Y'all. Get ready to swoon!
Serve with a quick dessert like this microwave chocolate cobbler and you'll be enjoying that Mom of the Year award in no time.
❤️ Why you'll love it
Prep it the night before and you'll have dinner on the table in 30 minutes.
This 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 Ro*Tel.
- 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 1/2 cup of each, diced.
- Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, Mexican Blend, and Colby all work as well as the Cheddar in this recipe.
🔪 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- 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 and cream of mushroom soup.
- Add corn and 1/2 cup of cheese. Stir until blended.
- Spoon into the bottom of a greased 13x9 inch baking dish.
- Sprinkle with 3/4 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 together this 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 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.
📚Easy Weeknight Dinners!
Who doesn't need more easy, weeknight dinner recipes? Check out these 30 family friendly, budget friendly family dinners that are freezable, make-ahead, and can be on the table in minutes.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
Cowboy Casserole with Tater Tots
Equipment Needed
- 13x9-inch pan
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 3/4 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.
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