I love potato soup, it is by far my absolute favorite. Unfortunately I have found it close to impossible to find a good potato soup in the stores. You know the ones I’m talking about, the canned soups or even the ones in a bag that you add water. Don’t get me wrong, I have managed to find one or two that are okay after I do a lot of adding to them but really none are that great. Usually the only time I get a good bowl of potato soup is when we head into town and we can swing by someplace like Outback or McAllisters or Panaera Bread and get a bowl of soup to go. Sometimes that doesn’t even work out lol recently we were in town (and when I say town I don’t mean right here where we live, I mean driving 30 to 45 mins to where the mall and big restaurants are located) and we went to four different places in desperate search of a bowl of potato soup and either the restaurant was not serving it that night, they were out or it was just my unlucky night and I got a bowl that really didn’t taste that great. Needless to say, I’ve been searching everywhere for a potato soup recipe to make here at home.
I was so excited when I came across this super easy recipe on a friend’s Pinterest board. I’m not much of a cook so to find a recipe this easy is so awesome and reading the comments encouraged me to give it a try, it sounded like almost everyone that had tried it liked it.
I actually made this for the first time back on New Year’s Eve… I didn’t post the recipe because it honestly turned out quite dreadful. I don’t blame the recipe, I blame a few things I might have done. First of all I used the diced/cubed frozen hashbrowns because that was all the stores had. I guess during the snow storm everyone wanted shredded hash browns because none could be found. I also let the hash browns thaw a bit instead of just using them frozen. And last I think I cooked it too long, just losing track of time that night. I decided to make a few changes and try again. From the original recipe the only things I changed this time was using onion powder instead of an onion, I just didn’t feel like chopping one up, and I cut back on the cook time after reading another blogger’s attempt with this.
Being sick made me want nothing more than a warm bowl of soup, add in all the cold and snow and really nothing sounds better! Original recipe borrowed from Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour, I made a few changes, learned from my mistakes with the first failed attepmt and wanted to repost here to share with all of you!
Ingredients:
- 1 – 30oz bag of frozen shredded hash browns
- 3 – 14oz cans of Chicken Broth
- 1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1/2 cup of Onion, chopped (I just used a little onion powder instead)
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper (I honestly didn’t measure mine, just added to my liking)
- 1 package of Cream Cheese (do not use fat free! It will not melt!!)
- Shredded Cheese
- Choice of toppings such as bacon bits, green onions, sour cream, whatever you like
- add salt for taste if you prefer, I did add a little to mine
- Dump the bag of frozen hash browns into the crock-pot; add in the chicken broth, cream of chicken soup, onion and pepper.
- Cook for 4-5 hours on low
- About 1 hour before serving add in the cream cheese (one problem some have is the cream cheese not melting. Set out the cream cheese before hand so it has time to soften. I actually warmed the cream cheese in the microwave, stirred it well and then added it, worked great). Keep heated until thoroughly melted.
Biggest lesson I learned from my fail attempt, the diced hash browns don’t really work. I know some love to use them but they seem to just fall apart and instead of having potato soup I had… mush. Seriously the first batch made me think of cream of wheat. We “ate” it because it was it so late and we were exhausted but the soup was dreadful. I actually had wanted to use cut up real red potatoes this time but to keep it easy I used the frozen shredded hash browns (and I did use the generic brand to save money, they worked just great). Reducing the cook time also really seemed to help! It was a super yummy dinner, even hubby liked it and this recipe now has a permanent place in my cookbook! Give it a try sometime. I would never post a recipe that I didn’t think was worth sharing (which is why I didn’t post this after my first attempt, I have to make sure it’s good before I share it). This soup is just SO good, I can’t wait to make it again, even the warmed up leftovers were super yummy!
(terrible picture, I know… I’m sorry! I’ve been sick and really just didn’t want to drag out my big camera. My phone just had to do this time around)
I got to try this! I really love using the hash brown potatoes!
tamilynn59@yahoo.com
Thanks for letting us know what didn’t work! I fail miserable with soup so often that I like to hear what does AND doesn’t work so I know too!
You’re welcome! I figure if I share my mistakes, I can save you the trouble 🙂 I still plan to attempt it with real potatoes and will post an update when I do to let you know how it goes!
Potato soup is a fav of mine also. I love getting it at Chili’s but same boat as you….all the way across town. I’m curious to try this version. I usually put regular, diced boiled potatoes in so frozen hashbrowns will be new to me. I’m gonna add fresh cooked chopped up bacon too. Mmmmmmmm.