Easiest Way to Cook Tasty Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup.

You can cook Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup using 12 ingredients and 10 steps. Here is how you achieve it.

Ingredients of Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup

1. Prepare 6 of bacon strips.
2. You need 1/2 of sausage (of any kind, but I like Hillshire Farm beef sausage).
3. You need 1 of medium white onion.
4. You need 4 of carrots.
5. Prepare 2 of celery stalks.
6. Prepare 3 of medium potatoes.
7. It's 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour.
8. Prepare 1 quart of half and half (up to 1 quart).
9. You need 2 of green onions.
10. Prepare 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese.
11. You need 1 of kosher salt.
12. You need 1 of fresh cracked black pepper.

Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup instructions

1. Prep: Cut the raw bacon into one inch strips. Slice the sausage into 1/4 inch rounds. Peel the carrots and finely dice them, the white onions, and the celery. Peel and dice the potatoes into roughly one inch square chunks. Finely slice the green onions. If your cheddar is a block, shred it..
2. Put a soup pot on the stove over medium heat and let it warm up empty for a few minutes..
3. Meanwhile, prepare a plate with a couple of paper towels laid over it, and have a couple more paper towels handy..
4. Drop the bacon chunks into the soup pot. Watch out for the sizzle-pop. Stir these regularly to keep them from sticking. Cook them past done, almost to the point of burning. Turn heat down to medium low and pull the pot completely off the heat. Remove the bacon, ideally with tongs, and place it on the toweled plate. Cover with the other paper towels and carefully press down - WITHOUT BURNING YOURSELF - to soak out the grease. However, retain all of the bacon grease in the soup pot. The bacon itself can be set aside. You won't need it again until serving time..
5. Put the pot back on the medium-low stove. Add 1/4 cup of the flour. Mix it into the grease to form a roux. Add as much of the rest of the flour as you need to make the roux thick. Depending on how much grease the bacon put off, you may need more or less flour..
6. Add the celery, onions, and carrots to the roux. Mix well, raise the heat back to medium, and cook 3-5 minutes until the veggie juices start to release. Stir the little bit of liquids into the roux. Don't let the roux burn. Decrease heat if need be..
7. When the roux is thick and bready, reduce heat to medium low and stir about half a cup of the half and half into the roux. This makes things quite doughy. Add the potatoes and sausage, then cover them with the rest of the half and half (and milk if you want to thin the broth some). Add salt and pepper, stir..
8. Slowly bring the heat up to a boil, then reduce again to a simmer. Cover it and let it cook for 10-15 minutes. Stir and unstick the pot a few times throughout..
9. When you can cut straight through the potatoes easily with a wooden spoon, it's done..
10. Crush the crispy bacon you made earlier into tiny bits. Serve the soup in a bowl with cheddar cheese, green onion slices, and the bacon bits as garnish..