Go Back
one plain bowl of thick pale baked potato soup with soft brown-skin potato chunks, small crisp bacon pieces, a little melted white Monterey Jack and finely chopped chives, with no orange cheddar, separate fried potato-skin strips, scallion rings or garnish sprigs
Rachel Kim

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Bake halved russets cut-side down so the flesh gets a browned face before it joins the soup. Keep some pieces skin-on and coarsely mash the rest for a bowl with both baked-potato texture and a thick broth. Buttermilk adds tang, while Monterey Jack melts around the potato without making it another orange cheddar soup. Temper the buttermilk with hot broth and add it off the heat so the finished pot stays smooth. Bacon and chopped chives go on each serving, where their texture and flavor remain distinct instead of sinking into a long simmer.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 2 1/2 lbs medium russet potatoes scrubbed and halved lengthwise
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 3/4 tsp fine salt divided
  • 6 slices bacon cut into small pieces
  • 1 small yellow onion finely diced
  • 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1 cup cultured buttermilk
  • 6 oz Monterey Jack freshly grated
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh chives

Method
 

  1. Heat the oven to 425°F. Rub potato halves with olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt and place cut-side down on a rimmed sheet. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until very tender with browned cut faces.
  2. Meanwhile, cook bacon in a soup pot over medium heat for 8 minutes until crisp. Transfer bacon to a plate, leaving 1 tablespoon fat in the pot and discarding excess. Cook onion in the fat for 7 minutes.
  3. Add broth, pepper and remaining salt to the onion and bring to a gentle simmer. Cut half the baked potatoes into 3/4-inch skin-on chunks; scoop the flesh from the other half and coarsely mash it, discarding those empty skins.
  4. Stir mashed flesh and skin-on chunks into the broth. Simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring carefully to keep some chunks intact.
  5. Turn off the heat and wait until bubbling stops. Whisk buttermilk in a bowl with 1 cup hot potato broth added gradually, then stir the tempered mixture into the pot.
  6. Stir in two-thirds of the Monterey Jack until melted. Divide soup among 6 bowls and top each with remaining Jack, crisp bacon and chopped chives; do not boil after adding buttermilk.