Chunky Southwestern Baked Potato Soup

Cold weather screams for soup...especially when you have had more than one day with temps staying stubbornly below freezing. Seriously - what part of "this is New Mexico" does Mother Nature not understand? This is what we woke up to Friday morning!



The week before we had been preparing beds in the back yard so we could plant raspberries and blackberries, and thanks to the change in weather, I traded those visions of gardening for dreams of cooking up something to help us keep warm. Armed with leftover baked potatoes only slightly smaller than regulation footballs, I decided to tackle a soup I had been meaning to for quite some time - baked potato soup.






I originally looked into all kinds of soups noting they were "loaded baked potato" variety of soups. Then I settled on a couple to merge and tweak and decided to launch my afternoon project. That we had diced, roasted green chiles in the fridge screamed out loud that I needed to include them in this recipe. Hey, you try living in New Mexico and not becoming addicted to green chiles.


OK. So, I added extra green chiles on top. Don't judge ;)


So, here are the nuts and bolts of the soup. Oh, if you are using medium-hot chiles like we did, keep a box of tissues handy, because they do a great job of clearing out the sinuses.

 
By the way, that's a glass of pink moscato. The slight sweetness countered the chiles nicely. OK, so I *may* have gotten a bit carried away with the green chiles. On second thought...I don't think that's possible :)

 Chunky Southwestern Baked Potato Soup

5 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
1 onion, diced
2 tablespoons flour
2 extra large baking potatoes, baked ahead of time and cooled
6 cups water
6 tsp chicken Better Than Bouillon
8 oz sour cream
1/2 cup cream
3 Tablespoons roasted, diced green chiles
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Cook bacon in Dutch oven. When crisp, remove to paper towel to drain. Add onion to bacon fat and cook until translucent.

While onion is cooking, bring water to boil and stir in Better Than Bouillon until dissolved.

Peel potatoes and cut into cubes - we like ours chunky.

When onion is cooked,stir in flour and continue stirring and cooking about 2 minutes.

Stir in broth, continuing to stir as broth thickens. Add potatoes. Cook about 10 minutes, until mixture is nice and steamy. Add in sour cream and cream. Heat until steamy. Stir in green chiles and grated cheese. Stir until cheese melts.

Serve with bacon crumbles and additional grated cheese and green chiles if desired.

If you prefer thicker soup, it's easy to accomplish by removing some of the potatoes, mashing well, and stirring it back into the soup.

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