Tater Tot Casserole with Ground Beef and Cheddar
Ground beef and mushrooms in a from-scratch sour cream gravy, buried under a layer of tater tots that crisp instead of steam.
- Serves
- 6
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Written
Method
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Brown the ground beef in a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat, breaking it up as it cooks, until no pink remains, 6-8 minutes. Drain off all but a tablespoon of the fat and transfer the beef to a bowl.
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Add the onion and mushrooms to the same skillet and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid and it cooks away, about 8 minutes.
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Stir in the garlic and butter and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds, then sprinkle in the flour and stir until no dry patches remain.
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Whisk in the beef broth and simmer, whisking often, until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 3 minutes.
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Off the heat, stir in the sour cream until smooth, then fold the beef and peas back in. Season with salt and pepper.
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Scatter the cheddar evenly over the filling, then arrange the tater tots on top in a single, tightly packed layer.
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Bake at 400°F until the tots are deeply golden and the filling is bubbling at the edges, 35-40 minutes.
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Rest 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
The cheese goes under the tots, not on top of them — bury it and it melts into the gravy instead of gluing the tots down before they’ve had a chance to crisp. Cooking the mushrooms until their liquid is fully gone matters more than it sounds like it should: skip that step and the casserole turns watery under the tots no matter how long it bakes.
This holds up well as a make-ahead: assemble everything short of the tots, refrigerate the filling and cheese in the dish, then top with frozen tots straight from the freezer and bake, adding 10 minutes if it’s going in cold. Leftover pot roast or shredded rotisserie chicken can stand in for the ground beef if that’s what’s on hand — just skip the browning step and warm it through with the gravy instead.