Baked Potato Soup

I love potato soup. I rarely make it, because I am always disappointed. When I go out to dinner and order baked potato soup, its always so yummy. And then when I make it, its just missing something.

Well, I found this recipe on the blog where the lady used her crock pot every day for a year. And let me just tell you. We LOVED it. And will do it again. And I was not disappointed. At all.

Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup

5 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced in 1 to 2-inch chunks
--1 teeny onion, diced
--4 cloves garlic, minced
--1 teaspoon seasoned salt
--1/2 teaspoon black pepper
--1/2 teaspoon red pepper (we used cayenne, I think thats the same. ha)
--2 quarts chicken broth
--2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, to add at the end (we used the 1/3 less fat, I wasnt sure how the fat free would melt)
--crumbled bacon and cheddar cheese and green onion or chives as garnish (optional)

The Directions.

Use a 6 quart or larger slow cooker. Peel and dice the potatoes, and put them into the stoneware. Add onion and garlic. Sprinkle in the seasonings, and pour in the broth. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4. The potatoes should be fork-tender. You can use a potato masher to mash the potatoes in the soup, or a hand-held immersible blender. I suppose you can also leave the potatoes in chunks, if you really wanted, but I wanted a smooth soup.

After smashing the potatoes, crumble in both packages of cream cheese, and put the lid back on. Cook on high for about 30 minutes, or until the cream cheese is completely dissolved. Stir a few times during the 30 minutes.

Garnish with crumbled bacon, cheddar cheese, and green onion or chives.