Slow Cooker, Easy Baked Potato Soup

I'm a real sucker for slow cooker recipes. Chop up some ingredients, add some seasonings and some liquid, and turn on the machine. What's not to love?

I had been looking for a baked potato soup to replace the one that Red Robin had years ago, which was so nice and creamy it was almost like a potato chowder pureed. This recipe caught my attention with the slow cooker title. Sometimes it's nice to get something wonderful for little effort.

This didn't turn out quite how I wanted. After the recommended cooking time, the potatoes were soft and edible but I was expecting something more like a chowder, so I took a masher to the soup and made things much better. My only mistake with this recipe was using regular stove cooked bacon and chopping it up for homemade bacon bits and still adding the salt. Make sure you don't add any salt until the end if using real bacon and not bacon bits! It turned out much too salty, but was still a good recipe that I will try again in the near future.

Ingredients

• 10 red potatoes, cut into cubes
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup real bacon bits (or regular bacon cooked and chopped)
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon
• 1 tablespoon ranch dressing mix
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt (omit and add at end to taste if using regular cooked bacon)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup half & half
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, or to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped green onion, or to taste

Directions

1. Put potatoes in the bottom of your slow cooker crock. Scatter flour over the potatoes; toss to coat.
2. Scatter bacon bits, red onion, garlic, chicken bouillon, ranch dressing mix, parsley, seasoned salt, and black pepper over the potatoes.
3. Pour water into the slow cooker.
4. Cook on Low 7 to 9 hours.
5. Pour half-and-half into the soup; cook another 15 minutes.
6. Garnish with Cheddar cheese and green onion to serve.

Alternately, you can cook this on High for 4 to 5 hours.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: allrecipes.com