Fully Loaded Cheesy Potato Soup

The weather was in the 90’s this weekend and I desperately wanted to wave a magic wand to change that. I am ready for fall weather. I want to dig out my hoodies, blankets and soup recipes. I compromised by closing the shudders to make the house appear to be darker. I turned on the TV to clear the DVR of new fall shows while I got to making some yummy comfort soup. I came across a recipe for Fully Loaded Cheesy Potato Soup when I was looking on the Food Network website for something else. It was featured on Down Home with the Neelys. I don’t watch that show, but the recipe looked perfect for my pretend overcast/fall day.

The Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons Butter
1 Onion – finely chopped
1 Carrot – finely chopped
1 Rib Celery – finely chopped
2 Cloves Garlic – finely chopped
1/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
3 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Cup Whole Milk – thankfully Dan uses this on his cereal, ewww…
1 (12-Ounce) bottle of light-bodied beer – we only had Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – definitely not light, more of a full-bodied beer –  it worked fine.
2 Large Russet Potatoes
2 Cups Grated Extra-Sharp Cheddar – had that leftover from the Cheesesteak Kabobs
Dash of Hot Sauce – Could not find the bottle for the life of me – skipped that
Dash Worcestershire Sauce
Sour Cream for Topping
4 Slices of Bacon – cooked crisp for topping
2 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Chives – for topping

I got everything chopped and measured out.

My liquids were ready to go and the dutch oven was heating up on the stove.

I was supposed to melt the butter first – whoops. Melt the butter over medium heat, add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic and saute until the vegetables begin to soften – mine took about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle (in my case, dump) the flour into the pan and continue to stir for 2 minutes to toast the flour. I dumped because I was holding the camera in one hand and trying to get a mid sprinkle shot . That was a bad idea, almost dropped the camera into the pot, hah! The consistency will become stuffing like. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Gradually whisk in the stock and milk…

…and then the beer. Mm-mm beer!

Stir in the potatoes and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup until the potato is tender, about 20-30 minutes. Mine took 25 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and use your make believe immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth. I don’t have an immersion blender and I know what a pain it is to pour hot soup into a blender – I’ve done it and also seen Top Chef and Chopped catastrophes… so I chose to use my potato masher for a more rustic texture. I was afraid of scratching the enamel on my dutch oven, so I switched to mashing with a ladle.

Return the soup to a low heat and add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring until melted and smooth after each addition. Season the soup to taste with hot sauce, Worcestershire, salt and pepper. I chose to skip the hot sauce. I swirled some of the Worcestershire on top and then added my sour cream, crisp bacon and fresh chives.

The soup was amazing. The flavor was awesome and the combination of the sharp cheddar, potato and bacon…out of this world.

It really did look and taste like a fully loaded baked potato – super sinful and probably the reason I only ate a cup. The bowl in the photos is very small, it doesn’t even hold a full cup, but it was plenty.

I grabbed different placemats and had my little photo shoot and then made my way to the couch where I finished up clearing off the DVR. So far I’m already dumping Running Wilde, Hawaii 5.0 and Detroit 187 – might give Detroit 187 another chance. I did like Chase and I have a few more to go.

I portioned out 6 containers of soup and they are in the freezer waiting for the colder days. Hurry up fall, I need you!