Hash Brown Potato Soup is an absolute must make for winter! It’s the ultimate potato cheese soup recipe, made in minutes. It’s loaded with cheese and made with frozen hash browns for convenience. It’s the best comfort food soup for weeknights. Top with sautéed carrots and bacon for extra flavor!
What’s in this Potato Cheese Soup?
Making potato soup with hash browns is so easy, you’ll never go back to using fresh potatoes. This recipe can be made in less than an hour, with minimal prep work.
- Hash Browns: Using frozen shredded hash brown potatoes for this soup is what makes it so quick, easy, and convenient. Be sure to thaw them before starting the soup.
- Chicken Broth: This is the base of the soup. I recommend using unsalted stock or broth, as there’s enough salty ingredients in the recipe as is. You can also substitute a vegetable broth.
- Cheese: Cheddar and gruyere tastes best, but you can use whatever you prefer. I recommend grating your own cheese, since it will melt best.
- Bacon: Bacon adds so much flavor, especially while sauteing the onions. However, you can skip the bacon if you want a meat-free soup.
- Vegetables: Carrots and onion add just the right amount of texture to this potato soup.
- Heavy Cream: Heavy cream is the secret ingredient to super creamy soups. It creates a silky texture.
- Seasonings: you’ll need salt and pepper to taste, red pepper flakes for just a hint of heat, and a Fines Herbes blend (chervil, parsley, tarragon, and chives).
If you want to add more veggies into the soup, broccoli or cauliflower would be great additions. Use frozen for convenience, and add them in when you add the chicken stock.
Potato Soup Toppings
Whether you want to serve this cheesy hash brown soup simply, or load it up with toppings (what’s better than loaded potato soup?), there are plenty of delicious ingredients to add.
Top each bowl of soup with more bacon crumbles, sour cream, sliced jalapenos, caramelized onions, or just some crumbled crackers.
This potato soup is so creamy, but it does have texture form the hash browns and veggies. So if you want a really smooth texture, use a hand or immersion blender to puree the soup. Do this before adding in the milk and cream.
This recipe is meant to be quick and easy, which is why I recommend hash browns. If you want to swap in fresh potatoes, it will add a lot of prep work, and you will need to increase the cooking time.
The soup comes out quite thick and creamy, but if it’s too thin or runny, mix in a small amount of cornstarch.
Yes! It’s important that you fully thaw the potatoes before adding them into the soup. I recommend moving them to the fridge the night before you make this recipe. Otherwise you can set them out on the counter for about 1 hour. If they’re still slightly frozen, just increase the cooking time slightly.
How to Store & Reheat Potato Soup with Hash Browns
Store leftover hash brown potato soup in an airtight container, and keep it in the refrigerator up to 4 days. Reheat on the stovetop for best results, gently heating and stirring until warmed through.
How to Freeze Hash Brown Soup
To freeze this soup, pour it into freeze-safe bags (if you’d like to freeze it flat) or containers. Freeze up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge then reheat on the stove.
Because this soup contains potatoes, cheese, and heavy cream, the texture might change when it’s frozen and reheated, so keep that in mind.
What to Serve with Hash Brown Potato Soup
A bowl of this cheesy hash brown potato soup doesn’t need much, but it pairs well with homemade cornbread and our favorite Parker House rolls. Or make these roasted mushrooms to serve on the side, or on top. To add some greens, try this chopped salad.
If you make this recipe be sure to upload a photo in the comment section below or leave a rating. Enjoy! You can also jump to recipe.
Hash Brown Potato Soup (Potato Cheese Soup)
Ingredients
- 6-8 slices bacon slices cut into 1/8 inch slices
- 4 carrots peeled, shredded
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 30 ounce Frozen Shredded Hash Browns thawed
- 6 cups Unsalted Chicken Broth
- 1-2 teaspoons kosher salt start with 1 teaspoon and add more if needed after adding the cheese
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon Fines Herbes a mixture of chervil, parsley, tarragon & chives or parsley
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- 1 cup Milk
- 2 cups Grated Cheese a mixture of Cheddar and Gruyere tastes great.
Optional Garnishes
- chopped chives
- crispy bacon
- sautéed shredded carrots
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven, cook bacon over medium-high heat until crisp then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Set bacon aside and add immediately before serving.6-8 slices bacon slices
- Remove all but 2 tablespoons bacon grease from pan.
- Return pan to heat and sauté shredded carrots and diced onions until onions are translucent and carrots soften and begin to caramelize. (If desired, set aside 3 tablespoons of the sautéed vegetables to use as garnish.)4 carrots, 1 yellow onion
- Sprinkle flour over sautéed onions and carrots, mix well and cook 30 seconds.3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- Add chicken stock and seasonings.6 cups Unsalted Chicken Broth, 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon Fines Herbes, 1-2 teaspoons kosher salt
See *NOTE if a smoother soup is desired. See **NOTE if you want to add broccoli or cauliflower.
- Add hash browns and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook until potatoes are tender.30 ounce Frozen Shredded Hash Browns
- Add cream and milk and cook 5-10 minutes, stirring often. Watch closely so soup doesn’t scald.1 cup Heavy Cream, 1 cup Milk
- Add cheese and stir until cheese melts.2 cups Grated Cheese
- Taste the soup, and if needed, add more salt and other seasonings.
- Serve immediately.
- Garnishes: chopped fresh parsley, chives, sautéed carrot/onion mixture.chopped chives, crispy bacon, sautéed shredded carrots
- Enjoy!
Last step! Don’t forget to show me a pic of what you made! Upload an image or tag me @thecookierookie on Instagram!
Becky’s tips
Nutrition Information
This is a very flavorful soup. I even. make it in the spring and summer. Thanks for the share. I didnt take a picture but it looks just your picture. 💛
I’m so happy to hear you loved it, Mary!
This is such a great recipe! I’ve made it 3 times now and it’s a hit! Cooking the bacon first and using some of the bacon drippings to sauté the veggies adds to the flavor. Using hash brown potatoes speed’s everything up!
Thanks so much for sharing what worked for you, Cindy!
This is thr third time making this soup and it is excellent! I didnt have any milk so i used evaporated milk I had in my cupboard, turned out great.
Thanks so much for sharing, Mary!
I have made this soup twice now. My husband, who doesn’t LIKE soup, says it is the BEST soup I have ever made! He wants me to make it every week now!
Right now, I am making this to bring to an extended family visit, and I just know they will LOVE it too!
This soup is SO EASY to make and so tasty. I DO add an extra tsp of Fines Herbes and garlic powder, but other than that, I make it just as written. MOST EXCELLENT! *****
Thanks so much for sharing, Jackie! So glad your husband enjoyed it!!
The photo is the little bit left over from last night. My husband had 3 bowls!
Sorry I made a couple of changes but I totally followed your technique and instructions. I used a bag of frozen shredded white & sweet potatoes with broccoli and cauliflower. I made about 1/2 the quantity, just the two of us here.
It was amazing.
Looks delicious, Ruth! Thanks for sharing!!
I have made this soup probably 10 times! It is amazing! Thank you for this awesome recipe.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing!!
My kids loved this soup! Easy to make! I cut my onions while the bacon cooked. I also didn’t use unsalted broth. I used better than bouillon and it turned out great!
Thanks for sharing!!
Just made this and added about a half cup or so of butter! Delicious!
Thanks for sharing, Gidget!
Love potato soup, this fell short for me. Made exact and it was flavorless and not creamy. Added tons of salt, seasoning salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. This bumped up the faver a little. I hope sitting helps it.
I am sorry it didn’t work out for you!
Sweet potatoes instead of