Bennigan’s Baked Potato Soup « Main Dish

So, here it is, the first day of fall…80 degrees here in Texas but that isn’t the point..it is now, quite officially…potato soup weather.

I grew up with potato soup. Not this potato soup but my mom’s version..the one SHE grew up with..and she was born in 1918. I hardly ever deviate from that recipe, my comfort food both when I was a kid and as an adult. But this recipe may be…just a tiny bit better than my mom’s recipe. If not in memories then in taste, anyway. By baking the potatoes in the oven they have a roasted flavor, stronger than when they are boiled and stronger than when they are microwaved, too.

I have great memories of Bennigan’s. I had my first legal drink at the one out by Six Flags in 1978 at my 18th birthday steak dinner. I am so out of the loop though, that I did not know they had filed bankruptcy.

This is not a delicate potato soup at all..It is robust and can hold up to garlic bread or onion rolls with ease. It is a great side with a corned beef sandwich, or on it’s own with a hunk of garlic bread and a salad.

You don’t have to put the bacon fat in if you are freaky about fat but you will be missing alot of taste that way.

Bennigan’s Baked Potato Soup

5 pounds potatoes, scrubbed and stabbed with a knife in the centers
6 tablespoons butter
2 finely chopped onions
4 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
2 cups Pacific Free Range Organic chicken broth
6 cups whole milk or half and half
3 tablespoons bacon fat
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Shredded sharp Cheddar cheese or smoked gouda
1/2 lb bacon cooked and crumbled
Chopped scallions
Sour cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Bake potatoes 1 hour or until they are tender when pierced. Peel.
Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium low heat. Stir in onions and garlic; cover and cook 10 minutes until soft, but not brown.
Add 2/3 of the potatoes and mash with a potato masher. Add the chicken broth, milk, salt and pepper.
Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Add the bacon fat.
Cut the remaining potatoes in small cubes. Add to the soup.
Ladle soup into bowls. Top each serving with a dollop of sour cream, crumbled bacon, shredded cheddar, and scallions.

8 servings

Image: Marye Audet

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