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.
This recipe is quick and easy to prepare. Start with a layer of tater tots at the bottom of your casserole dish, then cook the seasoned ground beef and layer it on top. Add a generous layer of cheese, bake it to golden perfection, and serve it with your favorite taco toppings. The result is a comforting, delicious dish that’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser.
For an even faster meal next time, prepare double the taco meat (through step 2) and freeze half. It makes assembling this casserole even easier when you’re short on time.
How to Make Taco Tater Tot Casserole
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
Prepare an 8 x 8 casserole dish by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.
Place a layer of frozen tater tots in the bottom of the casserole dish and set aside.
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef until it’s no longer pink.
When the ground beef is browned, add the water, taco seasoning mix, and barbecue sauce.
Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until thickened. The beef mixture will be very saucy.
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.
While the casserole is baking, prepare your favorite taco toppings.
When the casserole is finished baking, remove from the oven.
Top the casserole with your favorite taco toppings.
Enjoy Taco Tater Tot Casserole immediately.
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 for Taco Tater Tot Casserole
- 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.
More Taco-Flavored Recipes You’ll Love
- Taco Soup (The World’s Easiest Supper)
- Taco Pizza – Fast, Fresh, Delicious!
- Fiesta Taco Salad
- Greek Chicken Tacos
- 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
Both grandparents on each side of my family homesteaded. There are no homesteads to be had in our country anymore. My mom’s first cousin still owns my grandad’s homestead and her dad’s homestead. Also my great-great grandad and great-great uncle homesteaded.
What a fabulous legacy!!!
i loved to hear their stories! I specifically remember my paternal grandmother telling us how they would let people passing through stay overnight in their homes (during the Great Depression) for free. Complete strangers, but that was just what you did. I could NEVER do that….
Also, my maternal grandmother, mother of seven, had TB and was sent out west for months. My grandfather couldn’t take care of them so they were all “farmed out” to relatives in different states. How sad!
Wow, I am not sure I could do that either!!
My grandparents immigrated here from Sweden, on the sister ship to the Titanic, leaving all their family behind. They only knew Swedish, so once in America they only allowed English to be spoken @ home-so they’d have to learn the language. When they arrived here, they were almost broke, so my grandma started a business as a professional seamstress & she’d iron people’s clean laundry too. I can’t sew if my life depended on it! Grandma was gifted! She made the best oven fried chicken, too!
I agree, gifted and innovative!!!
My grandparents killed their own meat. I’m not sure that I would even try that. I prefer to get mine from the store. They immigrated from Russia when my parents were small. And I respect and appreciate what they had to do.
I prefer mine from the store as well 🙂
Both of my grandfathers worked in the coal mines. I could never be underground in the dark. One grandmother had 11 children. Two was enough for me. My other grandmother could make a dress pattern out of newspaper and then make a dress from it. She was very frugal and made everything last and last and then make something else out of it when it’s first life was over.
I love how innovative ladies were in how things got recycled and repurposed!!!!
Wonderful rememberances , My grandparents came from another country as children with only one parent. Had purchased land unseen. Lived through a dreadful winter in a railroad car.Managed to live off the land because in the country they came from didn’t let them worship our Lord and Savior. I think of all they went through with little finances and gave to neighbors to help them survive. The Lord gives us strength if we only trust Him. Thank you Christy for such a good question. Now we need to write them down for our children
Oh my goodness!! Yes, you definitely need to write your families stories down so that your children and their children’s children will know of the legacy left for them!!
My Maternal Grandmother, Mama Warren, was married at age 12 1/2 and had her first baby while she was 13. She was Paw Nichols 2nd wife and he was 45 yrs old and had 10 kids already, most of them older than mama Warren. Don’t think I could marry at that age. Back in 1924 it was ok for a man to marry a little Native American girl in these mountains. He was wealthy and her daddy was dead. Her mamma, granny Net did the best she could for her kids. Life was hard. He provided for all of them. He died from pneumonia when Daddy was 6. Mama Warren was a wild, fascinating woman and lived to be 78. Loved her. Folks can still marry at 13 in West Virginia and I think Mass.
Wow! I bet she had some fascinating stories!!!