Taco Tater Tot Casserole Recipe
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This scrumptious taco tater tot casserole recipe includes a layer of tater tots loaded with your favorite taco flavors, like taco seasoning, melted cheese, beef, and the toppings of your choice.
I love tacos in any form but have always had a fondness for taco casserole ever since I first remember Mama making it as a child (see her taco casserole recipe here). This taco tater tot casserole recipe is a more convenient (and a little simpler) spin on Mama’s, involving tater tots as the foundation layer. My husband, Ricky, who used to swear he didn’t like casseroles, can’t get enough of this one. I bet you’ll have plenty of takers in your house, too!
The recipe is below, but let me tell you, it’s quick and easy. You just add a layer of tater tots to the bottom of your casserole and cook your flavored ground beef before adding it on top. Then add a layer of cheese, bake it in the oven, and serve it alongside your favorite taco toppings. It’s filled with the taco flavors we know and love, but with the addition of tater tots (and who doesn’t love them?). It’s hearty, filling, and delicious.
If you want to streamline it even more, make double the taco meat (through step 2) and freeze half of it for a quick to throw together casserole next time.
Recipe Ingredients
- Frozen tater tots
- Ground beef
- Taco seasoning
- Barbecue sauce
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Taco toppings of your choice
How to Make Taco Tater Tot Casserole Recipe
Place a layer of frozen tater tots in the bottom of an 8×8 casserole dish. Set aside.
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef until it’s no longer pink. Then add the water, taco seasoning mix, and barbecue sauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until thickened. It will be very saucy and that is fine.
Spoon the taco beef mixture over the tater tots. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 400 for about 30 minutes. Top with your favorite taco toppings and enjoy!
Storage
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- You can freeze the casserole for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight before reheating briefly in the oven.
Recipe Notes
- Here are some taco toppings you might want to add on top of your taco tater tot casserole: green onions, shredded lettuce, Pico de Gallo, salsa, hot sauce, crushed tortilla chips or tortilla chips, sour cream, olives, cilantro, and guacamole.
- You can use whatever shredded cheese you prefer or have on hand. Mexican blend, Monterey Jack, and Pepper Jack cheese would all work well.
- Think it can’t be tacos without corn and beans? Feel free to add a can of black beans or pinto beans, and either a can of corn or a cup of frozen corn kernels to your meat mixture.
- Add some spice with a can of diced green chiles.
- Want to add more flavor? Feel free to add 2 cloves of minced garlic, 1 chopped onion, and some bell pepper.
- Substitute the ground beef for ground pork or ground turkey.
Here are more terrific taco-flavored recipes:
Taco Soup (The World’s Easiest Supper)
Taco Pizza – Fast, Fresh, Delicious!
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos
Ingredients
- 1 bag frozen tater tots small bag, you won't need them all
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 2 packets taco seasoning mix
- 1.5 cups water
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese I use sharp
- Taco toppings of your choice
Instructions
- Place a layer of frozen tater tots in the bottom of an 8x8 casserole dish. Set aside.1 bag frozen tater tots
- In a large skillet, brown the ground beef until it's no longer pink. Then add the water, taco seasoning mix, and barbecue sauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until thickened. It will be very saucy and that is fine.2 pounds ground beef, 2 packets taco seasoning mix, 1.5 cups water, 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
- Spoon the ground beef mixture over the tater tots. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 400 for about 30 minutes. Top with your favorite taco toppings and enjoy!1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, Taco toppings of your choice
Nutrition
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
~Maya Angelou
Made my parents. .
LOL!!!
I couldn’t do without shortcuts! Our grandmothers had to bake everything from scratch, do laundry by hand, sew their own clothes, etc. Remember Ma Ingalls scalding and plucking birds to fry & take on a train trip? She was up early plucking those birds. I am so thankful that someone else plucks my chickens for me!
I am thankful as well Becky!
One grandmother was a SINGLE WORKING MOTHER in the 1930’s and the other one was a rancher’s wife. Two tough/funny women who loved us through thick & thin. My step-grandmother was special, too. She was a dairy/farmer’s wife and lived with my grandfather for 50 years. She was our Hero!
I would have loved to have met them all!!
What COULDN’T my grandparents do that I have not been able to do? They were AH-MAZING! They lived on a one-acre place at Lake Cumberland in KY (which I am soooo lucky to now have). They had acreage across the road in which they raised hogs. They had a barn, smokehouse, and chickens! Yes! I’ve watched my grandmother wring the necks of the chickens and we children had to pluck the feathers in order to have that delicious chicken for supper. And the pork my grandfather would smoke were so delicious! Of course, they had a very large garden with just about everything in it. We would help shuck cork, de-string the pole beans, and anything else we could to help our grandmother can the veggies for the winter months. I remember the crocks lining the kitchen wall filled with kraut and various types of pickles. Bread and butter pickles were my favorite. I have made quilts like my grandmother made, only I must use a sewing machine due to arthritis. That lovely woman made all of hers by hand. Back then, it didn’t matter if you had arthritis or not, you got it done or you did without. Such love and admiration for my grandparents!!
I can hear the admiration, what an amazing heritage you had!!
I LOVE Lake Cumberland!! We have a retreat there every year in April and the folks attending can’t wait to get there!!
My paternal grandmother grew a huge garden that my parents and we three girls helped with. For some reason, it didn’t seem like work at Mamaw’s house when we went to the garden to gather the veggies and prepared them for canning. Like you, I shucked many a ears of corn, destrung beans, snapped beans, shelled beans – and what ever else I was told to do! Every year my Mamaw and parents killed a hog and Daddy would butcher it in my Mamaw’s garage. Then it was prepared for canning and freezing. At the time, I had no idea that I would treasure those days now. We did all of that as a family – spending many, many hours together with the people we loved most.
My grandparents on my father’s side of the family took me and my brother to raise when my mother passed away. She was in her 60’s and he was in his 70’s. I was not quite 5 months old and my brother was 17 months old. Don’t know if I could handle that but they did it witout question.
How inspiring and what wonderful people!!
My paternal grandparents had seven children. My maternal grandparents had five. None of them were born in a hospital; all were home births. I could not do that!
I am not sure I could either Laura.
Grandma Taylor used to make Pull Sugar Candy and she always let me help. Hard as I try, I still haven’t made it as perfect as hers even though I make it the same way she did. ……..There was just something about Grandma’s touch !
That is it exactly, Grandmothers just had a touch that can’t be replicated!
My grandmother made taffy. Is this the same thing?