Homemade Tater Tots

Homemade Tater Tots I strongly believe that most items are made better at home, from scratch. Baked goods, ice cream, pickles, hummus etc. . .once you taste the sweet success of a from scratch item made from your hands it’s hard to go back to the store bought kind.  Now I’m practical, I’m not saying everything I use I make myself.  It’s not I’m going to sit and churn my own butter and buying pasta or bread is much faster than making it yourself on a regular basis.  

However sometimes you want to take those practical “who would make this themselves items” and have a little fun – just like my homemade tater tots I’m sharing with you today.  

Homemade Tater Tots I’m not going to lie to you, this is not a quick project, making these tots took the better of my afternoon and you are going to need some decent knife skills to get through it.  In the end though, you will be rewarded with crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside homemade tater tots without any preservatives. Oh best part? They are baked not fried! 

There are a lot of tater tot recipes out there, most of them call for shredded potatoes or mashed potatoes bound with flour and eggs and then fried or baked.  I wanted to do my best to recreate the filling you are used to with a frozen tot and have the interior be tiny little pieces of cubed potatoes. 

f16345bae5bd11e2ad8422000a1fa8e9_7 This is where your knife skills will come in handy. 🙂

Homemade Tater Tots .

Homemade Tater Tots
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Ingredients

  • 3 large russet potatoes
  • 1/2 -3/4 cup potato flour (or starch)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 6 tablespoons rendered duck fat or olive oil
  • optional: 1 medium onion, shredded

Instructions

  1. Peel your russet potatoes and cut them in quarters and then the quarters in half. Cut the potatoes into thin planks about 1/8 of an inch thick.
  2. Stack the planks and cut the potatoes into matchsticks 1/8 of an inch thick. Gather the matchstick potatoes and finely dice them.
  3. Insert a steamer into a medium-sized pot filled with 2 inches of water and steam the potatoes for 2-3 minutes or until just tender.
  4. Immediately drain and let cool slightly. In a large bowl mix the potatoes with 1/2 cup potato flour and an egg. If the potatoes don't seem like they are going to bind together, add an additional 1/4 cup of potato flour. Stir in the salt and pepper. If using an onion, mix it in now.
  5. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and take about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the potato mixture and tightly pack it together.
  6. Place the tater tot on the baking sheet to freeze for 10 minutes to set.
  7. Heat your oven to 425 degrees.
  8. Drizzle half the duck fat or olive oil over the tater tots and bake for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, flip and drizzle with the remaining fat. Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes or until the tater tots are completely browned and crispy.
  9. Season immediately with salt and serve with your favorite dipping sauces.
Recipe Type: Side Dish

Notes

When molding the tater tots, I recommend wearing non-latex gloves. The potato mixture is very starchy and sticky and the gloves help bind them together. You will need to wet the gloves ever 4-5 tots made to keep them from getting too messy.

https://girlinthelittleredkitchen.com/2013/07/homemade-tater-tots/

 

Homemade Tater Tots

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11 thoughts on “Homemade Tater Tots

  1. Anita at Hungry Couple

    You know, you could call me the next time you’re making these. I could help you make them…or eat them… 🙂 I used to think I didn’t like tater tots because I’d only ever tasted the frozen ones. But a few years ago I got to try the homemade kind and my eyes were opened!

    Reply
  2. Carla

    Would it perfectly acceptable to have my dad dice the potatoes? He always slices them for scalloped potatoes. And cube for mashed potatoes. Yup, Dad is good at potatoes haha I absolutely love tater tots. I’m not a fan of french fries but tater tots. I could eat a whole tray.

    Reply
  3. Nancy @ gottagetbaked

    Damn, Susan, you’re amazing! I’d have never attempted making my own tater tots (my knife skills are pretty lacking) but after seeing how gorgeous yours look, I totally want to! Homemade is always better, in my opinion, and I love that these are baked and they still look as gloriously crispy as the deep fried kind. High five, girl!

    Reply

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