Loaded Baked Potato Soup

* WARNING – please only use Wondra quick-mixing flour for this recipe. If you try to use all-purpose flour for this particular technique then you will get a very lumpy soup! You can find Wondra in a blue container usually in the baking/flour aisle of your grocery store.

Place a large Dutch oven on medium heat. Cut bacon into small pieces and throw in pot and cook until crispy.

Take bacon out of pot and drain on paper towels. Reserve 1 Tablespoon bacon drippings and discard or save the rest for use at another time. Throw in your finely chopped onion and celery and saute for several minutes until onions are clear. Now add garlic and saute for another minute, being careful not to burn garlic. (You may need to turn heat down if it seems to be running too hot).

Stir in 3 Tablespoons of the Wondra flour until the liquid has all been absorbed (for about a minute or two). Add a bit of salt and pepper at this point as well. Gradually add chicken stock. Stir well and bring to a boil.

Now at this point, if you have an immersion blender, I recommend blending all the liquid so you don’t have lots of little pieces of onion and celery. Unless, that is how you prefer your soup. I like to make sure my soup is as creamy as possible with the only chunks being the potatoes themselves.

Once thoroughly blended, begin adding milk, heavy cream and cubed potatoes. You can leave the skin on your potatoes if you prefer. At this point, the soup will seem very thin. This is where the magic of Wondra flour comes in. You can create the thickness of soup you prefer without the soup becoming lumpy and pasty. Start adding a bit of Wondra flour to your soup one tablespoon at a time and stir after each addition. (Once again, you may need to adjust your heat settings so you aren’t boiling over or running too cold). We like a very thick and hearty soup so I end up adding about 1/2 cup more Wondra flour to my soup. If you end up putting more flour in than you wanted – do not panic. This soup is very forgiving. Just add a little more chicken stock or milk to the pot. Remember, the soup will thicken slightly the longer it simmers. You want the soup to simmer for about 25 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender. Take one out to taste for tenderness before serving.

Once the soup is to your desired consistency. Add 1 cup of cheese to the pot. Let it melt into the soup and stir until combined. Taste for seasoning at this point as well. You may need to add more salt and/or pepper.

Serve. It’s great with some crusty French bread. Add toppings such as additional cheese, the crispy bacon you set aside earlier and some diced green onions.

Cook’s Note: If your potatoes are on the small side, you may need about 3 or 4 for this recipe. Also, if you have leftover baked potatoes you can certainly cube those up instead and throw them in just before the soup is finished and let them heat through for about 5 minutes or so. I also really enjoying using chicken base to make my chicken broth. I use about 2 teaspoons of chicken base and stir it into 2 cups of warm water.