An Awesome Copycat Recipe for Chili’s Potato Soup
Chili’s has some amazing recipes that provide foodies with mouthwatering tastes and flavors, such as Chili’s potato soup recipe. This baked potato recipe includes a rich array of ingredients and textures that make it one of the most popular options at this restaurant. Do you want to make Chili’s potato shop recipe at home for a fraction of this price? This fantastic copycat recipe will let you create this popular meal at home! Read on to learn more about this recipe, including our suggestions for improving it.
Ingredients in Chili’s Potato Soup Recipe
Do you want to know the main reason why most Chili’s dishes are so good? They take the time to pick delicious and fresh ingredients and mix them in bold ways. The same is true for Chili’s potato soup recipe! Our research found a fantastic blend of different ingredients to make this soup more than an appetizer. They include:
- Two medium potatoes of your choice (more on that later)
- Two teaspoons of butter
- One cup of finely diced onion
- Two teaspoons of flour
- Four cups of chicken broth
- Five teaspoons of cornstarch
- One and one-half cup of instant mashed potatoes
- Flavoring (salt, pepper, basil, chives, and thyme)
- One and one-half cup half-and-half
- One-third cup of shredded cheddar cheese
- One-quarter cup of crumbled and cooked bacon
Now, here comes the big question: is this a healthy recipe? Well, it’s not going to win any awards for being fat-free, that’s for sure. It has 30 grams of total fat and 18 grams of saturated fat, which make up 38% and 90% of these values, respectively. It also has 75 milligrams of cholesterol (25% of your dietary intake) and 1,160 milligrams of sodium or salt (50% of your intake). It’s definitely something you shouldn’t eat every day, but once in a while, it will work beautifully as comfort food.
How We Improve This Recipe
If you want to get the best out of this recipe, we strongly suggest using red potatoes instead of white or russet. While white and russet potatoes are relatively healthy and delicious, red potatoes are more nutritionally dense and provide a richer flavor. They also tend to bake better than other potatoes, making them a strong option for this recipe.
Sweet potatoes can work in a pinch but do greatly change this recipe’s overall taste and texture. If you’re a huge sweet potato fan, you may enjoy adding them to Chili’s potato soup recipe. When swapping out regular potatoes for sweet varieties, we strongly suggest adding a little olive oil to balance the extra sweetness and thicken up the soup.
Can You Make This Recipe Healthier? Yes!
If this recipe’s fat density and high calories (410 per bowl!) concern you, here are a few tips that can help make it a little healthier. Note that taking these steps does affect the recipe’s overall taste. Only take them if you’re willing to have a slightly blander (but healthier) soup for your next meal:
- Use vegetable broth or olive oil instead of the chicken broth
- Half the cheese you use on top of this soup after finishing
- Cut out the bacon (boo!) to eliminate a lot of the fat
- Half the butter to get rid of a bit of the fat in this meal
If you still want that bacon sweetness but aren’t into its excess fat, we have good news: you don’t have to lose it from your Chili’s potato soup recipe! Instead, you can swap out healthier alternatives that emulate bacon and produce a similar overall effect. Tempeh, seitan, black beans, chickpeas, green beans, and even mushrooms may work well in this recipe.
Preparing and Cooking Chili’s Potato Soup Recipe
Making Chili’s potato soup recipe is very simple and doesn’t include many in-depth steps. Most people should feel comfortable making this great dish in about half an hour or less, depending on how quickly they can prepare their ingredients before cooking. Follow these simple steps to prepare this meal:
- Slice and wash your chives before cooking
- Clean, scrub, peel, and dice your potatoes to one-half-inch cubes before soaking
- Melt butter over medium heat and sprinkle the flour int his mix
- Pour in the chicken stock and stir to keep it from burning
- Add the potatoes to the pan and stir with a large spoon
- Turn the heat down to simmer the mix on the stove
- Wait until the potatoes are tender before flavoring
- Garnish with bacon, cheese, and chives
- Serve immediately to 1-3 people and let cool slightly before eating
- Place leftovers in a refrigerator-safe bowl or container with an airtight seal
- Cool this container in a fridge and serve later for great leftovers
A Few Tips That Will Improve Chili’s Potato Soup Recipe
Is it possible to improve Chili’s potato soup recipe? Absolutely! We’ve done our research and found several excellent additions you can make to this recipe that make it even better than Chili’s best cooks can make. Don’t believe us? Here are a few of the tips we found that will make this recipe fantastic. Note that these changes affect the overall nutritional value:
- Brown some ground beef in a skillet and serve it over the soup to make it even better
- Add some salsa or peppers to give it an even spicier kick than normal
- Mix in some cabbage or greens to give it a thicker texture
- Prepare steak to serve alongside this potato soup
Note that you can also replace the meat with chunks of tofu if you want to create a vegetarian-friendly version of this recipe. Replacing the cheese to make a vegan option will be more challenging because so much of this soup’s texture comes from the cheese! Vegan cheese alternatives may be helpful, but they don’t melt as quickly as standard cheese. So choose carefully.
Serving and Storage Tips
Try to serve your Chili’s baked potato soup recipe as soon as possible after preparing it. Let it cool down just enough to make it easy to eat. Serve it with your favorite bread or a rich, meaty dish. We already suggested serving it with steak, though it can also go well with various Mexican dishes, burgers, and chicken meals.
Typically, baked potato soup can last 3-5 days in the fridge, depending on a few factors. Storing it at below 40 degrees Fahrenheit will produce the best overall results. When preparing this soup for later eating, add a few mashed potato flakes to thicken it because storage often thins the soup out. If it gets too thick, try to water it with a little healthy milk.
Additional recipes to check out:
- How to Copy Rafferty’s Potato Soup Recipe at Home
- A Deliciously Tasty Potato Bacon Soup Recipe
- A Deliciously Tasty Mexican Potato Soup Recipe
- A Deliciously Tasty Potato Swiss Chard Soup Recipe
- A Deliciously Tasty Dairy Free Potato Soup Recipe