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 cooked and crumbled
- ½ onion diced
- 2 pounds red potatoes peeled and diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves 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 whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 cup shredded 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.
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I love this recipe! I’ve been making it for a while now. The only thing I do differently is make it in my Dutch oven and adjust the time for it!
Made this soup this afternoon, so good! My husband and I loved it. I did one thing differently though and that is that I left out the sour cream because I don’t like it but it was delicious. Thank you for an easy to make and yummy recipe
I love this recipe. I made it once as is. The second time, I used frozen diced hashbrown potatoes instead of fresh potatoes: it saved an hour of cooking time, plus the half hour or more I would’ve spent peeling and dicing all those little potatoes. And it was just as DELICIOUS as the first time!
I don’t eat bacon can I use hamburger meat instead.?
I have never tried this recipe with ground beef but you can leave the bacon out if you prefer.
Hello can I freeze the potato soup after I make it? And for how long will it stay good frozen? Thank you!
Hi Marissa, yes you can freeze this soup for up to 3 months. The texture may change slightly but it’ll still taste great! Do not add the dairy before freezing, stir in the cream/sour cream while reheating.
This looks delicious. I am wondering, can I do this without the sour cream?
Hi Linda, I have never tried making this without sour cream but I’m sure you can. You can sub with plain greek yogurt or just omit altogether, just keep in mind if you omit altogether it might not have the same taste or texture. Let us know how it goes!