Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup
Creamy, comforting and perfect for a chilly day, this Slow Cooker Potato Soup recipe is loaded with flavor! Made with your favorite potatoes, onions, garlic and finished with cream cheese, sour cream and your favorite baked potato toppings, this slow cooker soup recipe is easy to make and great for any night of the week.
Love slow cooker meals? You’ve got to try Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice and Slow Cooker Pot Roast.
I wasn’t going to be sharing this with y’all for a bit, but since snow (and ice, honestly) has blanketed a lot of Texas, I wanted to pivot and share something that was comforting, homey and perfect to make for one of these days.
Currently, we’re holding steady and STILL have power.
May this continue for us all, and may we all have the opportunity to eat comforting dishes like this Slow Cooker Loaded Baked Potato Soup.
Why I love this recipe:
Honestly, this creamy potato soup is the best kind of comfort food I can imagine for this time of year.
And not only is it comforting, but it’s easy to make, it comes together quickly, and it’s family friendly to boot.
You know how some Potato Soup recipes get weirdly thick and goopy? This is not one of them. The texture is silky smooth and beautiful, thanks to the final blending, and we don’t even add heavy cream to get that gorgeous texture and flavor.
This recipe also doubles or triples easily, too, so if you want to serve it to a crowd, it’s a simple dish to have in your recipe box.
Other comforting meals to try this winter: Seafood Gumbo | Instant Pot French Onion Meatloaf | Honey Sriracha Chicken Rice Bowls | Roasted Butternut Squash Soup | Cajun Chicken Alfredo | Dutch Oven Chicken and Dumplings
Need more dinnertime inspiration? Check out my Dinner Recipe Index for inspiration.
What you need to make this recipe
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In addition to these tools to make this slow cooker soup recipe, you’re also going to need some ingredients. You might even have these in your pantry and fridge already!
- Gold potatoes—these are my personal favorite, but I’ve also tested this soup out with russet potatoes. If you use russets, peel them first since their skin is tougher.
- Bacon fat—while you can use olive oil or avocado oil in place of this ingredient, I love, love, love the flavor the bacon fat adds to our soup. The bonus is you can fry up bacon to use as a garnish and save that for later in the fridge while using the fat in the soup itself.
- Onion—a yellow or white onion is perfect here!
- Garlic—if you can, chop yours fresh. It adds amazing flavor and much more pop than pre-chopped garlic from a jar.
- Chicken stock—I keep unsalted chicken stock or broth in my house, but use what you’ve got on hand. Just keep in mind that you might not need to add salt to the recipe if your chicken broth is salted.
- Seasonings—season the soup with salt and pepper. Give it a good taste before adding these. The amount you add will be dependent on your tastebuds, as well as if your stock has been salted.
- Cream cheese—you can use lower fat or the regular kind here, but I do not recommend using the fat-free variety.
- Sour cream—since we don’t use a ton of this, splurge for the full-fat kind. It adds so much amazing flavor!
Slow Cooker Loaded Potato Soup toppings
- Extra sour cream
- Crumbled bacon
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Fresh chives
- Chopped green onions
Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup variations
- Make it vegetarian. Swap the bacon fat for olive oil and use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.
How to make Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup
Cook the bacon. All you need to do is throw 1-2 strips of bacon in a skillet. When crisp, remove them from the pan and save for later in the fridge. (You can reheat these in the microwave for 20-30 seconds until warm for garnish.) Save the grease.
Cook the veggies. Chop the onion and garlic. Toss them into the skillet with the leftover bacon grease, and cook until soft. Pour into the slow cooker.
I know this seems like an extra step and dirties yet another dish… but trust me when I say this is going to add so much flavor to your soup. While you CAN make the soup by just tossing everything into the slow cooker, I’ve found that sautéing the vegetables in bacon fat really takes this soup to another level.
Prep the potatoes. Give them a good scrub and chop into 1-2” pieces. (The smaller the bites, the quicker they’ll be cooked through.) Place in the slow cooker.
Pour in the stock. Place the lid on the slow cooker.
Cook on low for 7-8 hours. If you want to cook this on high, it needs to be for 4-5 hours.
Thirty minutes before serving, add the cream cheese and sour cream. Let them melt into the soup.
Blend in a regular-sized blender or with an immersion blender until smooth.
Serve with your favorite toppings, and enjoy immediately!
Erin’s Easy Entertaining Tips
I love an easy slow cooker meal that I can serve to my family for dinner OR serve to friends for a low-key dinner party or dinner gathering.
This slow cooker soup recipe is particularly perfect for a wintertime gathering because it’s incredibly easy AND hands-off once you get everything into the slow cooker.
Here are some ways you can host your people and serve them this dish:
- Double the recipe. My family can eat an entire slow cooker of this recipe by ourselves, so if you’re hosting friends, brush off your math skills and double or even triple the recipe. You’ll be glad you did!
- Serve an easy side with the soup. We’re fans of store-bought crusty bread because you can dip it into the soup.
- Offer lots of toppings in bowls and let your guests load up their Baked Potato Soup to their liking! We’ve found that offering bacon, sour cream, shredded cheese, chopped chives and chopped green onions tends to work for our crowd.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! The beauty in this Slow Cooker Potato Soup recipe is that you throw the raw potatoes into the soup.
The potatoes add starch and thicken the soup once blended. Also, we’re adding a bit of cream cheese and sour cream to both thicken and add flavor at the very end.
This will last for 3-4 days in the refrigerator without an issue.
It depends on the potato and your personal preference. Since gold potatoes have very thin skin, I do not peel them. However, when I’ve made this soup with russet potatoes, I have peeled them because their peels are thicker.
Personally, Yukon gold potatoes are my favorite for this soup. However, you can use russet potatoes in this soup if you peel them.
Quick Tips and Tricks for the best baked potato soup
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Let the soup cool completely before placing in the refrigerator.
- Freeze in a freezer-safe storage container for up to 3 months. Let defrost in the fridge, then reheat in the microwave.
- Have fun with the toppings! Everyone has different tastes, so offer different toppings for your family or guests to enjoy. I’ve listed our favorites below in the recipe card…
Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 2-3 strips bacon
- 1 tablespoon bacon fat leftover from bacon
- ¾ cup chopped onion about ½ medium onion
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 1 ½ lbs. gold potatoes
- 4 cups chicken stock unsalted if possible
- 4 oz. cream cheese
- ¼ cup sour cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
Toppings
- Sour cream
- Cheese
- Bacon
- Chives chopped
Equipment
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Instructions
- Cook the bacon. Throw 1-2 strips of bacon in a skillet. When crisp, remove them from the pan and save for later in the fridge. (You can reheat these in the microwave for 20-30 seconds until warm for garnish.) Save the grease.
- Add the onion and garlic to the skillet with the bacon grease. Cook until soft and fragrant, about 5-7 minutes. Scoop into the slow cooker.
- Scrub and chop the potatoes into 1-2” pieces. (The smaller the bites, the quicker they’ll be cooked through.)
- Place the chopped potatoes in the slow cooker, and pour in the stock.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker, and cook on low for 7-8 hours. If you need your soup done faster, cook on high for 4-5 hours.
- Thirty minutes before serving, add the cream cheese and sour cream. Let them melt into the soup. Do not do this early or they will curdle.
- Blend in a regular-sized blender or with an immersion blender until smooth.
- Serve with your favorite toppings, and enjoy immediately!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
About the Author:
Erin Parker is a Southern gal living in Texas with her husband and two daughters. She started The Speckled Palate to share what she was cooking as a newlywed… and over the years, it’s evolved to capture her love for hosting. Specifically, the EASIEST, lowest key entertaining because everyone deserves to see their people and connect over good food. Learn more about her…
At the very end of this recipe you recommend blending of the soup. Why? Isn’t blending – especially at this late point in the process – going to turn everything to a near purée?
Hey there, Jon! Good question. I like to blend at the end to make this soup a smoother consistency. (It’s a texture and personal preference thing for me.) Also, this step helps incorporate the cream cheese and sour cream into the ingredients a little better. If you’d rather leave your soup at a chunkier consistency, you can certainly do that, and it will still taste great! I hope that helps.
Hello!! I’ve been printing out a bunch of your recipes, and I’m about to make the Peach Moscow Mules tomorrow, for Fourth of July.
I have a quick question re: the ingredients for this soup: would it be permissible to use either Vegetable stock, or “Better Than Buillion”?? I can’t stand Chicken!! 🙂
Many thanks, and kindest regards!! Thanks for creating such a FANTASTIC website, Erin; I will be visiting often!!
Hey there, Anne! That makes me so happy to hear that you’ve been printing out a bunch of my recipes. I hope the Peach Mules turned out fabulously yesterday, too.
You can use vegetable stock or bouillon if you don’t like chicken stock. That’s what we normally use in our household, though it can easily be swapped.
Thank you so much for your kind words–you’re welcome! Please let me know how this soup turns out!