Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Now this is some seriously good soup. That is if you like potatoes and ham and cheese and sour cream and onions and bacon... Of course if you wanted to make yourself feel like it's good for you, you could add some broccoli and carrots to it.

4 Large Baking Potatoes
10 Tblsp Butter (the real stuff)
2/3 Cup Flour
6 Cups Milk (low fat or skim is fine)
1 1/2 Cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded (do not use the preshredded kind, it will make the soup grainy)
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
8 Slices Bacon (cooked and crumbled)
8 Ounces Sour Cream (low fat is fine)
1 Small Onion (Chopped and browned in the bacon fat)

If the potatoes are leftover this doesn't take very long to make. But if you have to start with baking the potatoes it's going to take a while so leave plenty of time.

Here goes:

Scrub the potatoes and wrap in foil. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about an hour to 1 1/2 hours depending on the size of your potatoes. Remove the potatoes from the oven, unwrap and cut in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop out the pulp into a bowl. Set aside. Save the skins for future use. They freeze well and I will have a recipe coming up for Baked Potato Skins. Save them, trust me. Or throw them out if you don't like potato skins.

Alternatively, you can peel the potatoes and dice them then cook them in chicken broth. Do not drain! You can use the cooking liquid in the soup.

In a stock pot melt the butter over medium low heat. Add the flour, stirring until smooth. Allow this to cook for 2 minutes. (Roux) Turn the heat up to medium and continue stirring while slowly adding in the milk. Continue to stir until mixture is thick. Add the cheese, salt, pepper, onion and bacon, stirring to combine and the cheese melts. Mash the potato with a masher or a fork to break down the large pieces. Add potato to the milk mixture and stir in. When all of this is heated through add the sour cream and stir in. Do not let this soup come to a boil or it will curdle.

This soup is very flexible. When I made it tonight I added ham. The potatoes were not baked ahead of time so I diced and boiled them. If you make this as written and do not add any more liquid than the milk that is called for it will be very thick. Thick enough to hold a spoon upright. I added the broth from cooking the potatoes and it was very nice thick cream soup. Four large baking potatoes should need 2 15 oz cans of broth to cook in.