Or Tater Tot Hot Dish as we like to call it! Growing up as a military kid (or military brats as we so fondly called ourselves for some reason) we generally bounced from state to state (or country!) every few years. I'm not quite sure when the Tater Tot Hot Dish popped into our family rotation, but once it did... it quickly became a fan fave.
Now I make this for my own family and it's always greated with smiles. I typically reserve this recipe for the weekend since it takes an hour to bake and then 10 minutes of rest time.
And yes! There about 110,854 variations of this recipe out there so make it your own! Here are two popular variations:
Ingredients:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 16 ounce bag frozen tater tots (you won't use the whole bag)
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup (I use the heart healthy can and works just as well and the regular)
- 1 can milk (use the emptied cream of mushroom soup can to measure the milk - score for one less thing to wash!) *NOTE: use half a can if making Version 2
- 1 can mushroom pieces (or leave out)
- Black pepper to taste (the soup has plenty of salt for me; however, feel free to add in a little more salt if desired)
- *2 cups shredded cheddar only for Version 2
Make It: Version 1
- Brown the ground beef, drain excess fat, and toss in mushroom pieces after cooking
- Heat the soup and can of milk to just warm and thoroughly mixed - add in black pepper
- Spray 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray
- Pour in ground beef/mushrooms
- Layer your tots! And layer them nicely please, you'll get much better results if you row them up evenly instead of just dumping on top
- Pour the soup/milk over the tots being careful to completely cover all the tots
- Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour
- Let cool for 10 minutes
- Thats it! Enjoy
Make It: Version 2
- Brown the ground beef, drain excess fat, and toss in mushroom pieces after cooking
- Heat the soup and can of milk to just warm and thoroughly mixed - add in black pepper
- Spray 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray
- Pour in ground beef/mushrooms
- Pour soup/milk on top of beef and mix together
- Layer your tots! And layer them nicely please, you'll get much better results if you row them up evenly instead of just dumping on top
- Cover tots with shredded cheese
- Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour
- Let cool for 10 minutes