Fantastic soup!! I threw all the ingredients in the crock pot for 10 hrs., with a couple Tbsp. of the bacon drippings, & it was delicious! My daughter is 15 yrs. old & a little picky, & she devoured it!
I opted for this recipe because it seemed by the list of ingredients to be a more professional tasting soup than the others I read, and boy was I right! A really delicious soup! The onion and garlic and chicken broth gave so much more flavor than the other recipes which were basically a bland beschamel sauce with no depth. After reading another comment, I also reduced the basil to 1/2 tsp. and added about 1/4 tsp. dried thyme. And I also read someone comment that it was runny, so I used 4 tbsp. flour and thought I could always thin it later with milk if needed, but for my taste, 4 tbsp. was perfect, not too thick or thin. And I topped it with grated parmesean. Thanks Kristi for a great recipe!
I made this the other night for my family, mind you, I'm VERY much a beginner cook. I followed the recipe for the most part, except a few little things here and there. I didn't bake the potatoes first, I just cubed them and cooked them in the chicken broth while I was sauteing the garlic and onions in the bacon grease, and I used that same grease to make a rue, which I think added a lot of flavor. I also crumbled up most of the pound of bacon I used and put it in the soup, and instead of half and half, I used half sour cream, and half heaving whipping cream, whisked that together and added it. I only used half the basil, which I'm glad I did because it had just the right taste. I tripled the recipe and there were STILL no leftovers! I also made the Cheddar Bay biscuits from this site to go with it, SO GOOD!! Other recipes don't even compare! =]
Oh my gosh....I'm so full. This was a fantastic soup. I've shied away from the "baked" types of potato soup for a long time, and I'm glad I picked this one for my first try. We needed more, though, so I doubled everything but the onion and salt. I didn't want to bake the potatoes first, so I made the base a little thinner with milk, and cooked the diced/raw potatoes for about 15 minutes at a gentle boil. We used about 1/2 pound of bacon, and added 2 stalks of celery to the softening of the garlic and onion. Rather than just cooking in bacon grease, though, we halved it with margarine. Lastly, we didn't use half-and-half, but creamed with about 2/3 cup of sour cream at the very end, before tossing in all of the bacon. SO good!
fantastic soup! i added twice the potatoes suggested and kept the skins on for vitamins...and used vegetarian bacon/soy bacon of course. again, fantastic!
MMM! MMM! MMM! Only minor changes. Had Yukon Gold (not very starchy & not so good at thickening) so held off on the dairy until I added half the potatoes and gave them a good whirl with the stick blender. Kids loved it with extra bacon, cheddar and sour cream. Pretty simple recipe so feel free to improvise. Highly recommended!
This was great! I doubled the recipe for a large group and although it took a while, I didn't manage my time well. I also made a more vegetarian version with vegetable stock and used olive oil instead of bacon and bacon drippings and it tasted just as good as its counterpart.
I thought this soup tasted great!! I read some other reviews and did half the basil recommended and add more flour. I also added 1/2 cup sour cream and 1 cup cheddar cheese. I mashed it up to make it thicker as well. The chicken broth was added a really good flavor. I did not have to add any other seasoning. Yummy!!
This is an excellent recipe. I will add this to our family cookbook and use it again and again. I was so pleased by the taste and texture of the soup. I will double the recipe next time so that I can have more leftovers. 5 stars
