Confession:  I’ve never made a good Baked Potato Soup.  I’ve tried, but I’ve never even made anything close enough to serve my own little family at the dinner table.  Yes, I know that’s terrible (keep in mind my goal is to be always learning, and always becoming a slightly better version of myself).

In fact, the few times I have attempted to make a baked potato soup have been total flops that ended up getting tasted at the stove and promptly dumped down the drain!

Seriously, I didn’t think it was supposed to be a hard recipe to wing, but for me, it was!

So naturally my husband gave me quite the look when he came home from work and asked what I was cooking.

“I’m trying to make my own baked potato soup recipe again” I said.

He laughed a little, checked the fridge for a backup meal, and took the kids outside to play.

I didn’t blame him one bit.  After a decade of marriage, we can easily laugh at this kind of thing.

But here’s the deal, a few weeks ago I made the best mashed potatoes in the instant pot, and I thought it’d be really easy to turn that into a soup.

Turns out, I was right!

When I called everyone in for dinner I said I thought I may have made it a little thin, but wanted their opinions.  Supportively the all tried it anyway, and loved it!

I thought I could’ve used a touch less chicken broth, but after it sitting overnight in the fridge, I was glad to have added the extra can that I did (3 total).

I made the soup basically the same way I made Mashed Potatoes in the Instant Pot, but tweaked it to make it more soupy and flavorful.

Ingredients:

• 7 lbs. of Potatoes (peeled and quartered)*
• 1-2 Onions Diced
• 2-3 15oz Cans of Chicken Broth (2 cans = thicker soup more like mashed potato consistency, 3 cans= a good soup consistency)
• 1 8oz Brick of Cream Cheese
• ½ C. Sour Cream

 

For the top (optional):

• Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• Diced Green Peppers
• Diced Bacon (we used turkey) or Bacon Bits

*I started with a 10lb bag of potatoes and just keep peeling and cutting until the pot was about full.  They cook down really well, so no need to worry that you’re overfilling the pot.

Directions:

1. Place the potatoes, chicken broth, and onions in the pot.
2. Set the pot to Manual, High Pressure, 8 minutes.
3. When the timer goes off, release the pressure and remove the lid. Don’t drain it.
4. Add in the sour cream, and cream cheese.
5. Mash everything in the pot using a potato masher, or immersion blender if you have one (I bet a hand mixer would work well too).

That’s it!

You can keep the pot set on the “keep warm” setting until you’re ready to serve it.  If you want to garnish it, cheese is really all you need.  For us though, the green peppers and bacon made  it over the top good!

ENJOY!