Slow Cooker Potato Soup — The Warmest Thing You Can Eat in a Nebraska January

Winter has settled in like a guest who does not know when to leave. Every morning is dark. Every evening is dark. The daylight hours are short and gray and cold and the kids go to school in the dark and come home in something that is technically still daylight but feels like dusk. Nebraska winter is not dramatic. It does not storm spectacularly every week. It just sits on you, heavy and constant, and dares you to be cheerful about it.

I am on the road more in January because the holidays are over and the freight keeps moving and someone has to haul it. Three runs this week: Grand Island to Omaha, Grand Island to Lincoln, Grand Island to Kansas City. The slow cooker is earning its keep. This week I made a loaded baked potato soup: potatoes, bacon, onion, chicken broth, milk, cheddar cheese, sour cream. It is basically a baked potato in liquid form, and it is the warmest thing you can eat when the wind chill is negative ten and your truck is parked at a rest stop outside Hastings and the world outside the windshield looks like it is trying to end.

Dave has been working extra shifts at the truck stop because January is busy for mechanics too. Cold weather breaks things: batteries, belts, hoses, anything that the cold can crack or shrink or kill. He comes home with his hands red and raw from the cold and I heat up dinner and hand him a beer and we sit at the table in the kind of tired that does not need words. We are working people. This is what working people do in January: they survive it.

Amber has started a new book series and has not spoken to anyone voluntarily in three days. This is normal for Amber when she is reading. She exists in the book and the rest of us exist at the periphery and she will rejoin the family when she finishes the series, which at her pace will be Thursday. I made her favorite dinner, chicken and rice casserole, to lure her briefly to the table. It worked. She ate, she said thank you, she disappeared back into her book. That is my girl.

I made a big pot of ham and bean soup on Sunday, using a ham bone I had frozen from Christmas dinner. The bone, white beans, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, bay leaf, chicken broth. Simmer all day. The house smelled like a grandmother kitchen, which is what every house should smell like in January, and if your house does not smell like a grandmother kitchen in January, I do not know what you are doing with your life.

The slow cooker version I threw together mid-January — potatoes, bacon, onion, cheddar, sour cream, all of it — is the recipe I keep coming back to when the freight schedule is heavy and the wind chill is doing things I do not want to think about. This is the one I left simmering on the counter so Dave could heat it up after his shift, and so Amber could surface from her book long enough to eat something warm before disappearing again. If you are surviving a gray month and need your kitchen to do the heavy lifting, this is the soup that does it.

Slow Cooker Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 7–8 hours on low (or 4 hours on high) | Total Time: About 8 hours | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 3 lbs Russet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 cup whole milk or half-and-half, added at the end
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened and cubed, added at the end
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, plus more for topping
• 1/2 cup sour cream, plus more for topping
• 6 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced, for topping

Instructions

1. Load the slow cooker. Add diced potatoes, onion, garlic, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika to the slow cooker. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on LOW for 7–8 hours or HIGH for 4 hours, until potatoes are completely tender.
2. Mash and blend. Use a potato masher to mash roughly half the potatoes directly in the slow cooker for a thick, chunky texture. For a smoother soup, use an immersion blender and pulse a few times, leaving some chunks.
3. Add the dairy. Stir in the milk (or half-and-half), cream cheese cubes, and shredded cheddar. Replace the lid and let sit on LOW for another 15–20 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the cream cheese is fully melted and the soup is creamy throughout.
4. Finish with sour cream. Turn off the heat and stir in the sour cream. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
5. Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with extra shredded cheddar, a dollop of sour cream, crumbled bacon, and sliced green onions.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 380 | Protein: 14g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 42g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 620mg