Brown Bits From Sausage Are The Key To Potato Soup That Actually Tastes Homemade

When you brown sausage and see those caramelized speckles cling to the pot, you're witnessing the single biggest difference between soup made from scratch and soup that tastes flat or store-bought. Those brown bits at the bottom of the pan make your soup taste better because they're essentially concentrated flavor, what the culinary world calls fond. Fond happens when the natural sugars and proteins in the meat react to heat and form deeply browned layers. This is called the Maillard reaction, and it just means "extra delicious." When you scrape up those bits and dissolve them into your broth, you're creating a foundation, one that tastes slow-cooked and layered, even if the soup only simmers for 30 minutes.

It's the same reason you should brown the meat for pot roast — and it has nothing to do with sealing in flavor; it's simply the secret to the flavor itself. But at times, this part is the one too many recipes skip, perhaps for the sake of a quick meal. But please don't! In our simple, three-ingredient potato sausage and soup recipe, cooking diced potatoes with perfectly browned sausage is the key to adding flavor directly to the potatoes, in addition to flavoring the rest of the soup. Adding stock, cream, and seasonings bolsters the soup's flavor even more. And if you want to make your soup thicker, those browned bits come in handy for making a roux, too — one of the best ingredients to thicken homemade soup.

When you use those browned bits to make a roux, your flavorful, thick homemade soup will be the consistency of creamy New England clam chowder, another great candidate for cooked sausage bits. While bacon is usually the protein of choice for clam chowder, the sharper, herby notes of sausage (think rosemary, fennel, and oregano) add very specific and delicious flavors. When folks talk about soup, they usually focus on the broth, the vegetables, or the seasoning. But any type of protein you choose has a big impact on your homemade potato soup, too. Italian sausage brings heat and fennel, while kielbasa adds garlic and paprika, and chicken sausage keeps things lighter and more herb-forward. Even the difference between sweet and hot Italian sausage can completely change the mood of your homemade potato soup.

When you brown the sausage, you're not just cooking meat — you're releasing an array of bountiful aromatics that can go in a lot of directions. This is especially true if you make a bold choice like super smoky southern andouille sausage with all those big Cajun seasonings. It's a flavor profile that will make any homemade sausage and potato soup unforgettable. This opens the door for other flavorful additions too, such as onions, celery, and bell peppers, otherwise known as the sacred Cajun mirepoix called the trinity. But feel free to steer this homemade soup showboat any way you like, because potatoes and sausage are here for the ride.