Crock Pot Tater Tot Casserole

This crockpot tater tot casserole is the perfect comfort food for a chilly night. It’s easy to make, and you can customize it to your liking. Add in your favorite flavorings, and top it with shredded cheese and chopped green onions or dill pickles to serve.

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Why you’ll love this recipe

• This slow cooker tater tot casserole is the perfect comfort food for a chilly evening.
• It’s easy to make, and is made with ground beef, bacon, and cheese for a tasty cheeseburger-type flavor that the whole family with love!
• My favorite thing about this recipe is that because it is a crock-pot recipe you can put all the ingredients in the pot in the morning and let it cook all day. When you are ready to eat, the casserole will be ready to eat.

With the colder weather on the horizon, now is the time to break out the crockpot and make some hearty, warm meals.

Scroll down for the printable card for this crock pot tater tot casserole recipe, or read on for all the details.

What do you need?

Equipment

This recipe requires a Crock-Pot, another slow cooker, or a multi-function cooker with a slow-cook setting.

Key ingredients and substitutions

Ground beef

Ground chuck is perfect for this recipe since it is slow cooked. For a variation you could use ground pork, chicken or turkey.

Tater tots

The casserole is topped with frozen tater tots. However you can use another brand like potato gems, potato royals or potato crunchies. You could also substitute frozen hash browns if you dont have tater tots.

Seasonings

This recipe has very simple seasoning. The beef is cooked with a little salt and pepper, and then Worcestershire sauce is used in the sauce to bring out the savory flavors in the dish.

Tomato sauce

You will need one can of tomato sauce (aka puree tomato or tomato passata). You could substitute an equal amount of tomato-based pasta sauce if you don’t have tomato sauce.

Cream cheese

I normally use Philadelphia brand, but any other brand of cream cheese should work just fine. It needs to be soften to use in the recipe, so remember to get it out of the refrigerator at least half an hour ahead of making the recipe.

Shredded cheddar cheese

Cheddar or jack are good options, but you can use another similar type of hard cheese. Choose something that will melt easily, but that has good strong flavor to stand up against the other strong flavors in this dish.

Bacon

This recipe uses pre-cooked bacon bits. I usually cook extra when we are having bacon so there is some left over for this recipe, but you can fry it up ahead of cooking the beef and onions, or use fully cooked bacon from the store. It needs to be chopped into pieces around ½-inch in size.

Garnish

I usually garnish this recipe with cherry tomatoes, and sliced dill pickles, to give it a cheese burgery type flavor that my kids love!

How to make tater tot casserole in a crock pot

This recipe is very simple to make, there are just a few simple steps to get it just right:

1. First brown the beef and onion in a skillet with the salt and pepper. This allows the flavor of the beef and onion to develop, and helps to keep the beef moist while it slow cooks.
2. Drain the beef to remove any excess moisture, then add the tomato sauce, cream cheese, half the cheddar cheese, half of the bacon bits, and Worcestershire sauce, and mix well.
3. Grease the slow cooker bowl to prevent the casserole from sticking. Then layer tater tots into the bottom of the slow cooker pan, followed by a layer of the meat mixture, and finally layer the remaining tater tots on top.
4. Cover and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours.
5. When there is around 30 minutes of cooking time remaining, add the cheese and cooked bacon over the tater tots, then replace the lid.
6. Top with tomatoes and pickles to serve.

Serving ideas

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You may also like:

• Slow Cooker Spicy Tortilla Chicken Soup
• Instant Pot Chili Con Carne
• Creamy Instant Pot White Chicken Chili
• Air Fryer Frozen Tater Tots

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