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
Recipe: 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’ve never seen cream of chicken soup in a box! What size can, 10.5, 22.6, or 26 Oz?
Hi Beth! It’s the 10.5 oz size.
Is there a vegetarian alternative to the cream of chicken soup you suggest?
Hi! Pacific Foods also makes a cream of mushroom soup or a cream of celery. I would use the cream of celery in this recipe.
I was just given a bag of red potatoes and wondering if I can make this recipe with reds instead of russet potatoes? Would you tweak anything using reds?
Hi Heidi, I haven’t made them with reds before, so I’m not sure how it would turn out. If you give it a shot, I’d probably keep everything the same.
I made it with redskin potatoes today. Delicious!
Hello! I peeled my red potatoes, other than that, I didn’t really tweek it when making it with the reds…it came out delicious! I discovered this recipe two weeks ago and have made it twice already! It is so good!!! I have played around with adding/not adding garlic which was done just for personal preference. I have also thrown my bacon into the soup in the last phase when thickening. This is a good staple soup and will be serving to friends and family in the future! bottom line, this soup is cozy deliciousness!
LOVE THIS! I was wondering if you could double the recipe within the instant pot? If so, how would I would do that? 🙂
Hi Aubrey! I haven’t tried doubling it before. I have a six quart IP but I think you might be able to double it with an 8 quart.
Tried doubling it yesterday! I may have slightly over filled the ip. So when I released the pressure it made quite a mess. I do only have a 6qt so I’m sure it was totally user error. I am making it again today to see where I went wrong in doubling the recipe! However, this soup is amazing!
This was amazing ! Very filling and just what I needed to warm my heart.
Thank you for sharing this simple but delicious recipe!!!
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my family and I all loved it!!!!
I am making this for my sons birthday because he loved so much last time I made it. My whole family loves this soup!
Can I make this without an instant pot? How long would it take and how do I do it?
Hi Lani, here’s a link to how to make it using a crockpot: https://belleofthekitchen.com/slow-cooker-loaded-potato-soup/
Thank you
This is by far my favorite Instant Pot recipe!!
Great and easy recipe, thank you! Added some chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and used a pepper jack cheese and it was awesome. 🙂
This was unbelievably good and super easy to make. I’m new to the pressure cooker so this is a great newbie recipe!
Hi there! I’ve been trying several instant pot potato soup recipes and yours was the best. I blogged about making it step by step and linked back to your site with credit for the recipe, if that’s okay. Thank you, my family loves this one.
This was delicious! I added carrots, 1/3 tsp ground cayenne pepper, and 2 shakes of red pepper flakes. It gave it the perfect ‘heat’ for a chilly May day.
I haven’t tried your recipe yet, but it’s on the list. We love soup year around! Just FYI, if you’re in Texas, like me, you have probably been to Carino’s. They have the closest thing to a perfect cheese soup! Maybe a stand in once or twice if you’re not in the mood to cook!
Blessings <
Thank you!! I will definitely try that!
Wow, this is super good soup! I needed another soup to add in to my weekly rotation – hubby takes lunch to work with him. I filled some containers for his lunches and stuck them in the freezer. I’ll be finding out shortly if this soup freezes well or not. There’s some left over for dinner tonight too. Yum!
My husband and I loved this soup, and I will make it again. I’m passing the recipe along to my neighbor!
Love this soup! What setting do you put the instant pot on? Soup or steam?
Wonderful recipe! We love it.
I pureed it for a dear friend who has had mouth cancer and can only eat a liquid diet with no chunks in it. He greatly enjoyed it! (Ensure must get old very quickly!)
One question: Can I double the recipe in an 8 qt IP? If so, does the cooking time change?
Thanks!!