Baked Potato Soup with Cream Cheese

Baked Potato Soup with Cream Cheese
Recipe from here

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened and cubed
• 4 small-medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 6 slices of thick cut bacon, chopped into 1/2″ pieces
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
• good quality chicken stock
• pinch of cayenne pepper, to taste
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• a good knob of butter
• big handful of garlic chives, chopped, reserving some for garnish

Directions:

In a heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven, cool the bacon over medium high heat until the bacon is cooked to your preference. Remove the bacon from the pot, place on a plate covered with a paper towel, and set aside for later.

Remove all but 2 Tbsp of the bacon fat from the pot and add the onions, cooking until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute while stirring until fragrant. Add the potatoes to the pot and stir around to get a bit of bacon fat on the potatoes. Add enough chicken stock to the pot to cover the potatoes, and turn up the heat to bring to a boil. Once it boils, lower the heat to keep it at a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15-20 minutes.

With a stick blender or in a blender, puree about 2/3 of the soup, leaving some chunks of potato in the soup. While blending, add the cream cheese into the soup. Add the bacon back to the soup, along with the garlic chives, and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.

Our Verdict:
YUM!!! Brandon and I both really love soup, and I love how a pot of soup will be several meals for us! :) We had family visiting last weekend when I made this - and it was a perfect sized batch for the 4 of us. It had good flavor, was hearty and delicious! Would also be great with ham in it - especially for to use up some leftover ham!