Smashed Tater Tots

This is the potato recipe I didn’t know I needed.  A while back I read a foodie article explaining how to make tater tots a whole lot better.  Their answer was to ignore the directions on the bag, and cook them for longer at a higher temperature.  I was assured this method would yield much crispier tots than usual.  That sounded pretty good to me, then I did absolutely nothing about it.

Fast forward.  I buy a bunch of baby potatoes to make smashed potatoes.  I’ve made successful smashed potatoes before, but this time they really didn’t turn out especially crispy.  That was disappointing because I wanted to pick them up and dip them in some sort of sour cream dip.  I tried again a few weeks later.  Still not as crisp as I hoped.  Was this operator error?  Some water content fluke?  Who knows?

That’s when I remembered the crispy tater tots I’d read about.  I wondered what would happen if I smashed them?  Would they be good with dip? Would they be too crispy?  Maybe not quite so high a temp would be safer?  

In the end the Smashed Tater Tots were utterly fantastic.  Google tells me I’m not the only one to have this idea, but I don’t know what others do because I didn’t read any of it.  Thankfully, my first try yielded crispy, delicious perfection.  We dipped them into sour cream with shredded cheddar, crumbled bacon, and chopped scallions.  

As far as I’m concerned, Smashed Tater Tots are the new casual party food extraordinaire.  They’re easy to make, they’re easy to eat, they hold well at room temperature, and they’re great dunked into all manner of things.  I threw together the sour cream concoction above because it made me think of really good restaurant potato skins.  But try French onion dip, or ranch dressing, or even ketchup dressed up with balsamic vinegar.  Oh!  Or bang bang sauce!  OMG!

And FYI, I didn’t end up cooking at a higher temperature.  Instead, here’s what I did:

Print Recipe

Smashed Tater Tots

Perfectly crispy, ideal for dipping!

Ingredients

• ½ 32 oz. bag standard-sized frozen tater tots--not the minis or disc-shaped ones

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 400°. Cover a sheet pan with parchment and add the frozen tater tots in a single layer. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and smash each tater tot using the bottom of a glass. After smashing, the tots should be about ¼ inch thick.
• After all the tots are smashed, return to the oven for 20 minutes. Allow them to cool on the pan for 5 minutes before serving.