Y'all. Get ready to swoon! This is one of our favorite casserole recipes.
Serve with a quick dessert like this microwave chocolate cobbler and you'll be enjoying that Mom of the Year award in no time.
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❤️ Why you'll love it
It's the perfect weeknight dinner - prep it the night before and you'll have dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less.
This cowboy casserole recipe is one of those weeknight meals that you'll serve over and over again just because it makes you feel like you've got this adulting thing down.
It's nothing to put together and your grocery budget will send you fancy thank you notes.
🧾 Ingredients
This cowboy casserole is a family favorite - only we usually call it Tater Tot casserole.
- If you don't want any hint of spicy heat use diced tomatoes instead of RoTel tomatoes.
- Cream of chicken or cream of celery soups work just as well as cream of mushroom.
- I like to buy the packages of frozen fajita mix vegetables. They contain onions and different colored peppers. This saves a ton of time for me. If you prefer to use fresh peppers and onions you'll want about ½ cup of each, diced.
- Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, Mexican Blend, and Colby all work as well as the Cheddar in this recipe.
- This chicken spaghetti with Rotel will use up any extra ingredients you have lying around!
🔪 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.
- Heat oven to 425F. Place Tater Tots in a greased pan and bake for about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
- Add the ground beef and onions & peppers mix to a skillet. Cook until the meat is no longer pink.
- Add the can of Ro*Tel to the cooked beef and simmer for 5 minutes to let the extra liquid evaporate.
- Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and cream of mushroom soup.
- Add corn and ½ cup of cheese. Stir until blended.
- Spoon into the bottom of a greased 13x9 inch baking dish.
- Sprinkle with ¾ cup of the remaining cheese.
- Top with the Tater Tots, arranging them in a single layer. Cover with the remaining cheese. Cover with aluminum foil. *You can stop at this point and refrigerate the cowboy casserole for up to 3 days before continuing.
- Bake at 425F for 20 minutes, remove foil, and bake another 10 minutes or until the tots are golden and the cheese is melty.
🎥 Video
Just click on the image below if you'd like to see the full length video on YouTube. It opens in a new tab so you won't lose your place here.
💭 Tips
Expert Tip: You can make cowboy casserole in your slow cooker. Just spray the inside with non-stick spray, layer the ingredients like you would for the casserole dish, cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
- Put this hearty casserole together up to 3 days ahead of time and refrigerate until ready to bake and serve.
- You can also freeze the baked cowboy casserole, tightly covered, for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in your refrigerator and bake as directed.
- Make this easy meal even more budget friendly by stretching it with a can of Ranch style, pinto or black beans. Just add with the corn. Drain the black or pinto beans but leave the sauce on the Ranch style if you're using those.
- No Tater Tots? Use mashed potatoes, au gratin potatoes, or cornbread batter over the top!
- Make this is small, foil tart pans or mini-loaf pans and freeze for individual sized servings. Perfect for those times when everyone in the entire family is going in different directions.
- I love to serve these candied jalapenos with this casserole.
No stress dinners
For the longest time I fought making my life easier.
Honestly, it was like there was something inside me that made me feel like if I worked harder I would be worth more to someone, somewhere.
So I only used fresh vegetables, I made ALL our bread, I even ground wheat berries to make flour. I didn't use cream of anything soup... not ever.
Then one day I got a slap in the face that told me, in no uncertain terms, that no one really cared. The people that valued me would value me regardless and the ones that didn't ... well they didn't deserve me anyhow.
And that's when I discovered frozen chopped onions, cream of mushrooms soup, and dinners that didn't leave me frazzled exhausted from trying to do 👏🏻 it 👏🏻 all👏🏻.
You're valuable just the way you are. Cream of mushroom soup or not.
And you may just want to try this easy 30 minute casserole if you're out of cream of mushroom soup.
Enjoy 30 quick weeknight dinner recipes!
📖 Recipe
Cowboy Casserole with Tater Tots
Equipment Needed
Ingredients
- 32 ounces Tater Tots
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 cup onions and peppers mix, from the frozen section
- 10 ounces Ro*Tel tomatoes
- 2 cups corn kernels
- 10.5 ounces cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
- 2 cups Cheddar, shredded
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
- Place Tater Tots in a greased pan and put them in a 425F oven for about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
- Add the ground beef and onions & peppers mix to a skillet. Cook until the meat is no longer pink.
- Add the Ro*Tel and simmer for 5 minutes to let the extra liquid evaporate.
- Remove from heat and stir in sour cream, cream of mushroom soup, corn, and ½ cup of cheese.
- Stir until blended.
- Spoon into the bottom of a greased 13x9 inch baking dish.
- Sprinkle with ¾ cup of the remaining cheese.
- Top with the Tater Tots, arranging them in a single layer.
- Cover with the remaining cheese.
- Cover the pan with aluminum foil.
- You can stop at this point and put the casserole in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Bake at 425F for 20 minutes. Remove aluminum foil.
- Bake 10 more minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
- Serve hot.
Notes
- You can make cowboy casserole in your slow cooker. Just spray the inside with non-stick spray, layer the ingredients like you would for the casserole dish, cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
- Put this together this up to 3 days ahead of time and refrigerate until ready to bake and serve.
- You can also freeze the baked casserole, tightly covered, for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in your refrigerator and bake as directed.
- Make this even more budget friendly by stretching it with a can of Ranch style, pinto or black beans. Just add with the corn. Drain the black or pinto beans but leave the sauce on the Ranch style if you're using those.
- No Tater Tots? Use mashed potatoes, au gratin potatoes, or cornbread batter over the top!
- Make this is small, foil tart pans or mini-loaf pans and freeze for individual sized servings. Perfect for those times when everyone in the entire family is going in different directions.
- I love to serve these candied jalapenos with this casserole.
Renee
What if you don’t have sour cream on hand?
Marye
Then you'll need to make a quick trip to the store. It's a pretty important ingredient.
Rene
Hi,
I just discovered your blog last night and so many of your recipes look great! I cannot wait to try them. Today, I was looking at the Tater Tot casserole and reading your comments at the end of it (before the recipe). You are talking about how much pressure you have put on yourself to do everything with fresh ingredients, make everything from scratch, etc. and then one day you discovered that no one really cared. Those who love you will love you regardless. Wow, that was what I needed to hear! Because I have always done the same thing to myself. Never felt like I was good enough for folks unless I did everything perfectly.
Thank you for an eye-opener. I needed to hear that!
Marye
I am so glad and thank you for telling me!!
Diann
HELP, I can't print your Cowboy Casserole. I go from jump to recipe and when I hit print at the recipe it goes back to the Jump arrow again. Don't know if I love it, but I bet I would. D.
Marye
Diann that's usually a problem with either your firewall or the search engine you're using. Try using a different search engine or do a screen shot of the recipe card. 🙂
Ash
THIS CASSEROLE IS DELICIOUS!
Note: I had ground turkey on hand, so I used that but otherwise followed the recipe.
Great flavor and a new family favorite!
Marye
So glad you liked it!