Loaded Baked Potato Soup

With the changing of the weather here in Alabama, my daughter and I weren't feeling very well last week so I decided to make us something soothing and warm to help us out and get us feeling a little better. It was the night of Halloween, it was a little chilly outside, and with us having a cold, I thought it would be the perfect time to make some soup. I've done this recipe a couple of times before and Stacy loves it as well so I figured why not!

I got a couple of recipes online that helped me figure out how to make this recipe on my own with my own twists.

INGREDIENTS:

1 package hickory smoked bacon

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup flour

3 cups chicken broth

4 baked potatoes

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp basil

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 clove garlic, minced

1 small onion, chopped

1 can cream of potato soup


DIRECTIONS:

I begin baking my potatoes in the microwave with the baked potato setting based on the number of potatoes that I am making. I usually bake my potatoes in the microwave until I can easily stick a toothpick into the potato. Once the potatoes are done, I chop them into 1 inch pieces.

 I then fry my package of bacon in my cast iron skillet. In the past I have used a package of Real Bacon bits and then just fried a few pieces of bacon for garnishing purposes but this time I thought it would be better with all of the bacon being home cooked.

When my bacon was done, I drained off most of the grease but reserved about two tablespoons for sauteing my onions and garlic. I always make sure to saute my onions for a minute or two longer than my garlic so that I don't burn the garlic because garlic cooks fast!

After I got my onions to the consistency that I wanted them, which is not mushy, I added my flour. This is the part that makes the gravy. I usually add a little more cooking oil when I make my flour so that I can get my rue to a very thick consistency. 

Once all of my flour is clumpy and wet with grease, I start making my gravy by slowly adding the chicken broth. Also, when making homemade gravy, make sure to turn the heat down on your stove to the low setting.

Once I finally got my gravy to the thick consistency that I wanted, I added my cream of potato soup which also helped in getting the soup to the thickness I like it. This is also the step where I added my basil, salt, pepper, and baked potatoes!

Next, I added my cup, or so, of sour cream.

Then I added most of the  bacon...

 Once all of that was done, I let the soup simmer for about 5-7 minutes on medium-low heat. I then garnished it with the cheese, bacon, and parsley.

This definitely made Autumn and me feel better after eating it. It's so comforting and it has become a regular meal at our home during the winter time!