If you love tacos, this Taco Tater Tot Bake is a must try! Packed with flavor, kid friendly, and perfect for those busy nights!
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I have always been SO intrigued with tater tot casseroles. I came across a variation of this one and loved the fact that it was “taco like”. The only part of this that I hesitated with, was the tater tots.
I wasn’t sure how they would add to the flavor, and if they would get soggy, etc. However, tater tots actually ended up being the one thing that made it even more amazing!!
Taco Tater Tot Bake is a Mexican mixture of taco meat, beans, corn, and cheese topped with tater tots and red enchilada sauce.
My son ate two plates and asked for it again the next night. It made so much, that we had leftovers two nights in a row ha-ha!!! It was quick and simple, which is perfect for those busy nights!
If you’re a fan of casseroles and tacos, why not combine the two flavors and try this Taco Tater Tot Bake, right?!
Ingredients Needed for this Taco Tater Tot Bake:
See printable recipe card at bottom of the post for exact ingredient amounts.
- Ground Beef
- Onion
- Garlic
- Taco Seasoning
- Corn
- Green Chiles
- Black Beans
- Mexican Cheese
- Tater Tots
- Red Enchilada Sauce
How to prepare:
- Cook ground beef, onion, and garlic together in a skillet until meat is no longer pink.
- Drain fat and add in taco seasoning, corn, green chiles, and black beans.
- Cook until all is heated through.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the meat mixture with cheese and tater tots.
- Pour 1/3 of enchilada sauce on bottom of 9×13 pan.
- Spread tater tot mixture evenly into bottom of pan.
- Top with remaining enchilada sauce.
- Place in preheated oven, 375 degrees, for about 40 minutes.
- During the last 5 minutes of cook time, sprinkle remaining cheese on top.
- Once cheese has melted, remove from oven and serve!
Check out these other great Mexican recipes:
BEST EVER Instant Pot Mexican Rice
Everyone loves tater tots, and everyone loves Mexican food so why not combine the two? Taco Tater Tot Bake is easy to prepare, packed with flavor, and a family favorite!
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Taco Tater Tot Bake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef *or turkey
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 pkg taco seasoning *also see homemade recipe below
- 16 oz corn, frozen bag
- 4 oz green chiles, diced
- 12 oz black beans, drained
- 2 cups Mexican cheese, shredded
- 16 oz frozen tater tots
- 10.5 oz red enchilada sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish. Heat a skillet to medium high heat.
- Add in ground beef/turkey, onion, and garlic. Cook until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain fat.
- Add in taco seasoning, frozen corn, green chiles, and beans.
- Cook until heated through.
- In a large bowl, combine the meat mixture, 1 cup cheese and tater tots. Mix until combined.
- Pour about 1/3 of the enchilada sauce on bottom on 9×13 baking dish.
- Add in tater tot meat mixture and smooth to flat.
- Pour remaining enchilada sauce on top and bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes.
- During the last few minutes, sprinkle remaining cheese on top of dish and cook until melted.
- Serve warm! *If you are a fan of black olives, you can add 1 small can to the mixture to change it up a bit.
Nutrition
Recipe updated 2/16/22
Janet Bradley
Not a big bean fan, but I love love love everything else that is in this recipe. Could I leave them out or could I just put a layer of refried beans in there and bake as directed? I cold leave the refried beans out if you don’t think that would work.
Thanks, Jan
Kristin
You can absolutely omit the beans if desired! You can also use refried beans if preferred, but omitting works great! Enjoy!
Nottoill
The zesty seasonings in the meat, baked with cheese until bubbly and hot and an array of fresh crisp toppings! Add whatever your toppings you love, we usually do sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes but this is great with jalapenos, avocados and of course more cheese!
Kristin
Love it! Great additions!
Mark
We can’t get Tater Tots in our area. What would you substitute? Thanks, Mark
Kristin
This isn’t my recipe, but its a great homemade recipe for tater tots so you can still make the taco bake! Enjoy! https://damndelicious.net/2015/04/10/homemade-tater-tots/
Iris
Delicious. There is no other word for this casserole. It’s severe weather here so I had to make my own enchilada sauce. It turned out so good that I will always make my own. This is definitely a recipe that I will make again. Thanks for sharing.
Kristin
Yea!! So glad you enjoyed it! Hope you stay safe in the weather!!
Laurie
Looks great want to make it for card club. Can you freeze this?
Kristin
Definitely! This freezes perfectly!!
Cinda Fitzpatrick
What would be the calorie count per serving?
Kristin
Amount per serving (8 total)
Calories:
477 cal
Fat:
27 g
Carbs:
38.4g
Protein:
24.9 g
Cholesterol:
76 mg
Sodium:
1305 mg
Britney
Hi, how many does this feed? Looking to make it for my daughters birthday party. There will be about 60 people
Kristin
Hi!! I would say that this easily feeds 10 people 🙂
Enjoy!!!
PS: Happy birthday to your daughter!!
Anonymous
Not a fan of black beans but pinto beans work just as good! 🙂
Kristin
Great idea!!! Thanks for the suggestion, 🙂
Laura
This was a huge hit with my whole family. So, now I’m cooking this for a homeless shelter tomorrow. I prepared the recipe up through the baking part, and I’ll refrigerate, and bake tomorrow.
Kristin
So glad it was a hit! What a great idea making it for a homeless shelter!! Hope they enjoy it as well!!!
Cyndi Gunz
I’m trying this out tonight. Looks yummy! I didn’t have enchilada sauce so I used homemade salsa with just a little spiced tomato sauce. I also used crispy crown tots. And I added a little hot sauce to spice it up just a little.
Kristin
Oh yum!!! Let us know what you think when you try it! 🙂
jothy
I was wondering if it would taste good with white enchilada sauce instead of the red one
Kristin
I have never tried it like that, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be just as yummy, 🙂 Keep us posted on how it turns out!!
Anonymous
I’m going to try it with goat meat…I long to be sluggish with goat meat.
Kristin
Let us know how it turns out and what you think of it!! Hope you enjoy it, 🙂
William
Im going to give this a shot but instead of the enchilada sauce I’m going to try picante. I always use salsa in my meatloaf and it turns out wonderful and I think with the taco taste in this dish salsa may be a positive substitution.
Kristin
Great idea! Sounds yummy!! Let us know how it turns out!! 🙂
Mar he'll
I topped with black olives and green onions before baking. After it cooked and cooled slightly, I topped with shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, crumbled tortilla chips and dollop with sour cream,salsa, and pickled Jalapeños. Really good, and helped with eye appeal.
Kristin
Great idea! Sounds like great additions! Ill need to try that next time, 🙂
Kristin
Hi! Sorry for the confusion! You need to use half of a 32oz bag, so 16 oz. 🙂
Anonymous
Your recipe says to use a bag of tater tots, but then says (16oz)…a bag of tater tots is 32oz so am I to use the whole bag or just 16oz(half bag)?
Anonymous
What are tater tots?
Kristin and Adriana
They are a side dish made from a deep fried, grated potato. Basically, a small piece of fried potato
Kristin and Adriana
Oh yum! Hope you all love it! As for the printing, we have the option up to not print the photos at all and print only the recipe itself. If you look at the top of the screen, there should be a button that allows you not to print photos 🙂
Hope that helps!!! Thanks
rkjb85
I’m making this for the first time for a church potluck. One suggestion, could you please make it so the pictures don’t print on a separate page? Without them the recipe prints on one page which is great! Love your blog and can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
Anonymous
This sounds really good, thanks for posting it!!! May have to wait to make it for a pot luck since there’s only 2 of us and our dinner’s are small (that’s how we lose weight (100 lbs between the 2 of us so far)!!! Or might see if I can 1/2 the recipe since I really don’t want to wait!! ALSO — when you had the Rotel, do you cut the sauce or it’s in addition to all the liquid going in??
Kristin and Adriana
Wow! Great job on loosing weight, that is quite an accomplishment 🙂
This recipe is quite tasty, my family loves it!!!
When using the Rotel, I just dump the whole can in without draining 😉
Hilda DeWet
What is tater tots
Kristin and Adriana
Tater tots are sliced/cut fried potatoes, typically found in the frozen food section of your grocery store. They are near the French fries and other potato products 🙂
Anonymous
Sounds yummy! But how do you “preheat” an oven? Don’t you just “heat” it?
Kristin and Adriana
Preheating is basically just making sure your oven is up to temperature prior to putting the dish into the oven 🙂
hoopsnit1
Throw in a can of Rotel also Grab a package of Brautwurst, cut the skin and brown the meat inside… so much more flavor than ground beef…
Kristin and Adriana
Yea!! So glad it was a hit for you all!! My family keeps requesting me to make it again, so I think I need to add it to the meal plan, : )
daisylover
I made this recipe last nite and WOW! I was afraid my husband would not like it but was I wrong! It is already half gone! He told me to make sure I added this recipe to our “favorites” file. I agreed with him.
Thanks for sharing!
Casey
In the oven now! I used ranch style beans instead of black beans cause I didn’t have them, and made homemade enchilada sauce. Hope this turns out good!! 🙂
Anonymous
Thanks for the recipe starter! The idea really appealed to me and was really quick and easy to make, the only thing that really needed “work” was grating the cheese. I subbed Quorn (meat substitute) mince for beef because I wanted to make a veggie meal. I added a tiny bit of fennel head because it needed to be used up and black beans and topped it with red chilis because we like it spicy! I will finish it with fresh coriander and sour cream and maybe avocado. Can’t wait till it’s done -looks tasty!
anyonita green
Tater tot casserole?! How have I not heard about this?!?!?! I can’t wait to make; it looks delicious & I have a feeling my toddler would love it too! Thank you so much for linking up with me this week at Tasty Tuesdays! I’ve pinned this & shared it with my followers!
Veronica Noel
I have made this several times and my family loves it. We like to top ours off with some shredded lettuce and sour cream. I also love taco sauce or salsa with mine and we like eating tortilla chips along with it. It is a big hit with us!!!!
Spatulas On Parade - Dawn
Thanks for linking up with us at : Swap N Share Sundays.
Great recipe. Pinned
Dawn
Angel Allen
hello
visiting from the Manic Monday hop. This looks toooo good. I’ve gotta try it. I’m a new follower. Hope you will visit my blog and hopefully return the follow by Bloglovin or G+. Also I have a party on thursday, hope you will add your link.
Angel @ https://sewcraftyangel.blogspot.com/
Foodie Portal
We love your pictures and recipes, they are mouth watering. Would love for you to share them with us at foodieportal.com. We are new but at foodieportal.com we are not photography snobs, we are just foodies.
Sue Boyer
Pinned! Great weeknight meal. This looks yummy. Thank you for sharing.
Consider yourself hugged,
https://simpleesue.com/try-one-new-recipe-a-week-bed-and-breakfast-cherry-crumb-coffee-cake/
Spatulas On Parade - Dawn
YUM, pinned. Thanks for linking up at Swap N Share Sunday
Dawn
Spatulas On Parade
Kristin and Adriana
I am SO glad your picky little one loved it, my little guy is the same way and ended up loving this too!! Great idea on adding a variety of veggies in! Yum!
Anonymous
I have a picky eater in the house and he loved this the first time I made it! Tonight I am doing a veggie mix (corn, carrots, and green beans) instead of just corn.
Kristin and Adriana
Oh yes, little ones can be so picky. My two year old barely eats my dinner, if he takes one bite, I consider it a success hehe!! I will say though, my little guy loved this casserole, so hopefully yours will too. Let us know how it turns out!!
Jenni Cavallaro
Making this for dinner tonight! Hoping that my fiance and son like it. My son probably won’t..he’s 2 and VERY picky, lol, but here’s to hoping!
Anonymous
I just put mine in the oven…I used potato oles instead of Tator tots…omitted the corn because my family would turn their noses up at it and added refried beans…topped of with sour cream….I hope it is a hit with my family.
Kristin and Adriana
Ooooo great addition!! Let us know how it turns out with the Rotel added, yummy!
Anonymous
Making this tonight,I added rotel to ours! I cant wait! Mmmmmm.
Kristin and Adriana
We are so glad to hear its a hit with your families!!! Keep the reviews coming, we love hearing the feedback!!!
tiffdeck
The whole family loved it… yummy!
Anonymous
The husband and I loved it! Very Yummy!!!
Anonymous
I will! Cooking it tonight.. Thanks!
Kristin and Adriana
Nope, tater tots do not need to be cooked prior to going in casserole!! Let us know what you think of it when you try it, : )
Anonymous
Did you cook the tater tots first?
Kristin and Adriana
Hi!! Nope, this isnt spicy and my kids LOVED it!! My kids are the same as yours and refuse to eat anything with spice to it, hehe. Its definitely kid friendly!!! : )
Anonymous
This looks super yummy! Is it spicy though? I don’t mind but my kids don’t care for anything spicy.
Kristin, Tammy and Adriana
Great idea on layering it!!! We’ll need to try that too!!! I was a little afraid to make this at first since it definitely isn’t a “pretty” dish hehe. It is definitely delicious though!! So glad you enjoy it!!
Jen
I tried this last week, and I’m making it again tonight! I loved this meal. The only thing I did differently was that I layered the ingredients – layer of sauce, tots, half cheese, meat/corn/bean mixture, rest of cheese and more sauce. While I think it looks absolutely disgusting, it’s so delicious!