Y’all, I bought an Instant Pot on Cyber Monday after hearing lots of buzz about them all over the blog world! Just the other day I used it to make a delicious batch of Instant Pot Loaded Baked Potato Soup, but let me tell you a little back story…
On Cyber Monday, Walmart was selling the Instant Pot for $69 which is $30 cheaper than the normal price, so I pulled the trigger and ordered one.
My slow cooker is 13 years old and the glass lid recently cracked. I wanted to just replace the lid, but it would have cost almost the same price as a new slow cooker! This meant I would be in the market for a new crock pot – OR – pressure cooker as the case may be :)
What is an Instant Pot, you might ask?
It’s basically a slow cooker/crockpot, rice maker, pressure cooker all-in-one miracle machine.
My curiosity was piqued early on when I saw Instant Pot recipes floating around the internet. HOWEVER, when the pot was actually delivered to my door, I kind of panicked and let it sit in my foyer for over a week…maybe 2!
I was too lazy to figure out a new contraption, and I was a little intimidated by the hefty instruction manual and plethora of buttons and settings.
I guess I’d hoped it would be as simple as turning it on and pushing a button.
Turns out it’s not too much more complicated than that!!
Don’t let the complicated user manual overwhelm you. I’m going to walk you through a quick and EASY recipe that will have you rocking out that Instant Pot with gusto!
Instant Pot Loaded Baked Potato Soup!
- 1 tablespoon salted butter
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 32oz chicken stock (I used a box, but you can use homemade)
- 6 cups (approximately) peeled and diced yukon gold potatoes (about 1 inch cubes)
- salt and pepper to taste (just shake a little of both in!)
- ¾ - 1 cup cream cheese
- 6 slices bacon, cooked until crisp and then chopped
- 6 green onions, sliced
- 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
- Plug in Instant Pot and press the "Sauté" button
- Wait a few seconds for a beeping sound letting you know the pot is heating up
- Add tablespoon of butter and stir with a wooden spoon until it's melted
- Add diced onion and sauté until slightly soft, stirring occasionally
- Add minced garlic and sauté for about 1 minute, stirring consistently (don't let it burn!)
- Add chicken stock to deglaze any brown bits from the bottom of the pan (use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot while you stir everything together)
- Add diced potatoes and press the "Cancel" button
- Securely place the lid onto the pot and twist it into place (it will make a little musical tone when you do this correctly)
- Set valve on top of the lid to "Sealing" in the center position (Not venting on either side)
- Press the "Manual" button and set the time to 25 minutes (I think it automatically loads 25 minutes onto the timer)
- Wait several seconds for the pot to start (you will hear a series of beeps when it does)
- The pot will take a few minutes to come up to pressure. You'll know it has achieved pressure when the 25 minute timer starts ticking down.
- One the 25 minutes are up, use an oven mitt or silicone mitt (provided with the pot) to CAREFULLY move the lid's valve to "Venting"
- Steam will immediately shoot out of the valve (steer clear!)
- When the steam has stopped and quieted, use an oven mitt or silicone mitt to open the pot and set the lid aside.
- Unplug the Instant Pot and use an immersion blender to carefully blend the brothy cooked potato mixture (leave some chunks in tact) You could probably achieve similar results with an old fashioned potato masher if you don't have an immersion blender.
- Add cream cheese to the pot and stir until it melts and fully combines with the soup.
- Add diced bacon pieces (you may want to reserve some bacon crumbles for topping) and stir to combine
- You can add additional salt and pepper if needed (be careful taking a taste test...it's HOT!)
- Serve topped with sharp cheddar cheese, green onions and bacon crumbles (if desired).
- Enjoy!
***Subbing in ghee for the butter and full-fat coconut milk for the cream cheese would make this recipe Whole30 compliant! Of course read your bacon labels and skip the cheese too….
I vlogged the making of this soup, check out this video for some footage of the process!!
When do you add the shredded cheddar cheese?
This is, after 6 years, still one of my favourite Instant Pot recipes. I use a package of whipped cream cheese instead of traditional brick cream cheese, as it melts in so much easier. Perfect fall/winter soup in our house!
The flavor is great. The soup is thin vs. thick. I added a cornstartch mixture to thicken up a bit. I either need to use more potatoes next time or not cook so long. I think I could have cooked for 10 minutes and the potatoes would have been soft.
Instant mashed potatoes work well to thicken this soup.
Just excellent! I let the brick of Philadelphia Cream Cheese come to room temperature before incorporating everything – no problem with lumps. As I said, the soup is just excellent.
What if you have a instant pot mini… what modifications would I have to make? Cut it in half?!
I made this recipe tonight in my instant pot mini. I only took a few ounces of broth out after everything was combined to keep it at the full level line. But it worked out great!
First time doing this in my instant pot. The directions we’re so easy to follow! The soup is incredible! Hubby only wishes there was more!
I made this tonight, we absolutely loved it. Thanks for the recipe!
I made this last night and here are my suggestions….you only need to cook the potatoes for about 8 to 10 minutes. If you cook for 25 minutes they are too done and it defeats the purpose of not using the stove because you don’t save any time. The soup is more of a chowder (very thick), so I added some heavy cream to it after I used the immersion blender to process the hot potatoes (milk would be fine too). I did not use the cream cheese, just the cheddar. Used the bacon for the topping only so it would stay crisp. Very good! I added some rivets too :)
Wish I would have read this response before I made the soup. However, it wasn’t thick for me at all. :(. Recommendation – remove some potato chunks and then go forth with the immersion blender. Also, I added the cream cheese (left out at room temp for over an hour), and it took forever to incorporate. :(
Hi Rebecca,
I found this recipe and decided I just had to try it. My husband loves potato soup and used to get it all the time. But now he is having some kidney issues and can no longer handle all the salts in the soups. And now that the weather has gotten cold, i knew this was something he would love to have.
Well, I made it last night for him. It was super easy to prep. I used no salt chicken broth and I omitted the cream cheese (because of the salt issue). It cooked up perfectly. Blended it up leaving some chunks. Ladled some into bowl and added a splash of heavy cream and stirred it in real good. Also seasoned it with a no salt seasoning. Garnished with just a bit of cheddar and scallions .
Oh my goodness, did he LOVE it!!!
Even my grandsons had some and my daughter in law. And she hates onions, but loved the soup!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Oh and PS… your absolutely adorable. Don’t worry about being on the internet in your jammies. All of us watching you probably look the same way! I was in my jammies while making this soup. Lol!!!
I tried to give you 5 stars, but when i clicked send, they disappeared. So Ill have to do it this way
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you so much for the sweet comment, Lori!! I’m so happy the soup turned out so well with your modifications! :)
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My mom is 94 years old and has congestive heart failure. I often cook and perform my own tweaks to reduce sodium. I like using the low sodium better than bouillon and then using half of what the recipe calls for. In other words, if a recipe calls for 4 cups of chicken broth, I will use 4 cups of water and only two teaspoons of low sodium better than bouillon. Another great tweak is sprinkling with Parmesan cheese at the very end. Parmesan cheese, the real stuff, not the junk in the green can, has only 74 mg of sodium in a tablespoon and imports lots of flavor.
Hi Rebecca- The soup is wonderful! I used Ghee in the place of butter,Better Than Bouillon chicken instead of stock,is a great rich flavor. I also used the whipped cream cheese. After I used the immersion blender I used the whisk attachment to take care of any lumps of cream Cream cheese hanging around.
Stella, thanks for the comment! I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup!!
I just got my Instant Pot tonight and this was my first recipe after the water test. It came out beautifully. I used the saute setting for my bacon (I diced it first), then left the bit of fat in the pot to do the onions, rather than using butter for them. It worked perfectly. Like another reviewer, above, my cream cheese didn’t melt perfectly, so I used a whisk and that helped a lot.
Excellent texture and flavour. I’m really glad I tried this as my first recipe. Thanks! Oh, and I used the 25mis cooking time and it seemed perfect so I’ll stick with that.
This is my second comment on this recipe, but I thought it was worth giving another thanks to Rebecca for this great recipe. I first made it in January right after I bought my IP and I bet I’ve made it twice a month every month since! It’s just so easy and SO good. Every time a friend buys a new IP, I send her this recipe!
Tracy, thanks so much for the comments!! I’m thrilled you enjoyed this recipe so much and that you pass it along. Have a great day! :)
This was really good! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks so much for the step by step recipe and explanation for all the things to do. Im on to only my second recipe and this is it. It is a bit intimidating but im not so afraid now. It sounds delish. My hubby doesnt love cream cheese so i might use some sour cream or cut it in half
Made this tonight as my second ever Instant Pot recipe! So easy! I over pureed, so will leave more chunks next time. Also, my cream cheese didn’t melt completely. I was picking out hunks of cream cheese before serving. I tried turning the pot to saute, but it still never melted. It was full fat cream cheese, but a store brand. I will try another brand next time. Thanks for an easy IP recipe to build up my confidence with this new gadget!
Hi Tracy! I’m so glad you liked the soup! I used whipped cream cheese and it dissolved really quickly. Try that next time :) Happy cooking!
I really don’t think you need to cook this for 25 minutes. Seems like an awfully long time for potatoes. 7-10 minutes should be plenty to get soft potatoes.
Interesting! I’ll try less time next time…I will say after 25 minutes they still held their shape and weren’t mushy, so I didn’t think to cook them any less. Thanks for the feedback :)