Loaded Baked Potato Soup

 

If you need a warm, savory meal for a cold winter day... look no further! 

When I started to make this Loaded Baked Potato Soup, I actually intended to follow a recipe I had found. But then I bought a few wrong ingredients and realized the recipe I had wasn't for a slow cooker -- and slow cookers are my jam when it comes to soup (and a lot of other meals!). Nothing beats throwing ingredients into a big pot and forgetting about it until dinnertime rolls around, especially with the craziness of these days we're in.

So I did what I tend to do a lot these days and improvised! And I'm so glad I did, because this soup turned out so yummy, and I realized by subbing a milk base for a broth base and cutting out butter, I saved a ton of calories but sacrificed none of the flavor (and trust, there are still plenty of calories in this soup, haha). I will warn you, I pretty much eye-balled amounts of everything, so feel free to adjust as you see fit. That's the beauty of soup -- with the basic ingredients in place, it's hard to go wrong.

Here's What You Need:

-32 oz chicken broth

-Small Yukon Gold potatoes

-Thick cut bacon

-White or yellow onion

-Cheddar cheese, shredded

-1/2 cup - 1 cup heavy cream

-Sour cream

-Flour

-Garlic salt

-Cracked pepper

Here's What You Do:

-Bake bacon in oven heated to 400 for 25 minutes (my tried & true bacon-cooking method, and it took a lot of trial & error and fire alarms going off, is to place bacon on a baking sheet and cover with another baking sheet)

-While bacon is cooking, wash and cut potatoes into cubes, dump into crockpot

-Chop white (or yellow) onion -- I used about 1/2 an onion -- and add to crockpot

-Once bacon is done cooking, tear apart 4-6 slices and add to crockpot

-Pour whole carton of chicken broth into crockpot (should just cover the dry ingredients) and mix everything together

-Cook on high for 3.5-4 hours, or low 5-6 hours

-About a half hour before you want to serve, whisk together 1 tablespoon flour and 1/4-1/2 cup of heavy cream, pour into crockpot

-Add approx. 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

-Add few dollops (what a fun word) of sour cream

-Add garlic salt and cracked pepper to taste

-Stir all together and cook for another 30 minutes or so

-Enjoy topped with shredded cheddar and crumbled bacon!