This hearty and delicious Irish Ale Potato Cheddar Soup is the perfect way to warm up on a cold day. The rich, earthy flavors of the ale perfectly complement the potatoes and cheddar cheese in this soup. So easy to make, you’ll want to make it again and again.
Hearty Cheddar Potato Soup
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❤️ Why you’ll love it
It’s perfect for a quick and easy lunch today or dinner. The Irish ale adds a wonderful depth of flavor to the potatoes and cheddar cheese, making it a bowl of comfort food.
- Crispy bacon and cheese, do I have to say more?
- Made in a large dutch oven but can be made in a slow cooker, stovetop, or even pressure cooker.
- Creamy and delicious.
- It’s perfect for St. Patrick’s Day with St Patrick’s Day Punch For Kids, Blarney Stones cookies, and Irish Coffee Recipe
🥘 Equipment
- Dutch oven, soup pan, large pot, or large saucepan
- Cutting board/knife
- Pan for cooking bacon
- Whisk
🧾 Ingredients
Get the full list of ingredients, with measurements, and step-by-step instructions at the bottom of the post in the printable recipe card.
- Bacon
- Onion
- Celery sticks
- Yukon gold potatoes
- Unsalted butter or Irish Salted Butter
- All-purpose flour
- Whole milk, 2% or heavy cream
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic powder
- Dijon mustard
- Worcestershire sauce
- Chicken broth
- Irish beer
- Sharp cheddar cheese or Irish cheddar cheese
- Colby jack cheese
- Green onions
- Croutons
🍳 How to Make
Get the full list of ingredients, with measurements, and step-by-step instructions at the bottom of the post in the printable recipe card.
Cook the bacon, celery, and onions until tender.
Make the roux. Then slowly add milk. Cook for 5 minutes.
Add the seasonings, chicken stock, veggies, and beer. Let simmer. Then add potatoes.
Once the potatoes are tender, mix in the cheese. Simmer until melted.
Serve with green onions, croutons, more cheese, and bacon. Sour cream is another option with this cheesy potato soup.
Hint: Serve with green onions, croutons, more cheese, and bacon. Sour cream is another option with this cheesy potato soup.
🥄 Variations
There are a lot of easy ways to change up this creamy potato cheese soup.
- Have leftover ham? Toss it in. It adds flavor to the soup, bulks it up, and uses up the leftovers.
- Mix in some cooked and crumbled sausage or ground beef.
- Add some fresh herbs to the soup for extra flavor. Thyme, rosemary, or basil all work great.
- Swap out the cheddar cheese with your favorite cheese like gouda, gruyere, Havarti, or mozzarella.
🍽️ What to Serve With
This creamy soup can be served on its own or with side dishes to complete the meal.
- Salad is always a simple choice.
- Roasted vegetables like Air Fryer Asparagus, Pan Roasted Brussels Sprouts, or Oven Roasted Cauliflower
- Garlic bread, crusty rolls, or biscuits
🍶 Storing
I love soup and I could eat it every day. I will make a double batch of this ooey gooey cheesy soup and eat it all week.
Refrigerator Storage: Store any leftover potato cheese soup in an air-tight container for up to 4 days.
Freezer Storage: Cool the soup completely before adding it to a freezer-safe container or bag. Freeze for up to 3 months and defrost in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
Reheating: When ready to eat, either reheat on the stovetop or microwave.
💭Tip for Making the Perfect Potato Soup Recipe
- Don’t skip the bacon grease. People will often think they can’t use the bacon grease and will ignore it in the instructions. Sauteing the veggies in the grease will add so much flavor to the soup.
- When making the roux, make sure to stir often so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Use a high-quality low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth as your soup base.
- For an even creamier soup, use heavy cream instead of whole milk.
- Shredding the cheese by hand will give you larger chunks and a better melt, but pre-shredded can work as well.
- Be sure to taste before serving and adjust with extra salt or pepper if needed.
❔FAQs
What other potatoes besides Yukon can I use?
If I want to make this in the Instant Pot how long do I pressure cook it for?
Can I use something else besides chicken broth?
What type of beer should I use?
Does the alcohol cook out of this?
📖More Recipes
- Turkey Rice Soup Recipe
- The Best Panera Autumn Squash Soup
- Old Fashioned Beef Rice Soup Recipe
- Healthy Broccoli Cheddar Soup {Panera Copycat}
- Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage with Guinness
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Need to change the number of servings? You can click on the number of servings and change the number. This will adjust the ingredient measurements to what you need.
If you love this recipe, come back and give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Irish Ale Potato Cheddar Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb bacon cooked and chopped
- ½ onion large, diced
- 3 celery diced
- 2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes peeled or not, diced
- 4 teaspoons butter or you can use Irish Salted Butter
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour sifted and leveled with a knife
- 2 cups whole milk 2% or heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon salt can omit if using salted butter
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 ¾ cup chicken broth
- ½ bottle Irish beer I used Killian’s Irish Red
- 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese shredded (Can use Irish cheddar cheese if you can find it)
- 1 cup Colby jack cheese shredded
- Green onions sliced, optional
- Croutons optional
Directions
- Prepare the bacon, drain, and reserve the bacon grease.
- Once the bacon is cooked, chop it into bite-sized pieces and set aside.
- While the bacon is cooking, wash and dice the celery, onion, and potatoes. Set the potatoes aside.
- Use the leftover bacon grease to sate the onions and celery until they are fork-tender. This step will really enhance the flavor of the vegetables.
- Next, prepare the roux. In a Dutch oven, melt the butter, then add in the flour. Cook the butter and flour together for 1 minute. Then add the milk slowly. Make sure you are whisking the milk in as you add it. Continue cooking on medium heat for 5 minutes.
- Add in the salt, pepper, garlic granules, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, chicken broth, celery and onions, and beer. Stir together and let simmer for a few minutes so the suds from the beer can fade.
- Next, add in the potatoes. Cook the potatoes until they are fork-tender.
- Stir occasionally so that the ingredients don’t stock to the bottom of the Dutch oven.
- Once the potatoes are cooked, add in the cheese and simmer until the cheese is melted and blended together.
- Ladle up the soup into a bowl and top with the green onions, croutons, more cheese, and bacon.
- Serve!
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