Cheesy Tater Tot Casserole

The best part of tater tot casserole is the crunchy top, and most of them don’t have one. Not this one. Think a tight layer of tots baked until they’re deep golden and crisp, over seasoned beef in a thick cheesy gravy with corn stirred through. My Cheesy Tater Tot Casserole stays crunchy all the way across. Real gravy, 3 layers of cheddar, no can of soup.

Here’s how tater tot casserole has gone for about 60 years. Brown some beef. Open a can of cream of mushroom soup. Pour it in. Bury the whole thing in tots. Bake.

It works. Millions of people have been fed that way and I’m not about to insult them.

But you can make the sauce yourself in 5 minutes, in the same pan, with nothing extra to wash. Butter and flour go into the empty side of the skillet, you stir them around for a minute, then in goes beef broth and milk. That’s gravy. Real gravy that tastes like beef.

The fancy word for the butter and flour bit is a roux. I only bring it up so you can say it out loud and feel good about yourself. All it’s really doing is cooking the raw taste out of the flour.

Then there’s the cheese, and I’d like to be upfront about how much of it there is. Three cups. A cup stirred into the beef, a cup under the tots, a cup melted over the top at the end. If that seems like a lot, the recipe is called Cheesy Tater Tot Casserole and I did warn you.

Last thing. The tots bake uncovered the whole time. No foil. I know the urge to cover a casserole is strong. Fight it.

Same dish, different name, depending on where you grew up.

In Minnesota, North Dakota and most of the upper Midwest, this is a hotdish. The word covers any one dish casserole with a starch, a meat, something creamy to hold it together, and a vegetable if you’re being good. Tater tot hotdish is the most famous one by a long way, and it turns up at church suppers, potlucks and funerals all over the region.

Everywhere else, it’s a tater tot casserole.

The traditional hotdish uses canned soup as the binder. Mine makes a gravy instead, so technically it’s a hotdish, but better.

• Ground beef (2 pounds): Two pounds, which is a serious amount of beef. This feeds 8 and it feeds them properly.
• Onion (1 small, diced) and garlic (3 cloves, minced): The onion goes in with the beef at the start. The garlic goes in at the very end and gets exactly 1 minute, because garlic burns if you look at it funny.
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika: Season the beef while it’s browning. Much easier now than later, when there’s gravy over everything.
• Butter (3 tablespoons) and all purpose flour (3 tablespoons): The same amount of each. Together they thicken the gravy.
• Beef broth (2 cups): Low sodium. There’s salt in the seasoning already and a great deal more in the cheese.
• Milk (1 cup): Without it you’d have gravy. With it you have something creamy.
• Worcestershire sauce (1 teaspoon): One teaspoon, and it makes the beef taste more like beef.
• Frozen corn (1½ cups): Straight from the freezer. It warms through in the gravy.
• Shredded cheddar (3 cups): Used in 3 places, a cup at a time. Shred it yourself if you have the patience. Bagged shredded cheese is dusted with starch so it doesn’t clump, and that starch gets in the way of a smooth melt.
• Frozen tater tots (32 ounce bag): Frozen. Not thawed. Thawed tots go soft and a little greasy and there’s no coming back from it.
• Green onions (2, sliced): Something green, so the whole thing isn’t beige.

Get Set Up: Oven to 400°F, and grease a 9 by 13 inch baking dish.

Brown The Beef: Beef and diced onion into a large skillet over medium high heat. Break the meat up as it cooks, until it’s browned all the way through.

Season it with the salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika. Then stir in the garlic and give it 1 minute. Drain the fat off.

Make The Gravy: Push the beef over to one side of the pan and drop the butter into the empty half. Once it melts, sprinkle the flour in and stir it around for a minute.

You’ll smell it change. Raw flour smells like raw flour, and then suddenly it smells toasty. That’s your cue.

Now pour in the beef broth and milk slowly, stirring the whole time, and add the Worcestershire. Bring it to a simmer and let it bubble for 3 or 4 minutes, until it thickens into a gravy that clings to the beef.

If it looks thin, give it another minute. It keeps thickening as it goes.

Add The Corn And Cheese: Stir in the corn and 1 cup of the cheddar until the cheese melts through. Taste it and add salt if it needs it.

Layer It Up: Spread the beef into the baking dish in an even layer. Scatter another cup of cheddar over the top, then arrange the tots in a single layer over everything.

Pack them in tight. Tots with gaps between them don’t brown as well, and you want the whole top covered.

Bake Uncovered: 40 to 45 minutes, until the tots are golden and crisp. Leave the foil in the drawer.

Finish The Cheese: Scatter the last cup of cheddar over the hot tots and put it back in for 3 to 5 minutes, just until it melts.

If you want them crispier still, run it under the broiler for the last 2 minutes. Stand there and watch it. Broilers turn golden into black in about 30 seconds and they do it while you’re answering a text.

Rest It: Green onions over the top, then let it sit for 5 minutes. It firms up while it rests and you’ll get neater scoops.

40 to 45 minutes at 400°F, uncovered, plus 3 to 5 more for the last of the cheese.

A few things change that:

• A deeper dish takes longer. If yours is deeper than a 9 by 13, the beef layer is thicker. Add 10 minutes and check.
• Cold from the fridge takes longer. If you assembled it ahead, add 10 to 15 minutes. Letting it sit on the counter while the oven heats up helps too.
• The temperature is more important than the time. 400°F is high for a casserole and that’s deliberate. Tots need real heat to crisp. At 350°F they’ll cook through but stay pale and soft.

Go by the tots, not the clock. Golden brown on top, and you can hear them sizzling when you open the oven door.

Assemble ahead: Make the beef and gravy layer, spread it in the dish, cool it completely, then cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Add the tots and cheese right before it goes in the oven, and give it 10 to 15 extra minutes since it’s starting cold.

Don’t put the tots on early. They soften sitting on warm gravy and they never fully recover.

Fridge: Up to 4 days in a sealed container.

Reheating: 375°F for 15 to 20 minutes, uncovered, which brings the tots back. You can microwave a portion, but the tots come out soft.

Freezer: Freeze the beef and gravy on its own for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight, then add fresh tots and cheese and bake. I wouldn’t freeze it fully built, because tots that have been frozen, thawed and frozen again turn to mush.

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