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This easy Crockpot potato soup is absolutely delicious, and loaded with savory flavors and hearty ingredients. Made with a base of sautéed onions, garlic, and Yukon gold potatoes, enhanced with crisp bacon, cheddar cheese, and tangy sour cream. A favorite in my house for sure, this slow cooker soup will be a regular in your autumn and winter meal rotation.
Before You Get Started
- If you can, avoid the pre-shredded cheddar cheese hanging in the cooler at the grocery store. Those pre-shredded cheeses typically have starches and other anti-caking agents added to keep them from clumping in the package. Unfortunately, the additives keep the cheese from melting like it should, and can give the soup a gritty texture. Instead, pick up a block of cheddar from the deli counter and shred it yourself. It’s so easy to do and the results are infinitely better!
How to Make This Recipe
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
Prep the Ingredients.
Shred the cheese. Chop the garlic. Dice the onion. Wash and peel (or don’t peel) the potatoes, then cut them into small chunks. Dice the bacon and fry it ’til it’s crispy. Make sure to save the leftover bacon grease – you’ll need that to sauté the onions and garlic and to make your roux later.
Slow Cook the Potatoes.
Simmer the onions, garlic, potatoes, and chicken stock for 3-5 hours in the slow cooker, depending on the temperature you choose. You may not need the full cook time, especially if you chopped the potatoes into very small chunks. Check them every hour or two by gently pressing the tines of a fork into them. If you can easily pierce the potatoes with a fork, you’re ready to move on to the next step.
Make It a Soup.
A thick, creamy potato soup needs potatoes, obviously. It also needs a roux base for thickening, a little milk for creaminess, and plenty of cheddar cheese! After mashing the potatoes and adding the remaining ingredients to the Crockpot, simmer everything for 30 more minutes to melt the cheddar and left the flavors meld.
Note: Make sure your milk, cheese, and sour cream are at least room temperature before adding them to the Crockpot! If they’re cold, they can curdle or separate when added to the hot ingredients.
What I Love About This Recipe
- This soup is thick and rich and creamy and savory. It’s legitimately the best soup for cool weather because it’s so hearty and comforting. If you want to take it to the next level, serve it in a bread bowl using a beautiful crusty bread.
- Making potato soup in the slow cooker is not only incredibly easy, it’s practically foolproof! Admittedly, it’s a tad bit more involved than your average dump-and-go Crockpot recipe, but I promise those extra steps are worth the effort.
- We don’t use any frozen foods or canned soups in our Crockpot potato soup. Of course, you’re welcome to if you prefer it! I’m all for making things even easier.
Recipe Variations
- Make it Gluten Free: Use a gluten-free flour to make your roux. Any type, any brand, any blend will work fine!
- Make it Grain Free: Use cassava flour for your roux.
- Make it Dairy Free: Use an unsweetened almond milk or unsweetened coconut milk, and replace the sour cream with dairy-free yogurt or coconut cream. For the cheddar, you can use a plant-based cheddar, or you can omit the cheddar entirely.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Creamy Crockpot Potato Soup
Equipment
- Plate
- Paper towels
- Large skillet
- Slotted spoon
- Large wooden spoon or silicone spatula
Ingredients
For the Crockpot Potato Soup
- 6 slices bacon diced
- 1 tablespoon bacon grease reserved from cooked bacon
- 1 cup diced onion
- 4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes peeled or unpeeled, diced into approximately 1-inch chunks
- 2 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 3 tablespoons bacon grease reserved from cooked bacon
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 cups whole milk warmed
- 1 cup shredded fresh cheddar cheese sharp recommended, at room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream or yogurt or coconut cream, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons sea salt plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
Serving Suggestions (All Optional)
- cooked, diced bacon
- shredded fresh cheddar cheese
- diced green onions
Instructions
- Line plate with paper towels and set aside.
- Place large skillet on stovetop over medium heat. When pan is warm, add 6 slices bacon and cook, flipping bacon as needed, until crisp.
- Transfer cooked bacon to plate lined with paper towels. Set aside. Transfer bacon grease from skillet to heat-resistant bowl or glass jar.
- Return 1 tablespoon bacon grease to skillet. Add 1 cup diced onion and stir to incorporate. Sauté onion 3 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.
- Once onion has softened, add 4 cloves garlic (chopped) and stir to incorporate. Sauté garlic 30 to 60 seconds or until just fragrant.
- Once garlic is fragrant, transfer onion-garlic mixture to Crockpot. Add 2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes and 2 cups chicken stock. Stir to incorporate.
- Secure lid on Crockpot and set to desired temperature setting. Cook potatoes until fork-tender, approximately 3 hours on HIGH heat or 5 hours on LOW heat.
- Place medium saucepan on stovetop over medium heat. When pan is warm, add 3 tablespoons bacon grease and continue warming pan until grease is liquid.
- Once grease is hot, sprinkle ¼ cup flour into saucepan. Vigorously whisk flour into bacon grease until paste is formed.
- Cook mixture over medium heat just until lightly golden, then remove saucepan from heat. Slowly add 2 cups whole milk (warmed) and whisk to incorporate. Return saucepan to heat and simmer mixture 2 to 4 minutes, whisking constantly, until mixture has thickened.
- Transfer milk mixture to Crockpot. Use potato masher to mash fully-cooked potatoes to desired consistency.
- Once satisfied with consistency, add 1 cup shredded fresh cheddar cheese, 1 cup sour cream, 2 teaspoons sea salt, and ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper to Crockpot. Stir until ingredients are fully incorporated.
- Replace lid on Crockpot and set temperature to HIGH. Cook 30 minutes on HIGH heat.
- After 30 minutes, remove lid and stir soup well. Ladle soup into serving bowls. Top with cooked, diced bacon, shredded fresh cheddar cheese, and diced green onions if desired. Serve warm.
- Cheese: Prepackaged, preshredded cheeses have starches added to prevent clumping in the package. Those starches also keep the cheese from melting well and can give the soup a gritty texture. For best results, buy a block of cheddar cheese and shred it yourself.
- Leftovers: Refrigerate leftover soup in an airtight container up to 5 days.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
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At what point do you add the thickening agent? Right after you put the stuff in the crockpot? Or when the 3 hours is over?
The flour is added to the bacon grease in step 4. 🙂
Thank you for a great recipe. Made this last night and it turned out great. A few revisions I made.. I omitted the bacon and sautéed onions and garlic in olive oil and used olive oil butter, & flour to add thickness.
Topped off with scallions and cheddar cheese. Delicious!
Great tips! Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Just made for the first football Saturday!! It’s great!! Definitely will make this again!
Hooray! So glad it went well.
so a couple questions- potatoes should be peeled? size-wise i’m guessing diced into like one-two inch size cubes/pieces? also, the roux part (or the flour milk part) is added after the 3 hours of cooking for the potatoes etc are complete correct? thanks!
Yes!
Annnnd the verdict? Absolutely incredibly delicious as usual! Will be a forever addition to my recipe folder