Baked Potato Soup Recipe

I pulled this All Recipes ages ago, but it's apparently been removed from the site.  So it's not mine, but I can't attribute it!  However, I've gotten rave reviews on this at Christmas parties and the like, and it's a great hangover cure (one bowl before bed with tea and ibuprofen).  Tastes great on the second and third days.

Baked Potato Soup

 6 strips of bacon OR 2 tbsp butter (see directions below)
2 small onions (I used a bit less than half of a large white onion)
2 cloves of garlic (I upped it to 5)
1/4 cups of flour and 2 tbsp flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp basil (optional)
1 tsp pepper (I only use 1/2 tsp because of the broth)
6 cups (3 cans) of chicken broth
4 large baked potatoes (I use 5 for a chunkier, thicker soup), cubed.
1 pint half and half
1 tsp hot sauce (optional; I don't use it)

Shredded cheese, sour cream, and bacon to garnish

In a large Dutch oven/cooking pot, cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoon drippings. Set bacon aside. Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. In lieu of bacon drippings, one can substitute in butter, which works very well (my personal preference; I use pre-cooked bacon to garnish and heat it up in the microwave). I use less onion and more garlic.

Stir in flour, salt, basil and pepper; mix well. Keep this mixture moving; it should clump up nicely and start to brown. Make sure this does not stick to the insides of the pot. Once well mixed, add the broth and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Let it boil and stir it for two minutes while boiling before reducing heat.

Add the potatoes, cream and hot pepper sauce; heat through but do not boil. Mix well. It should start to thicken up.

Garnish with bacon, cheese, sour cream, etc.