{You MUST. TRY. THIS} - Awesome Potato Soup

Easy Crockpot Potato Soup!

This potato soup is AMAZING! No lie.

 {If you NEVER make ANY of the things that I blog about...you need to make a note to give this recipe a shot}

I have officially made a total of 7 Pinterest recipes and this one is BY FAR MY FAVORITE!!!

I LOVE Rafferty's potato soup...and because of Rafferty's I have high exceptions of other potato soups and they usually fall short of the yumminess that I am craving (and expecting). The blog that this recipe originally came from compared it to Outback's potato soup, but I have never tried Outbacks soup...so, if you try this recipe let me know if the above statement is accurate ;)

I made a few changes to the original...and in my opinion it made it better. I am going to post the original but I will include what I did differently.

What you need: {Written in red is what I changed/added}

1. (1) 30 oz of shredded, frozen hash browns 

2. (3) 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth

3. (1) 14.5 oz can of cream of chicken

4. 1/2 cup of chopped onion...(I used ONION POWDER. When I 

    Googled, it told me 1 tsp is equivalent to 1/2 cup chopped          onion)

5. 1/4 tsp of black pepper

6. (1) 2.8 oz Oscar Mayer Bacon Bits Ready to Serve (I added this)

7. (1) 8 oz package of cream cheese (do not use fat free...it will not melt)

* Combine everything in the crockpot EXCEPT for the cream cheese. I went ahead and added little less than half the package of bacon so that it could simmer with the soup and soak in the bacon flavors. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
* About 1 hour before serving...I scooped out a little less than half the shredded hash browns (I left the other half of the other shredded hash browns cooking in the crockpot whole.) I pureed the potatoes and dumped it back into the crockpot. Doing this made the soup creamy and thick. Also, at this time, add the cream cheese and let it continue to cook for the remainder of the hour.
* At the end of the "cream cheese hour" you may need to whisk the soup to smooth out the cheese lumps

Everything "dumped" and ready to cook on low for 6-8 hours

The finished product (if I was thinking I would have put the soup in a colored bowl so you could see the contrast, clearly, I wasn't thinking) Serve topped with cheese, bacon, green onions or whatever you would 

like!

This recipe is deliciously {SIMPLE}!!! Rafferty's AND Outback can GET. AWAY. FROM. ME!