I have been a meat and potatoes kind of guy for as long as I can remember. I love potatoes in every form I’ve ever eaten them, except potato salad. (I know! I know! That’s practically sacrilege to admit when you live in the South). It’s no wonder that I love potato soup and have a favorite recipe. Mrs. Lone Star has been fixing this version of loaded potato soup for many, many years around our house. We make our soup in a dutch oven on the stove top so if you use a regular stock pot or you are cooking over an open fire you will probably need to adjust some of the cooking time. We have always made ours in the dutch oven so I honestly wouldn’t have the first clue where to start with adjustments necessary. If you are interested in using a dutch oven but don’t know what to buy, we use one similar to this one from Amazon. (Affiliate link).
- 1 twelve oz pkg of bacon
- 1-1/2 cups of chopped onions
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 2 lbs baking potatoes, peeled, and cubed
- 2/3 cup butter
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups milk
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 cup diced, cooked ham
- 1 eight oz container of sour cream
- 2-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- In a skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Crumble bacon and set aside. Reserve 2 tbls of bacon drippings in the skillet and cook the onions until almost tender.
- In your dutch oven, mix the onion, chicken broth, and potatoes. Heat to boiling and reduce heat. Simmer until the potatoes are tender.
- Meanwhile, in same skillet you used for the bacon and onions, melt the butter over low heat. Stir in the flour with a whisk until smooth. Cook ad stir for 1 min. Gradually stir in 2 cups of the milk. Pour the milk and flour mixture into the dutch oven.
- Add the remaining 2 cups of milk, salt, and pepper.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with the whisk until the mixture is thickened and bubbling.
- Stir in the cubed ham, half of the crumbled bacon, 2 cups of the cheese, and the sour cream. Continue cooking until thoroughly heated and the cheese is melted.
- Serve in bowls and garnish with remaining crumbled bacon and cheese. Enjoy!
- We have found over the years that it is easier for us to cut the raw bacon into small pieces and then cook rather than cooking the bacon and then crumbling.
- We determine the size of the potatoes when cubing them, based on the amount of time we will be cooking them. The longer we want the soup to simmer, the large we cube the potatoes. Cubing them very small will significantly speed up the cook time of the potatoes.
- We also garnish with freshly chopped green onions in addition to the bacon and cheese.
