Baked Potato Soup

Last year our pastor asked if I would be willing to make chicken noodle and baked potato soup to end our youth group's 30-Hour Famine.  The chicken noodle soup was easy, but I didn't have one for Baked Potato Soup, so I started my search and found this yummy recipe on Leigh Anne's blog at Your Homebased Mom My family fell in love with it and the youth group seemed to love it as well.  I fixed it yesterday on the spur of a moment for a very chilly and windy March day and it's already gone.



 It tastes like a baked potato but in soup form.


It’s also a great way to use any leftover baked potatoes you might have.

Baked Potato Soup

The addition of cheese, bacon, sour cream and green onion in the soup as well as on top give it great flavor.  A baked potato with all the toppings!  You can mash up your mashed potato as much as you like.


Baked Potato Soup

4-6 large baking potatoes
1/2 C butter
2/3 C flour
3 C chicken broth
3 C milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4 green onions, chopped
1 1/4 C cheddar cheese, grated
1 C sour cream
12 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled.

1. Bake potatoes in a hot oven until tender and then cool.  Cut in half and scoop out the pulp and set it aside. (Make some potato skins out of the rest.).  I cooked my potatoes like I would for mashed potatoes, boiling cubed potatoes until tender, the liquid should boil down. Many times I like to add chicken broth to the water I use to boil my potatoes in as it adds a touch flavor.
   
2. Melt butter, add flour, stir and cook over low heat until smooth.  Gradually add broth and milk, cook over medium heat until mixture is thick and bubbly; stir often.  The rue from the broth will be really thick.  Be patient and make sure you let the butter and flour cook completely.  You may have to add a bit more broth
   
3. Add potatoes, seasonings, half of the green onions and cheese.  Heat thoroughly. 
   
4. Stir in sour cream.  Add extra broth or milk if necessary for desired consistency.  Garnish with remaining green onion, cheese and crisp bacon.

She added:   I found that as the soup sat on the stove top it thickened up a bit so just thinned it down with some more milk and chicken broth.

I hope you'll give this a try.  It's simply delicious!





If you don't know how to make a butter and flour rue, Cooks.com explained it the way it do it. 

1.   Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium low heat.

2. Stir in flour. Using a wire whisk, stir the butter-flour mixture until it bubbles. This is called a roux.

3. Cook and stir the roux for 1-2 minutes. This gets rid of the raw flour taste and allows the starch granules in the flour to accept the liquid. Remove from heat.

4. Heat the liquid in a separate pan.

5. Slowly add the liquid to the roux, stirring vigorously with that wire whisk.

6. Return saucepan to heat. Cook and stir over medium heat until the sauce thickens. This process begins at the bottom of the pot, so be sure to stir constantly.

7. When the sauce is thickened and just begins to boil, remove from heat. You've made a white sauce!


Tips:
Heating the liquid ensures lumps won't form as easily in the sauce.
Make sure you cook the flour-butter mixture for 1-2 minutes so the sauce will thicken.
Using a wire whisk really is essential. It incorporates the liquid into the roux very well, preventing lumps from forming.