Another day, another casserole. Mac and I were perusing Pinterest the other day (he likes the Food & Drink board), and he pointed out a photo of a Cowboy Casserole. The recipe intrigued me because the description read: “looks like dog food, tastes delicious.” We then talked about trying it with sloppy joes instead of the cream of mushroom sauce. Sorry to all of you Midwestern hot dish purists out there. So we decided to go for it and came up with this Sloppy Joe tater tot casserole.
This recipe comes together pretty quickly. If you want, you can make your own sloppy joe sauce from scratch (I personally like Manwich). You fix the standard Sloppy Joe recipe and use that as the filling of the casserole. You then layer the sloppy Joes with tater tots and cheese. The tater tots don’t need to be thawed, but you will need to season them. You can choose how to season them based on what flavors you prefer. I normally use seasoned salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. You could definitely add a bit of heat with cayenne pepper or diced jalapenos.
Try some of my other casserole favorites: Chicken rice casserole | Corn casserole | Loaded baked potato casserole
The other trick of my Sloppy Joe tater tot casserole is to get the tater tots as crispy as possible. If you can find them, try out the Ore-Ida extra crispy tots. This isn’t sponsored; I’ve found that they cook up the best in this dish. If you’re cooking the tater tots from frozen, check the casserole after 30 minutes. You may also need to add a few minutes if you are using a deeper casserole or baking dish. Or you could flash fry these for a few minutes and then bake them if you have a deep fryer or an air fryer.
- Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 pound of ground beef (I use 90/10)
- 1 can of Manwich
- 32-oz bag of frozen tots
- 2 cups (or so) of shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1 tsp. of seasoned salt
- 1 tsp. of pepper
Instructions
- Brown and drain the ground beef.
- Stir in Manwich then heat until warmed through.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Pour half the bag of tots into a sprayed casserole dish. Sprinkle half of the seasoning over the tater tots.
- Spread the Manwich mixture over the tater tots.
- Cover with the remaining tots. Season with remaining seasoning and cheese.
- Bake for 30 minutes until heated through. The tots should be cooked but not soft, and the cheese should be melted.
- Quote Napoleon Dynamite.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 30
