Thank you.
I was just thinking last night how I’d like to make a crockpot of potato soup to bring to work to share. This looks like it’ll be great and I have all the ingredients on hand. Thanks for sharing!
Why do you immerse the potatoes and mash them ? I like potato soup with small pieces of potatoes rather than a mashed texture.
It does help thicken the soup by mashing the potatoes slightly Roy. If you prefer small pieces of potatoes and a thinner soup, you can skip this step. I hope this helps!
This is a favorite in our house paired with your ham and cheese sliders! We love it! Thanks so much for sharing!
You’re welcome Marissa! Sounds like the perfect combo!
Very easy and tasty recipe. My whole family loved it and my very picky three year old asked for seconds which NEVER happens. I will be making this recipe often this winter.
Can coconut be substituted for the milk and cream? Thanks!
We haven’t tried it Toby. While it’ll change the taste and consistency, I’m sure it’d still be delicious!
Is the nutrition info per serving or for the whole recipe?
Nutrition is always listed per serving. Enjoy the recipe!