The evenings turned here this week, and this is the first pot I want on the stove when they do. It is a baked potato, taken apart and put back together as a soup — fluffy potato, bacon, sharp cheddar, sour cream and scallions, all of it in one bowl you can eat with a spoon.
The one thing worth doing properly is in the name. Bake the potatoes, do not boil them. Boiling waterlogs a potato and rinses its flavor into the pot; dry oven heat drives the moisture off and leaves something sweet and fluffy behind. It adds about forty minutes you spend doing nothing, and it is the whole reason this tastes like a loaded baked potato instead of a bowl of starch.
The OG is our organic salt, pepper and garlic blend — three things on the label and nothing else. In a soup this rich that is a feature, not a shortcoming. There is nothing in the jar getting between you and the potato.
Everything else is what is coming in right now. Yellow onions, celery and scallions are all in across the Carolinas, and the North Carolina sweet potato harvest is on, so a pound of sweet potatoes in place of a pound of the russets is a swap worth knowing about.
One pot, six bowls, and everyone loads their own at the table.
Loaded Baked Potato Soup with The OG
Thick, creamy loaded baked potato soup built on oven-baked russets, bacon, sharp cheddar and organic salt, pepper and garlic. One pot, serves six.
Ingredients
For the potatoes
- 3 lb russet potatoes (about 5 large)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp The OG organic salt, pepper & garlic seasoning
For the pot
- 8 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp The OG
- ½ tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
To finish
- 8 oz sharp cheddar, grated off the block (about 2 cups)
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 4 scallions, sliced thin
- Kosher or flaky sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 425°F. Scrub the potatoes and dry them well, prick each one a few times with a fork, then rub all over with the olive oil and the 2 teaspoons of The OG. Set them straight on the oven rack with a sheet pan underneath and bake 55 to 65 minutes, until a knife slides into the center with no resistance at all. Let them sit until you can handle them.
- While they bake, cook the chopped bacon in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium heat, stirring now and then, until it is crisp — 8 to 10 minutes. Lift it out with a slotted spoon onto paper towels and pour off all but about 3 tablespoons of the fat.
- Add the onion and celery to the bacon fat and cook 6 to 8 minutes, until soft and translucent, scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the pot as they go.
- Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir constantly for 2 full minutes. It should start to smell nutty and toasted. Raw flour tastes like paste and no amount of simmering later will fix it.
- Pour in the broth one cup at a time, whisking smooth after each addition before you add the next — that is how you get a soup with no lumps in it. Then whisk in the milk and the cream. Stir in the tablespoon of The OG and the crushed red pepper. Bring it to a bare simmer and cook 10 minutes, stirring often, until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Split the baked potatoes and scoop the flesh out of the skins. Mash about a third of it with a fork and drop it in — that is what thickens the soup — then add the rest in rough, spoon-sized chunks. Keep the skins; they have a job in the Chef’s notes. Simmer 5 minutes more.
- Take the pot off the heat. This is the step people skip and regret. Add the cheddar a handful at a time, stirring until each one disappears, then stir in the sour cream. Over direct heat the cheese goes grainy and the sour cream can split.
- Taste it, and add salt only if it asks for it. Ladle into bowls and let everyone load their own: the crisp bacon, the scallions, a little more cheddar, and a spoonful of sour cream.
Bake the potatoes. Do not boil them.
This is the whole difference between a loaded baked potato soup and an ordinary potato soup, and it is worth the extra forty minutes. Boiling waterlogs a potato and washes its flavor into the pot. Dry oven heat drives moisture off instead and concentrates what is left, so the flesh comes out fluffy and sweet and actually tastes like a baked potato. You can bake them a day ahead and keep them in the refrigerator.
Grate the cheese off the block
Pre-shredded cheddar is dusted with starch and anti-caking agents so the shreds do not clump in the bag, and that coating is exactly what keeps it from melting smooth. Five minutes with a box grater and a block of sharp cheddar gives you a glossy soup instead of a gritty one. For what it is worth, we leave anti-caking agents out of our own jars for the same reason: they are there to help the package, not the food.
Off the heat for the cheese and the sour cream
Dairy curdles when it is pushed too hot. Pull the pot off the burner, give it a moment, then stir the cheddar in by handfuls and the sour cream in last. If you are reheating leftovers the next day, do it gently over low heat and stop before it boils.
Do not throw away the skins
Cut the emptied potato skins into half-inch strips, toss them with a little of the reserved bacon fat and a pinch of The OG, and bake them at 425°F for 8 to 10 minutes until they curl and crisp. Scattered over the top they are better than croutons, and they cost nothing.
Three ingredients doing all the work
The OG is organic salt, pepper and garlic — that is the entire label. In a soup this rich, that is exactly what you want, because there is nothing competing with the potato and the cheddar. Use low-sodium broth as written so the seasoning sets the salt level rather than fighting it, and keep the shaker on the table for whoever wants more.
What is good right now
This is the pot you want on the stove the first week the evenings turn cold. Yellow onions, celery and scallions are all coming in across the Carolinas, and the garlic is in. The NC sweet potato harvest is also on right now — swap a pound of the russets for sweet potatoes and bake them the same way for a soup that goes a shade orange and a little sweeter. It is very good that way with the bacon.
Feeding a crowd, and what goes beside it
This doubles without any trouble in a big pot, and it holds on low for an hour if dinner is running late — thin it with a splash of broth if it tightens up. Serve it with crusty bread, or make it the first course ahead of Dutch Oven Pot Roast. If it is mashed potatoes you are really after, The OG Mashed Potatoes uses the same seasoning.
Two other potato soups on the shelf
If you want a potato soup that goes a different direction entirely, Smoked Salmon Potato Soup is pureed smooth with horseradish and finished with smoked salmon, and Skirt Steak & Potato Soup is a Tidewater seafood-seasoned bowl served alongside a seared steak. This one is the chunky, loaded, bacon-and-cheddar version.