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
My mom’s parents worked until my grandfather turned 65. He made grandma retire when he did. Thru out their entire working life they never spent any of grandmas checks. They saved her income for retirement and lived off his checks only. When they retired they had all that money they saved from her checks, social security, and they both got pension checks every month. I’m not sure that’s even possible for a couple raising kids these days.
I am not sure that is possible either Ellen, which is sad for our kids.
Ellen: A bank is not required to cash a check if it’s more than six months past the check date. However, the bank does have the freedom to honor a stale-dated check, regardless of any restrictions listed on the check. Many states have unclaimed property laws that require businesses to turn unclaimed funds over to the state rather than simply write off the expense.
my Bubbe (grandmother) was a lady all of her own. she made her own wine, yet i dont remember if i ever got to taste it. she read the cards, but the deck had to be brand new. she made the best blintzes, period.
She used farmer cheese. i loved her.
I bet she was a character!!!
I love the casserole dish this tater tot casserole is pictures in!!! Where do you find serving and baking pieces??? So pretty!!!
Hey Susan!
You would think pretty baking dishes would be easier to find these days but I just have to keep my eyes open all the time in hopes of encountering them. This particular one was part of a three piece set they have at Sam’s from time to time, in different colors. The set usually comes with a 9×13, 8×8, and loaf pan. I’ve seen them there from time to time so I bet you could find one. Thank you so much for your sweet compliment 🙂
I also made this recipe. Was rather scared the hubby wouldn’t like it. So, I made just 1/2 of the meat sauce.
He ate seconds, and that means it was good
Thank you for the excellent casserole.
I am so glad he liked it!! Thanks for letting me know it was a hit.
My dad’s dad died before I was born and my grandmother on my dad’s side was very citified she refused to do anything that could be construed as doing for yourself except cooking and sewing and crochet. These were the only things I ever saw her do and she never spoke of her upbringing to me or my siblings. But I can, sew, crochet, knit, garden,cook, I had been baking my own bread exclusively, but became ill and started buying bread again. I am starting to bake bread again, I make most of my own mixes and try to be prepared for any emergency, that I got from my mom who always bought as much of anything that she found on sale as she could ( so long as it was something she really used ) I guess the thing I don’t do and only because my husband absolutely forbids it , is raise chickens and goats both of which I would love to do!
I completely understand Patricia!! I did finally get chickens though!!
My grandmother made beautiful quilts. I can’t make even a simple quilt.
Grow/raise most of everything I eat.
Raise 10 children!!!
I never knew my mother’s parents as they both had died when my mother was quite young leaving her and her siblings orphans. Two of the siblings were 15 and 16 so they were allowed to keep the family together but the older two worked like mad to feed the kids; my aunt baked bread and sold it while my uncle washed cars and worked in the coal mines on the weekend to earn money. ALL of them still managed to graduate from high school and I’m so proud of them for accomplishing this. I don’t know how I would have coped with such a tragedy.
My father’s parents immigrated from the old country and my grandmother never did learn to read but she didn’t let that stop her. She could knit, crochet, embroider, tat, sew and cook the dickens out of anything! (In a good way – LOL). Whenever she’d see something she liked, she’d study it closely. I remember once being with her in the store and she saw a sweater she adored. She looked at it very carefully and her lips were moving as if she were memorizing the number and types of stitches and going over in her mind how she would make that design. Lo and behold, about two months later I was back visiting with my dad and doggone it – she was wearing that very sweater! She had knitted it perfectly, although at the time I had thought she had crocheted it, but what store sold “crocheted” sweaters? I was just a kid. What did I know? LOL
I can’t knit, crochet, embroider, tat OR sew but I CAN cook, the one skill I must have inherited from her! I was named after her although she was Carolina. I just realized that she left us exactly 40 years ago right after Easter Sunday although it doesn’t seem that long ago. I evidently have a real problem with time flying by……(See my answer above – LOL).
Wow, what wonderful and strong women you come from!!
Christy, I have read all the comments and have noticed something that both interests and scares me: I seem to have experienced a lot of the things the “youngins” are writing about! No indoor plumbing…not even an outhouse, killing animals for food, making clothes, etc. Thank goodness my children were born in hospital. I guess this country woman had an interesting childhood! Thank you for the thought-provoking question that helped me remember my grandparents as well as my parents and the childhood that I was blessed to have.