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Instant Pot Cheesy Potato Soup is luscious, rich, creamy, extremely delicious & get’s done under 30 minutes. You’ll love this cheesy potato soup loaded with sharp cheddar, heavy cream, sour cream and bacon. Don’t miss the Video at the bottom of the post.
Instant Pot Potato Soup without Cream Cheese
Instant Pot loaded potato soup will quickly become your family favorite just like this Instant Pot Tortellini Soup. It tastes amazing as a leftover soup, it’s extremely budget friendly and very wholesome.
We love to load our potato soup with crispy fried bacon bites and sharp cheddar along with sour cream & heavy cream. However, you can make it your own by tweaking the ingredients slightly.
Ingredients
Find the Ingredients with actual measurements at the bottom of the post. The list below is just a reference.
- Potatoes: Our favorite picks are gold potatoes & russet. You can use red potatoes as well. We love the potatoes peeled.
- Onion: Yellow onion works best. Do not use red onion.
- Dairy: Milk, Heavy Cream, Sour Cream, Sharp Cheddar Cheese (for best flavor use grated cheese ).
- Butter
- All purpose flour
- Chicken Stock
- Bacon: Crispy fried and made into small bits. You can use store bought bacon bits as well.
- Scallions: Use only the green part, chopped.
Tips & Tricks
- Potatoes: Cut the Potatoes into small chunks, about ½ inch pieces. We love to use peeled potatoes.
- Dairy: Always add dairy like milk & cream after the pressure cooking cycle is over. Dairy when pressure cooked have chances of curdling (milk fat separating from the liquid).
- The quick roux: The butter flour quick roux made in the Instant Pot itself works as magic. It thickens the soup beautifully and adds lots of body and good flavor to the soup.
- Texture: If you love the soup slightly chunky and creamy mash the cooked potatoes roughly with a potato masher. For a chunkier soup mash only a few potatoes.
- Extremely Rich potato soup: You can add about 3-4 oz cream cheese at the end and mix well with the soup. I didn’t add any. You can also sub the chicken stock and cook the soup completely in milk.
- Extra Cheesy Potato soup: Increase the amount of sharp cheddar cheese according to your preference.
- Spicy Flavor: You can add a few dashes of sriracha sauce or any hot sauce before serving the soup. Red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper powder also works well.
- Bacon: Add crispy fried. So yum!
Method
Find the detailed step by step recipe along with measurements + Video at the bottom of the post.
Step #1 Prepare a quick roux
Saute the onions in butter in the Instant Pot on SAUTE settings set on NORMAL heat.
As, the onions begin to soften decrease the heat setting to LOW and add the all purpose flour. Quickly saute until the raw smell of flour disappears. It should take you about 30 seconds.
Step #2 Pressure Cook Potatoes
Add the chicken stock. De-glaze the pot well by scraping the bottom and the sides of the pot with the help of your spatula to loosen any stuck food particles and to help dissolve the roux uniformly. This also prevents the BURN error.
There should not be any flour lumps left.
Add the chopped potatoes and crushed black pepper as per your liking . CANCEL Saute function.
Close the lid of the pot, seal the valve and PRESSURE COOK on HIGH for 3 mins followed by Natural Release for 10 mins and than releasing the rest of the pressure manually.
Open the lid carefully. You’ll have fully cooked amazing buttery potatoes.
Step #3 Dress the soup
Add warm milk and more crushed pepper, give everything a good stir and bring them to a boil on SAUTE at LOW heat setting. Simmer for a few mins.
If you love extremely creamy soup grab a potato masher and mash the potatoes inside the pot (refer the Video at the bottom of the post). And if you love chunky + creamy consistency just like us mash the potatoes roughly (do not mash all of them).
You can totally control the texture of the soup. Keep it however you prefer 😀
Now, add the sour cream, heavy cream, crispy fried bacon bites, chopped scallions (only the green part) and grated sharp cheddar cheese and give everything a good mix. Check for seasoning and add more crushed black pepper and salt if needed.
Dish out!
Top the amazing cheesy potato soup with loads of grated cheddar, scoops of sour cream, more bacon bites and chopped scallions. Yummmm! Irresistibly good cheesy potato soup that the whole family will love.
Note: If you do not prefer bacon bites and scallions stirred in your soup just skip that step and use them only as a garnish!
Storing Tips
Fridge: Store Instant Pot Loaded Cheesy Potato Soup for upto 5 days in the fridge in air tight moisture free containers.
Re-heat in the microwave oven or on the stove top with few splashes of milk if the soup thickens a lot. Garnish with the toppings and enjoy!
Freezer: We don’t recommend freezing dairy based soups because they always have a chance to separate.
Readers Thoughts who tried the recipe
Can attest! This is a fantastic loaded potato soup! I made a different recipe and it was awful, I gave this one a try since I liked her other recipes and it was a HIT!”
– Chantel Cascanette.
Instant Pot Cheesy Potato Soup
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Ingredients
- 2 medium potatoes (** peeled & diced into ½ inch cubes, about 2.5 cups, I used gold potatoes.)
- ½ medium onion (** roughly chopped yellow onion)
- 2 tbsp All-Purpose Flour
- 2 tbsp Unsalted Butter
- 1.5 cups chicken stock
- 1.25 cups whole Milk (** 1 cup + ¼ cup)
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ¾ cup cheddar cheese (** grated, use sharp cheddar)
- 6 strips bacon (** cut into small pieces & fried until crispy)
- 6 stalks Scallions (** chopped , use only green part)
- black pepper (** crushed, according to taste)
- Salt (** according to taste)
Garnish
- Sour Cream
- bacon (** crispy fried)
- cheddar Cheese (** grated)
- scallions
Equipment Used
Instructions
Fry Bacon
- Fry the diced bacon pieces until brown and crispy over medium high heat on the stove top on a cast iron skillet. Once done set aside the crispy fried bacon bits. We don't need the bacon fat, you can preserve it for other recipes or discard it.
Making the loaded potato soup
- Set the Instant Pot on SAUTE function and keep it at the NORMAL heat setting.
- Add butter and when the butter melts add the onion and saute until they begin to turn limp.
- Reduce the heat to LOW settings and add all purpose flour. Saute the flour stirring briskly until the raw smell disappears. About 30 seconds. Do not stop stirring otherwise the flour will burn and you've to start all over again.
- Pour the chicken stock and de-glaze the pot well with the help of a spatula scraping the sides and the bottom of the pot to loosen any stuck up bits or crumbs. This will also help dissolve the roux uniformly in the liquid and prevent the BURN error!
- Now, add the peeled, diced and rinsed potato cubes. Also, add crushed black pepper according to your preference, Bring the ingredients into a boil. CANCEL the SAUTE function.
- Close the lid, seal the valve and Press the PRESSURE COOK function. PRESSURE COOK on HIGH for 3 minutes.
- Once, the cooking cycle is over wait for Natural Pressure Release (NPR) for 10 mins. Than, release the rest of the pressure manually by moving the valve from the SEALING to the VENTING position. When the floating pin drops open the lid carefully.
- Turn on the SAUTE function and set it on LOW heat setting. Now, add warm milk and more crushed black pepper as per your liking and give everything a quick stir. Bring the soup to a boil first and than simmer for a few mins. Stir often.
- Next, grab a potato masher and mash the cooked potatoes roughly inside the pot itself. This will give you a creamier yet slightly chunky soup. However, if you prefer super chunky soup mash only a few potatoes roughly to add body and texture to the soup.
- Add the sour cream, heavy cream, crispy fried bacon, chopped scallions and sharp cheddar cheese and mix well with the soup. If you prefer super thick soup you may simmer the soup for a few minutes on LOW settings (SAUTE function) or add 1 tbsp cornstarch + 1 tbsp water (made into a slurry) to thicken it up quickly.
- Turn off the Instant Pot. Dish out the soup topping with more sharp cheddar, scallions, fried bacon bites & dollop of sour cream. Dig in!
Notes
- Measuring Units Used, 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 teaspoon = 5 ml.
- Extremely rich Potato soup: Add 2-3 oz cream cheese softened along with the sour cream and heavy cream. Mix well until the cheese fully incorporates into the soup.
- Type of Milk: Full Fat whole milk is a must for this recipe.
- Dairy in the Instant Pot: We DO NOT prefer pressure cooking savory recipes with dairy like milk, cream, half and half. They might curdle resulting in the milk fat separating, which is of course not a pretty sight. Always add dairy after the pressure cooking cycle is over.
- Seasoning: Check for seasoning once the soup is all done. You may add more crushed black pepper and salt according to your preference.
- Spicy Soup: Add red pepper flakes + cayenne pepper.
- Bacon Bits: You can fry bacon bits at home or even use store bought ones.
- Sharp Cheddar: You can certainly use more cheddar.
- Creamy + slightly chunky consistency: Mash the cooked potatoes roughly with the help of a potato masher.
- Chunky Soup: Mash only a few cooked potatoes.
- Soup consistency: If you prefer really thick soup do simmer the soup until it reaches the consistency that you prefer. Use the SAUTE function and the LOW heat setting.
Nina says
Made this last night! I used skim milk, because it was what I had and it was delicious! I will definitely make this again! I always make cornbread with potato soup. Sooo goood!
Foodies Terminal says
Thanks so much for the amazing feedback Nina, so glad you enjoyed the recipe so much 🙂 – Meghna xoxo
Sarah says
Do yourself a favor and MAKE THIS SOUP! This became a staple in our family from the first spoonful—it is so good!!
Foodies Terminal says
Thanks so much Sarah for the amazing feedback, appreciate it and a lot 🙂 So glad that you loved the recipe so much! Hope you try our other recipes as well. Take care Sarah! – Meghna.xoxo
Colette says
Made this to take to a party and it was a huge hit. I doubled the recipe cooked it on high pressure for 7 minutes. I did not have any cream and used a can of evaporated milk, which worked great. The soup was not too thick and very creamy. Great flavor. The entire pot was eaten. Definitely will make it again!
Foodies Terminal says
So glad that you enjoyed the recipe so much Colette 🙂 Thanks for the wonderful feedback, appreciate it! Hope you try our other recipes as well! – Meghna. xoxo.
Elizabeth says
would you be able to do the same recipe but in a crockpot?
Foodies Terminal says
Hope so Elizabeth. It should work out just fine 🙂 -Meghna.
Torre Simms says
So easy so tasty
Foodies Terminal says
We are so glad that you loved the recipe Torre 🙂 Thank you for giving it a try and sharing your feedback with us 🙂 Hope you try our other recipes too 🙂 Take care Torre. – Meghna.