A Recipe: Baked Potato Soup

It is dreary and rainy here in St. Louis today so I thought I'd post this delicious recipe.  Perfect for a rainy day.



Baked Potato Soup Recipe: from Paula Deen
8 slices Smithfield Naturally Hickory Smoked Bacon
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
5 potatoes, baked, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
2 cups half & half
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup sour cream
 Salt & pepper to taste (optional)

Directions: In a Dutch oven cook bacon until crisp; remove and crumble, reserve drippings. Cook onion in bacon drippings until tender; stir in flour and cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add chicken broth; cook, stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly. Put in the diced potatoes, parsley, bacon and half & half; cook for 10 minutes. Stir in cheese and sour cream. Garnish with cheese, bacon and sour cream.

Modifications:
-I used turkey bacon instead of pork bacon. Because turkey bacon doesn't have as much fat, I put some olive oil in so that the bacon would get crisp.
-I added some artificial bacon bits.
-I added some minced garlic.

Here's What You'll Need:

Peel, wash, and cut up about 6 potatoes (sorry for the shadowy picture).

Put bacon in a dutch oven along with some olive oil.

Peel and dice up an onion.

While the bacon is cooking, pour 2 cups of half and half.

Once the bacon iscrispy, pull it off and throw the onions in the same pot to cook for about 1 minute.

Measure out 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour and pour it in with the onions.  Add more olive oil if you use turkey bacon because there won't be a lot of remnants.

After the onions and flour cook for about 1 minute, slowly stir in 2 cans of chicken broth. The recipe called for 3 cans but 2 worked just fine.

Don't be nervous by the look of the soup.  Just let it get hot and thicken up.

While the stock thickens, chopup the bacon.

After it thickens, put in the potatoes, parsley, bacon, and half & half.

I added additional artificial bacon.

The recipe said to let all of the above cook for 10 minutes but I didn't think that it was enough time because the potatoes were still hard. I let it go for about 15-17 minutes and then I added 1/2 cup of light sour cream and 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese.

Here's what you'll end up with:

Our Thoughts:
I only have one word to describe this soup--DELICIOUS! This soup only took about 40 minutes with prep and cooking time. It had great flavor and I love the fact that cheese was actually added to the soup and not just an after-thought as a topping.

I don't know if you can tell or not in the pics but I left pretty big pieces of bacon and it added great texture. I wish that I would have cooked up a couple of more pieces and then saved some to put on top, too.

Of course, Kanin and Gracie didn't eat it BUT don't go by them because they are in the "I don't like this" phase about everything. If you like potato soup, this is for you!!
Hope you enjoy!
April
5*****Fantastic