Make A Cozy Pot Of Baked Potato Soup With Sausage Tonight
The flavor of baked potato soup is indescribably good. It’s perfect for taking the chill off a cool evening. This recipe captures all the flavor of an oven-baked potato in a silky broth. Add slices of smoky beef kielbasa, and you have a cozy, hearty, complete meal in a bowl.
We are potato people. (Even our grandkids are potato people!) My husband has a motto: He never met a potato he didn’t like. I can give you at least twenty ways to make potatoes off the top of my head, and I peel spuds with lightning speed that would amaze you.
It takes a wee bit longer to make perfect oven-baked potatoes, but believe me; it’s worth it! The distinctive taste of this amazing soup comes from baking the potatoes to bring out their optimum flavor by letting the dry heat of an oven happily work its magic.
How To Make The Perfect Baked Russet Potato
Russet potatoes from Idaho make fantastic baked potatoes. (And their website has GREAT recipes!) The warm Idaho days, cool nights, and volcanic soil give them incredible terroir. And their low moisture content makes them ideal for baking. Baked potato soup gets that perfect indescribable umami from the flavor of oven-baked potatoes with shiny, crispy skin.
Choose uniformly shaped and evenly-sized potatoes with minimal blemishes. A potato that weighs six to eight ounces is a great size for a side dish or as a base for the main dish. You will need four perfect baked potatoes for this recipe.
Use a paring knife to remove imperfections, scrub each potato with a brush or a nylon scrubber and dry them well with a terry towel. This step helps the olive oil stick to the skin.
Drizzle the olive oil generously over the potatoes and using your hands, roll and rub as much of the oil on the skins as you can. When you’re done, rub it into your hands and remove the excess with a paper towel. Your hands will feel soft and smooth!
The flavor of the potato skin infuses the whole potato with a wonderful flavor. I have a friend who swears by rubbing the skins with plain white Crisco shortening. Choose what you like best, but don’t skip this step of greasing and lightly salting the skins.
Put them in a baking pan or a cast-iron skillet, lightly sprinkle some kosher salt over them, and slide them into a 350-degree oven. After about an hour, check.
The skins will be shiny, crisp, and the most flavorful you have ever tasted! They should pierce easily with a skewer. Give them a bit more time if they’re not quite there. Your patience will be rewarded.
You’re ready to eat if you’re serving these alongside meatloaf, steak, or chops. Add your favorite toppings and enjoy! But read on if you want to use some baked potatoes for soup.
How I Learned To Make This Amazing Baked Potato Soup
Years ago, there was a high-end steakhouse in Overland Park, Kansas. We exhibited our products at the nearby Kansas City Merchandise Mart. The place was expensive, but we discovered they featured their Loaded Baked Potato Soup every Thursday night.
It was a complete meal we could afford! I pestered the server about how they made it, and she confessed they served it once a week to use up all their leftover baked potatoes. (That’s why Wendy’s started making chili, to use leftover cooked hamburgers!)
After a very tasty and rewarding trial and error process of experimenting, I came up with a good copycat recipe!
So, bake potatoes just for this soup or bake them for dinner and throw in a few extra, but don’t skip this soup! If you’re not a sausage fan, choose any toppings you love on top of a baked potato, and add them to the soup! Grated cheese, crisp crumbled bacon, chopped green onions, garlic croutons, or anything else you like!
Baked Potato Soup With Sausage
Hearty, creamy, chunky, rich, and savory soup. The flavor duplicates all the goodness of a loaded baked potato, but in a bowl!
Ingredients
- 4 Perfect Baked Potatoes, peeled and cubed. Reserve some skins to dice for garnish.
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 Tbsp paste-type chicken base I prefer Better Than Bouillon
- 2 Tbsp corn starch
- 2 1/2 cups milk
- 1 cup dairy sour cream
- One 12-ounce package of Hillshire Farms fully cooked Beef Polska Kielbasa
- 1 Tbsp parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Put the cubed potatoes in a stockpot with 2 cups of water and the chicken base.
- Heat mixture through, and mash the potatoes slightly but leave some chunks.
- Add 2 cups of the milk, butter, and sour cream.
- Heat to simmer, but don't boil.
- Dissolve the corn starch thoroughly in the remaining 1/2 cup of milk, and add it to the soup mixture.
- Stir and simmer until the soup thickens to the desired consistency.
- Slice the sausage and add it to the soup. Cook on low heat until soup and sausage are at serving temperature.
- Add parsley and some diced potato skins for garnish if you like.
How To Make A Tasty Bowl Of Baked Potato Soup With Sausage
Peel and cube four perfect six to eight-ounce baked potatoes; reserve some of the skin to dice for garnish. Put the cubed potatoes in a stockpot with two cups of water and about two tablespoons of Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base.
Cook over medium heat until the mixture is nice and warm. Mash the potatoes slightly but leave some chunks.
Add two cups of milk, butter, and sour cream. Heat to simmer, but don’t boil. Dissolve the corn starch thoroughly in the remaining one-half cup of milk, and add it to the soup mixture. Stir and simmer until the soup thickens to the desired consistency.
Slice a twelve-ounce ring of fully cooked Hillshire Farms Beef Polska Kielbasa and add it to the soup. Cook on low heat until the sausage and soup are hot. Garnish with diced potato skins and parsley because garnishes make everything look better! 😉
Are you a potato person like we are? What is your favorite way to eat potatoes? Here are some of our favorite potato recipes: Hasselback Potatoes, 12 Delicious Ways With Potatoes, Colcannon.
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