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Slow Cooker Potato Soup

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This Slow Cooker Potato Soup recipe is easy to make in the crock-pot, and it’s perfectly thick and creamy and flavorful (without having to use heavy cream)!

Slow Cooker Potato Soup -- so delicious, and made extra-easy in the crock pot! | gimmesomeoven.com

Alright everyone, I think this one tops the charts as our most requested recipe on the blog ever, so I hope you like it. :)

That’s right, I finally made you a recipe for Slow Cooker Potato Soup!!!

The keywords, of course, being slow cooker.

Many of you have already discovered my classic Potato Soup recipe on the blog, which will forever and always be my favorite. But nearly every other comment we have received about this soup is from all of you slow cooking fans, asking if you can make the soup in your crock pots. As someone who shares a deep and undying love of all things potato soup and slow cooking, I was right there with ya! Unfortunately, the traditional recipe wasn’t one that that easily converted to slow cooking. Or at least, you couldn’t just dump all of the ingredients in and expect thick and creamy and delicious potato soup afterwards.

But I tested out a few different slow cooker approaches and finally figured out one that I think we’re all going to love. Just like my classic potato soup recipe, this one is super rich and creamy (but made a tiny bit lighter without heavy cream – yay!), it requires less than 20 minutes of prep time (mostly just chopping those potatoes), and it’s wonderfully comforting and delicious. But unlike my classic potato soup recipe, your crock pot gets to be the one to slow cook this soup to perfection.

Alright, let’s do this.

 

Slow Cooker Potato Soup Recipe Video (1 Minute)

 

The first step in this Slow Cooker Potato Soup recipe is probably the most time consuming — chopping up a storm. Chop up lots of potatoes (I strongly recommend Yukon golds), a big onion (white or yellow), and lots of cooked bacon (you can fry or microwave the bacon while you chop, or buy it pre-cooked).Slow Cooker Potato Soup -- so delicious, and made extra-easy in the crock pot! | gimmesomeoven.com

Then toss everything in the slow cooker (<– this is the one I use!), along with lots of good-quality chicken (or vegetable) stock.

And then set the timer for 3-4 hours (on high) or 6-8 hours (on low), and walk away and let the slow cooker do its thing.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup -- so delicious, and made extra-easy in the crock pot! | gimmesomeoven.com

Then once everything has slow cooked, you’ve gotta do the final step on the stovetop. I know, I know, this recipe isn’t 100% slow cooker. But in order to have a soup that’s nice and thick and avoid using heavy cream, we need to make a quick and easy creamy roux on the stove.

So just melt your butter (or you can use reserved bacon grease, if you fried the bacon on the stove, which will be way more flavorful) and whisk it together with some flour to form a roux. Then whisk in a can of evaporated milk. And once the mixture comes to a simmer, it will thicken up into a really thick gravy-like mixture. Add that to directly to the slow cooker, and give everything a stir.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup -- so delicious, and made extra-easy in the crock pot! | gimmesomeoven.com

And then if you’d like an even thicker soup (which I recommend), use a potato masher to mash up about half of the potatoes in the soup. Or you can just leave them all chunky. Up to you.

(Or, some of you have asked about a slightly healthier soup. If you’d rather leave out the roux entirely and just have a brothy-er soup, you can do that, and/or just mash some of the potatoes if you’d like to thicken it up a bit.)

Slow Cooker Potato Soup -- so delicious, and made extra-easy in the crock pot! | gimmesomeoven.com

And then…ta da! A big crock pot full of delicious, creamy Slow Cooker Potato Soup will be yours to enjoy!
Slow Cooker Potato Soup -- so delicious, and made extra-easy in the crock pot! | gimmesomeoven.com

 

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Slow Cooker Potato Soup

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 265 reviews
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 250 minutes
  • Total Time: 260 minutes
  • Yield: 8 -10 servings 1x

Description

This Slow Cooker Potato Soup recipe is thick and creamy (without using heavy cream), wonderfully flavorful, and made extra easy in the slow cooker!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 6 slices cooked bacon*, diced
  • 34 cups good-quality chicken or vegetable stock
  • 2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes**, peeled (if desired) and diced
  • 1 medium white or yellow onion, peeled and diced
  • 4 tablespoons bacon grease* (or butter)
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 (12-ounce) can 2% evaporated milk
  • 1 cup shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt or low-fat sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, or more to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly-cracked black pepper
  • optional toppings: thinly-sliced green onions or chives, extra shredded cheese, extra bacon, sour cream

Instructions

  1. Add bacon, 3 cups chicken stock, potatoes and onion to the bowl of a large slow cooker, and stir to combine.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours, or until the potatoes are completely tender and cooked through.
  2. Once the soup has slow cooked and is about ready to serve, cook the butter in a small saucepan on the stove over medium-high heat until it has melted.  Whisk in the flour until it is completely combined, and then cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.  Gradually add in the evaporated milk while whisking it together with the flour mixture, and continue whisking until the mixture is completely smooth.  Let the mixture continue cooking until it reaches a simmer, stirring occasionally, and then it should get really thick.
  3. Immediately pour the milk mixture into the slow cooker with the potatoes, and stir until combined.  Add in the cheddar cheese, Greek yogurt (or sour cream), salt and pepper, and stir until combined.  If you would like the soup to be even thicker, you can use a potato masher or a large spoon to mash about half of the potatoes (while the soup is still in the slow cooker) to thicken the soup up.  If you would like the soup to be thinner, add in an extra 1-2 cups of warmed chicken or vegetable stock.  Stir to combine, then taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
  4. Serve warm, garnished with desired toppings.  Or transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.  (This recipe will not freeze well.)

Notes

*You can either fry the bacon, cook it in the microwave, or buy pre-cooked bacon.  If frying or microwaving, I recommend dicing the bacon before cooking it.  And if you are frying it, I highly recommend saving the bacon grease for later and then using it to make your roux (instead of butter).

**I highly recommend using Yukon gold potatoes, which have the perfect texture and buttery taste for this soup.  But Russet potatoes or red potatoes would also work just fine in this recipe.

***If you would like to make this recipe vegetarian, use vegetable stock, omit the bacon, and I would recommend adding in 2-3 teaspoons of Old Bay seasoning for extra flavor.

This post contains affiliate links.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup -- so delicious, and made extra-easy in the crock pot! | gimmesomeoven.com

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1,135 comments on “Slow Cooker Potato Soup”

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  1. I can’t wait until Fall gets here so I can start trying a bunch of soup recipes! This is towards the top of my list. I’m not even a fan of potatoes but this looks good. I can’t wait to try it.

  2. AWESOME! This soup was easy to make and awesome to just throw everything in and leave for 4 hours. I found that it was a bit to mushy for me though. Next time I will reduce the cooking time and keep the chunks of potatoes. Very great soup either way and awesome on a cold night!

  3. Does anyone know if this soup freezes well? I love making this soup but I would like to either double or triple the batch to save myself some time in the future! Thanks!

    • No, unfortunately. Potatoes do not freeze well.

    • I always freeze my leftovers from it, and they are very tasty. They only down side is they turn into more like a mashed potato and less like a soup. I still love them though. This is one of my husband’s favorite recipes.

  4. We made this soup and it is awesome! I could eat it every day.






  5. Amazing!!! All my kids loved it!!






  6. Do you have a favorite brand of chicken broth/stock? Thank you.

  7. This one sounds wonderful. However would you mind posting your stovetop recipe also? And I do plan on making this slow cooker one. My favorite soup.

  8. I’ve been making this soup for a few years now and it’s really become a staple in our home! I throw in diced ham and some sliced carrots at the beginning and do the cooked bacon for the topping (this way it stays crisp!). Have made both with cream and with the roux and both ways are excellent! Very versatile recipe, thank you!!






  9. This is a lighter version than what I usually make and I think it is delicious. What a great meal to make with my garden potatoes.






  10. I made this without the bacon. It was delicious!






  11. After making this recipe I discovered that it’s important that you watch how much salt You add outside of chicken stock and bacon. After you add the cheddar cheese taste it before adding the salt that the recipe calls for. Mine was almost too salty. I made the roux from bacon grease as well, and if your butter is salted it’s going to add salt, and if you are using self rising flour it will add a pinch of salt, so taste it before adding salt ?

  12. Made this soup today. It was awesome. Served it for dinner.






  13. I made the soup.Best potato soup we ever .Definitely a winner.






  14. My soup is in the crock pot right now! Cannot wait. Is the yogurt/sour cream definitely needed? Husband dislikes both, but I was going to sneak it in anyways.






  15. The soup was a hit! Even my picky 14 yr old liked it! Thanks for the recipe






  16. I had four leftover cooked chicken breasts from catering and I diced them and added it to the crock pot. I also diced carrots and added a can of corn kernels because why not?? Looking forward to the end result!

  17. Made this recipe and it is awsome!






  18. I veganized this omitting bacon, yogurt and cheese, subbing vegan butter for regular butter, plain unsweetened almond milk for the evaporated milk, and using veggie broth instead of chicken stock. So yummy and perfect on a snowy 20 degree day! Thank you!






  19. I made this last night for dinner. It was so easy to make and the taste was awesome. I got two thumbs up from my husband and son. Definitely will make thi agaon.






  20. Can you use red potatoes instead of gold or russet? It’s all I have on hand. – Will this affect the cooking time?

    Thanks!

  21. This turned out great! My prep time was well over 10 minutes, as a diced/chopped everything by hand. I a bit more than doubled the recipe, using 5 pounds of Yukon Gold Potatoes, fried my bacon myself and saved the grease for the roux. I used a mixture of butter and bacon grease for the roux. I also used both chicken and vegetable stock. I added two large diced carrots, and a couple of tablespoons of minced garlic, as well as a small amount of basil. I did not use sour cream, or any toppers such as shredded cheese, it was very good without it. All of this filled my crock to the very brim. This was shared by three people, leaving well over two thirds of the recipe for freezing/leftovers, which is exactly what I’d hoped for. We will have plenty of homemade potato soup ready to go for cold/lazy days. I will definitely make this again (once all my leftovers are gone), and plenty to bring to work and share with coworkers. Hooray for potato’s and the delicious soups they yield. Thanks for posting this recipe!






  22. I’m making this for the second time today. Last time was delicious, though, it ended up a little watery and my roux was kind of a fail. This time I’m adjusting the liquid to potato ratio and I decided to add some freshly sliced mushrooms for an added flavor.
    Just another hour until it’s ready and I can try the roux again and add the sour cream and cheese. My apartment smells so good with this cooking and the mushroom is adding another dimension of flavor. I can’t wait! Perhaps I’ll try some corn instead of mushroom next time since I’ll definitely be making this again and again.






  23. This recipe was fantastic! It’s easily the best potato soup I’ve ever made, and possible the best I’ve ever had. The only change I made was to add some MSG, but I do that for all soups.

    I did make a mistake and forgot to throw in the onion during the first cook, not realizing it until it had been cooking on high for an hour. To catch it up, I sauteed it in a skillet for 10 minutes or so until it softened and just slightly turning gold before throwing it into the rest of the soup.

    We served it at a family party and the one thing I would recommend for those who keep it on warm in a crock pot for a few hours is to have a little extra chicken stock on hand. It slowly dried out and became a tad too thick towards the end of the party, but we thinned it out with some extra stock for leftovers.






  24. I am looking forward to trying your recipe for my favorite soup but would like to know if I wanted to use the heavy cream how much would I put in the crock pot and at what point would I add it. I know I shouldn’t but I can’t imagine making Potato Soup without cream. I can’t believe it would taste as good without it!

  25. I’m so happy to find this recipe! I used the bacon grease to make the roux so it gave the soup a nice Smokey flavor. I also threw in some carrot & celery to try and get some vegetables in my kids and it worked! I didn’t have evaporated milk but 2% worked just fine! I’m looking forward to trying your Jambalaya recipe tonight!






  26. First try turned out perfectly. Everyone raved in my family including my husband who doesn’t love potatoes. Constancy was perfect. Loved it!






  27. This turned out amazing we did add ham chunks and corn to it.






  28. Absolutely Delicious!!!!!!!!!!! ? Will Share With Family & Friends For Sure!!!!!






  29. This recipe is great! Perfect for this cold weather! I had to make modifications because my husband is lactose intolerant and it still turned out very good! I used Fairlife milk instead of evaporated milk and left out the cheese and sour cream. I’m sure adding those things would’ve taken this soup to the next level, but no can do. :*( Thanks for the great recipe!






  30. Followed the ingredients list exactly. Only difference is that I cooked the bacon first and just used for garnish. Sauted the onions in a little bacon grease then added potatoes and stock. Followed the rest of instructions.Cooked mine on stovetop. Done in no time at all! Family loved it!
    Will be making this again. Oh and don’t salt until the end. That way your sure to not overdo it since salt is already in several ingredients.






  31. This is the best potato soup I have ever had. Delicious and easy to make. My family loves it.






  32. I made this tonight for dinner. BEST POTATO SOUP I’ve ever tasted! It is creamy and rich! Absolutely delicious! I will definitely be making this again!






  33. Made for the first time and was huge, smashing success with whole DF. Made a couple small modifications. I added a 3rd pound of potatoes (yukon gold rocks!), added cubed ham (about 1lb) and went with the 4 cups of stock from the start. The roux w/ Evap Milk plus the sour cream made this dish smooth and creamy…oh and i used potato smashed to break it up. This holds up well in the fridge. We will def make again!






  34. I dont have any evaporated milk. Can i use regular milk??






  35. Best potato soup I ever made. Will definitely use this as my go to recipe






  36. The soup is very tasty and good I used reg sour cream and bacon grease it’s ghod






  37. Great the family loved it






  38. Just in case anyone is gluten free, I used Bobs 1-1 and it was perfect






  39. I didn’t have bacon so I substituted for ham… one of the best recipes I’ve used in a long time for potatoe soup!






  40. I made this soup awhile back. May I say OMG! Best potato soup I have ever had. My grandson requests it often .Hence why we are having it tonight.






  41. I had never had or made potato soup before – until my husband asked me to make it. I found this one and he raves about it how good “my” potato soup is. Thank YOU for the recipe – and if you’re looking for a good recipe, look no further. This is bombtastic!






  42. Great recipes for fall and winter. Awesome taste.
    Good for slow cooker too.






  43. I absolutely love this recipe! I have made it several times now. I even made some for my daughter who is in university and froze it in single size portions. I have never had any issues with freezing this soup. I just reheat it on low. I would give this recipe a 10 star rating but it doesn’t go that high.






  44. Hi! I love this recipe, and have made it a few times for my family (it’s one of our favorites!). However, as I have moved away from my family for a work contract and it is just me to cook for, I want to cut the serving size of this recipe to 4-5 portions. Would you recommend changing the cooking time, as well? Or let it slow cook per the original 8-10 serving size? Thanks!






  45. Delicious… but how many carbs in a bowl?






  46. This is really, really good! I’ve messed up a lot of potato soup recipes, but this one turned out great!






  47. This is a simple but GREAT recipe!! I followed the directions except for the following changes: I put in some small pieces of ham (already cooked) in place of the bacon, and I used a combination of frozen hash browns and fresh potatoes. I was really happy to find this for the crockpot, as I live in Florida and try not to use the oven or stove when it is warm out – so this recipe will be made all year-round. This was really delicious, I will definitely make this again!!






  48. Thanks for the receipe

  49. I’ve made this 3 times, twice as vegeterian. AMAZING! TY






  50. I’m not going to be so generous as to a 5 star nor even 4 star review. This soup wasn’t bad at all, but I found it turned out way too thick for my taste. Soup even when creamy should still have a little soupiness to it. This recipe unaltered when followed to the letter turned out VERY thick to the point where it was more pasty than anything. I was also disappointed to find that it only makes about 12 cups total.

    Next time I plan to make a double batch, INCREASE the salt and pepper a bit, decrease the sour cream by almost half and increase the amount of chicken broth to get it to the consistency I like.

    The sour cream taste and level of thickness was almost intolerable. Had to keep adding chicken stock.






    • Isn’t that part of making a recipe your own? You take what’s given, and make your own adjustments. Some people like thick soups, some like thin, some like in between. I prefer thicker soups (Stoup a friend calls hers), but everyone is different. Isn’t that great? :)