Instant Pot Loaded Potato Soup
This Instant Pot Loaded Potato Soup is creamy, delicious, and tastes like you slaved over it all day! It’s easy to prepare and is ready in a flash thanks to the Instant Pot. There’s also a slow cooker version if you’d rather prepare it that way!
Cooler weather is just around the corner, or maybe it’s already made its appearance in your neck of the woods!
When the temperatures take a dip, all I want to do is put on some warm fuzzy socks and curl up with a bowl of this Instant Pot Loaded Potato Soup.
I’ve been busy creating recipes for my Instant Pot and am super excited about this one.
This recipe is an adaptation of the Slow Cooker version shared by Carrie of Kenarry: Ideas for the Home on my site, and it came out so good and was ready in a flash!
Ingredients for Instant Pot Loaded Potato Soup
- butter
- onion
- garlic
- chicken broth
- cream of chicken soup
- Russet potatoes
- salt and pepper
- milk
- flour
- cheddar cheese
How to Make Instant Pot Loaded Potato Soup – Step by Step
- Add butter to the Instant Pot and turn on the sauté button. Once butter is melted, add in the onions and cook for 3-4 minutes until soft. Add in the garlic and cook for one additional minute until fragrant, stirring constantly so that garlic does not burn.
- Add the chicken broth, cream of chicken soup, potatoes, salt, and pepper to the pot, and stir well. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and turn the vent valve to “sealing.” Cook over manual high pressure for 10 minutes, then quick release the pressure.
- Meanwhile, stir together the milk and flour in a small bowl to create a slurry. Set aside. Once the steam has completely released and the pin has dropped on the lid, open the lid and stir in the slurry. Turn the pot to sauté and cook the soup for 4-5 minutes, until thickened. Stir in the 2 cups of cheddar cheese and stir until melted.
- Serve garnished with chopped bacon, green onions, and more cheese. Enjoy!
Tips and Notes
- Make sure to chop your potatoes into roughly the same size for even cooking. About 1 inch cubes is what I recommend.
- If you prefer a less chunky soup, you can use an immersion blender to smooth out your soup at the end of cooking, or place the soup in a blender and blend it until it reaches the consistency you like.
- My favorite cream of chicken soup is from Pacific Foods Brand. It’s really flavorful and only contains simple, real food ingredients.
- My favorite kind of cheese to use in this soup is sharp cheddar. It adds such great depth to the flavor. I also recommend shredding your own cheese from a large block as it will melt beautifully.
What kind of potatoes work best for Potato Soup?
Russet potatoes have a high starch content and work wonderfully when making loaded potato soup. They are what I use and prefer most often. I also like Yukon gold potatoes and use those occasionally. Red potatoes would also work here, but won’t lend quite as creamy a texture as russets will.
How to Make Loaded Potato Soup in the Slow Cooker
If you’d rather make your potato soup in a slow cooker, I have a full recipe and directions for how to do that! This is a great way to prepare it while you are gone during the day.
Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten Free, and Dairy Free Options
To make this recipe vegetarian, swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth and the cream of chicken soup for cream of celery soup. For a vegan alternative, swap out the butter for vegetable or olive oil. Also swap the milk for soy, hemp, rice, or almond milk, and the cheese for a vegan cheese alternative, or leave it out completely.
This Loaded Potato Soup can be made gluten free by using a gluten free cream of chicken soup. My favorite cream of chicken soup is from Pacific Foods and it is gluten free. I’ve also found that Walmart carries a gluten-free cream of chicken soup under their Great Value brand.
You will also need to swap the all purpose flour for a gluten free version, such as rice flour, chickpea flour, or oat flour.
To make this Loaded Potato Soup dairy free swap out the milk for soy, hemp, rice, or almond milk, and the cheese for a vegan cheese alternative, or leave it out completely. You will also want to use a dairy free cream of chicken soup, which isn’t always easy to find on the shelf at the grocery store. Here is a recipe for dairy free cream of chicken soup you can make at home.
More Delicious Instant Pot Recipes
- Instant Pot Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
- Instant Pot Cheesy Broccoli and Rice
- Instant Pot Shrimp Fried Rice
Instant Pot Loaded Potato Soup (with a slow cooker version)
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 1 medium onion,, diced
- 3 cloves garlic,, minced
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 can/box cream of chicken soup, (I prefer Pacific Foods brand)
- 7-8 medium sized russet potatoes,, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes (about 2.5 pounds of potatoes)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, (or more/less to taste)
- black pepper to taste, (I like a lot of pepper)
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, (I use sharp cheddar)
Garnish:
- 5-6 slices bacon, (cooked and chopped)
- sliced green onions
- shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Add butter to the Instant Pot and turn on the sauté button. Once butter is melted, add in the onions and cook for 3-4 minutes until soft. Add in the garlic and cook for one additional minute until fragrant, stirring constantly so that garlic does not burn.
- Add the chicken broth, cream of chicken soup, potatoes, salt, and pepper to the pot, and stir well. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and turn the vent valve to "sealing." Cook over manual high pressure for 10 minutes, then quick release the pressure.
- Meanwhile, stir together the milk and flour in a small bowl to create a slurry. Set aside.
- Once the steam has completely released and the pin has dropped on the lid, open the lid and stir in the slurry. Turn the pot to sauté and cook the soup for 4-5 minutes, until thickened. Stir in the 2 cups of cheddar cheese and stir until melted. Serve garnished with chopped bacon, green onions, and more cheese. Enjoy!
Notes
- Make sure to chop your potatoes into roughly the same size for even cooking. About 1 inch cubes is what I recommend.
- If you prefer a less chunky soup, you can use an immersion blender to smooth out your soup at the end of cooking, or place the soup in a blender and blend it until it reaches the consistency you like.
- My favorite cream of chicken soup is from Pacific Foods Brand. It's really flavorful and only contains simple, real food ingredients.
- My favorite kind of cheese to use in this soup is sharp cheddar. It adds such great depth to the flavor. I also recommend shredding your own cheese from a large block as it will melt beautifully.
- Best Potatoes to use: russet potatoes have a high starch content and work wonderfully when making loaded potato soup. They are what I prefer and use most often. I also like Yukon gold potatoes and use those occasionally. Red potatoes would also work here, but won't lend quite as creamy a texture as russets will.
- How to Make Loaded Potato Soup in the Slow Cooker: If you'd rather make your potato soup in a slow cooker, I have a full recipe and directions for how to do that! This is a great way to prepare it while you are gone during the day.
- To make this recipe vegetarian, swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth and the cream of chicken soup for cream of celery soup.
- For a vegan alternative, swap out the butter for vegetable or olive oil. Also swap the milk for soy, hemp, rice, or almond milk, and the cheese for a vegan cheese alternative, or leave it out completely.
- This Loaded Potato Soup can be made gluten free by using a gluten free cream of chicken soup. My favorite cream of chicken soup is from Pacific Foods and it is gluten free. I've also found that Walmart carries a gluten-free cream of chicken soup under their Great Value brand. You will also need to swap the all purpose flour for a gluten free version, such as rice flour, chickpea flour, or oat flour.
- To make this Loaded Potato Soup dairy free swap out the milk for soy, hemp, rice, or almond milk, and the cheese for a vegan cheese alternative, or leave it out completely. You will also want to use a dairy free cream of chicken soup, which isn't always easy to find on the shelf at the grocery store. Here is a recipe for dairy free cream of chicken soup you can make at home.
I have a 6 quart instant pot and the potatoes didn’t fit. Wish the recipe had specified.
Hi Lindsay, I use a 6 quart Instant Pot in this recipe. Did you weigh your potatoes? It should be 2.5 pounds.
Delicious! Super easy if you know your way around your Instant Pot. The directions are easy if you don’t. I used aged cheddar from Aldi that I grated. It gave it a richer flavor than the shredded package from the grocery store.
Had a bag of potatoes in my pantry I needed to use up. This recipe worked out great! Followed instructions as are. Didn’t motify anything. Garnished with chives..bacon and sour cream. Delicious 😋
This recipe is delicious but during the cooking process in my 8qt instant pot Duo I received a burn notice. I had to cook it for 5 minutes on high twice to prevent the notice.
Easy and fast I add a ham bone for extra flavor other than that made it exactly as written
This came out pretty tasty. I wasn’t sure what size of can of Cream of Chicken to use, so I just used the 10.5 ounce can which was good. I also added one 14 ounce package of Hillshire Farm Polska Kielbasa cut up into cubes. I put this in at the same time as the potatoes. My soup took at least double the time to cook, probably because of the kielbasa I added, but my kids LOVED it. Neither one ate as many potatoes as they did the kielbasa though. I’m just glad they actually ate something I cooked that wasn’t macaroni or chicken nuggets LOL. It’s frustrating spending so much time cooking meals that they don’t touch after taking one nibble, so I was pleased to see them eat as much as they did. Thanks!
What a awesome idea !!! Kielbasa !!!!! Thank you !!
I tried it tonight with kielbasa as well and it was a HIT! Thanks for the suggestion!!
Easy to follow instructions, anxious to finish and taste!!
My family loves this soup! It’s snowing here today and will be below zero the next two days. Making plenty for leftovers!
This was sooooooo good! I doubled the pepper and wow! Yummm
This was an amazingly delicious soup that hit the spot as we were getting the start of our winter event yesterday. The instructions were easy to follow and it really was crazy easy to make. I added a 16 oz. bag of frozen broccoli that I cut into small pieces. It added another flavor and texture. However, this soup would have been awesome if I did nothing other than follow the recipe.
veri nice
I’ve made this soup several times now. It’s a crowd favorite in my home. I see a few people felt that the chicken taste is a bit too strong. The first time I had it, I thought it reminded me of the KFC chicken pot pie without the chicken. I plan to put some to the side today, add chicken, carrots and peas and then top with a crust. I want to make some mini pot pies to eat for lunch when I have to go to the office this week.
This sounds like an amazing idea! I will save some of our leftover soup to make some chicken pot pie! Thanks!
This soup was tasty & filling! Served with some homemade dinner rolls, it made for the perfect wintertime Sunday dinner.
Made this today,and it was so so good. It is definitely a keeper. How much do you consider a serving to the nutritional information?
Hi there! Just made this, husband took a bite and declared it a one pot wonder! Hearty and delicious and the recipe was thoughtfully written as were your tips. My only change was one cup velveeta and one cup shredded cheddar. Perfect! Thank you and…
GO DAWGS!!!!!!!!!
Excellant soup.
Made this soup this evening and it was wonderful!! What a great recipe!! This will be our go-to for potato soup from now on. Thank you so much. Potato soup was a family favorite esp with my Dad, and to have it in form with my instant pot now that makes it so easy to make is perfect. I made it with a bag of red potatoes and the three of us loved it!
Second time making this soup! I added baby spinach with the potatoes and used almond milk instead of regular milk. I also used a combination of shredded mild cheddar cheese and Monterey Jack cheese and it came out delicious! Thank you for sharing!
GOOD SOUP! Perfect for a cold night in January.
I made a few changes:
– Only used 2 cups chicken broth & the third cup of liquid was just water
– Used cream of celery soup for the can
– Used low-fat buttermilk instead of milk
– Added a can of diced green chilies
I shredded my own block of cheese, as the recipe recommended, and it really was beautiful watching the cheese melt in. It also doesn’t have that stringy effect that pre-grated cheese can sometimes have. This is my second time making this soup (first time I followed the recipe very closely) IT’S SOO DELICIOUS