15 Potato Soup with Hashbrowns Recipes Ranked Best to Worst

This is the shortcut route: frozen diced hash browns go straight into the pot with chicken stock and canned cream of chicken soup, so there's no peeling, chopping or boiling raw potatoes. In under 45 minutes you get a thick, creamy soup studded with tender potato pieces, melted cheddar and crisp bacon. It's the version most Pinterest cooks reach for on a weeknight, because the hash browns arrive already par-cooked and diced to a uniform size, so they soften evenly every single time.

The traditional route starts with 900 g (2 lb) of fresh russet or Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and diced into 1.5 cm (½ in) cubes, then simmered in stock for 20-25 minutes until fork-tender. Cooks who prefer this method say the flavour is cleaner and less processed, since there's no canned soup or frozen starch involved, and you can control the potato texture from chunky to silky smooth. It takes roughly 15-20 minutes longer overall once you factor in peeling and dicing, but many home cooks consider that extra effort worth it for a fresher, more homemade taste.

A batch of the hashbrown version costs around £8-9 for six servings: roughly £2.20 for an 850 g bag of frozen hash browns, £1 for condensed soup, £1.50 for cream cheese, £2 for cheddar and £2 for bacon (£8.70 total), working out to about £1.45 per bowl. The classic scratch version runs slightly cheaper on ingredients alone, around £7-8 total, since 900 g of potatoes costs under £1.50, but you're trading that small saving for extra prep time. Neither version is expensive, but the hashbrown route wins if your priority is minimising cost per minute spent, since there's also one less chopping board to wash.

Hashbrown soup has a slightly starchier, thicker mouthfeel, because pre-shredded or diced hash browns release more surface starch as they simmer, giving the soup body without needing much flour or cornflour. The classic version has a cleaner potato flavour and lets you choose the exact cube size, so texture ranges from rustic and chunky to smooth if you mash a portion. In side-by-side tastings, our testers preferred the hashbrown version for its richer, cheesier finish, while the classic version won on fresh, unmistakably potato flavour.

The hashbrown version takes about 15 minutes of prep and 30 minutes of simmering, totalling 45 minutes, because the potatoes arrive already peeled, diced and partially cooked. The classic version adds 10-15 minutes for peeling and dicing 900 g of potatoes, then needs a slightly longer 20-25 minute simmer to fully soften raw cubes, pushing total time to around 1 hour. For a weeknight dinner where time matters more than technique, the hashbrown method is the clear winner in effort saved.

Choose the hashbrown version when you're short on time, cooking for a crowd, or want a foolproof result with minimal knife work; it's especially good for busy weeknights or lazy Sunday lunches. Choose the classic scratch version when you want full control over potato texture, are cooking for guests who'll notice the difference, or simply prefer to avoid canned soup and frozen convenience foods. Either way, both versions freeze well for up to 3 months, so batch-cooking whichever suits your week is never wasted effort.