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Home » Recipes

How To Make Delicious Home Made Tater Tots!!!

Nov 14, 2020Last Modified: April 2, 2022

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This page may contain affiliate links. So, I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post is about making your own delicious Home Made Tater Tots!

Tater Tots in a frying basket

Frozen tater tots are good, but homemade tater tots are better!

My husband Steve turned me on to these. For instance I was a skeptic. I had thought that homemade tater tots wouldn't be worth the trouble to make, but boy was I wrong!

The first time Steve made tots, he and Toby ate most of them and only left a few for me.

Tater Tots on a white plate
6 measly tots is all they left me! 🙂

So, I implored him to make them again, but this time leave me a substantial amount and also write down his recipe! Lucky me...he did!

Some History and Info About Tater Tots

The founders of Ore-Ida created tater tots in 1953, and they were first sold in stores in 1956. The genesis of tots came from when the company's founders, Nephi and Golden Grigg, were trying to decide what to do with leftover small bits of potatoes. One day GENIUS struck, and one of the brothers decided to add some spices to the scraps, roll them into small cylinders and then deep fry them. Lo and behold the Tater Tot was born!

Eater.com has a great article called "The Tater Tot is American Ingenuity at Its Finest." It's a fascinating read about how the Griggs' brothers turned their invention into a frozen food empire. Further, their company Ore-Ida was named as such because the flash-freezing plant that they bought was on the border between Oregon and Idaho. 🙂

The name "tater tots" is actually a registered trademark of Ore-Ida, but many people including myself use the name as a generic term. Moreover, a fun bit of trivia about tots (from Wikipedia) is that today Americans consume 3,710,000,000 tots per year! That's a LOT OF TOTS!

Tater Tots on a white plate

Making Tots is Easy as 1, 2, 3, 4!

Making your own tots is really easy and the results are out of this world!

#1: Boil and grate potatoes

Peeled Potatoes in a colander
Box grater with a whole peeled potato and grated potato

#2: Mix your grated potatoes with flour and some awesome seasonings!

various seasonings and all purpose flour

#3: Form the potato and seasoning mixture into tubes, and cut into 1 inch pieces for the tots

grated potato formed into a tube placed on wax paper
Wax paper makes it easy to shape the potatoes into a tube 🙂
grated potato cut into 1 inch pieces for tater tots

#4: Fry until golden brown!

tater tots frying in hot oil

I forgot..there is a #5...ENJOY!

Enjoy these straight out of the fryer hot and delicious! You'll be begging for more!

Are You Ready to Make These Tots? 🙂

I hope by now you may be convinced that making your own home made tater tots is easy and definitely worth your while.

Pretty much EVERYONE loves tots as far as I know! Kids, adults, and dogs will gobble these up!

Easy, delicious, and budget friendly, they are superb as a snack or as a side to accompany your main meal.

And you can also make them your MAIN MEAL! For example, here's a great recipe for Tatchos which are tots smothered with cheese and all sorts of good stuff!

Tots bacon sour cream tomatoes green onions red onions cheese sauce

Moreover, feel free to adjust the seasonings to whatever you have on hand...even just salt and pepper will do nicely!

Some Other Recipes You May Enjoy!

Delicious and Easy Egg Fried Rice!

Egg Fried Rice

North Carolina Okra Fries

Okra fries in a white bowl with an egg curry and naan bread in the background

In conclusion, sign up to get the latest recipes and culinary inspiration! Join me by signing up here. 🙂

Cheers!

Grace

Tater Tots in a frying basket

Delicious Home Made Tater Tots!

Grace
Making your own tater tots is super fun and gives you the tastiest tots ever!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 mins
Cook Time 20 mins
Time to Boil the Potatoes and Cool Down With Ice Water 10 mins
Total Time 50 mins
Course Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine American
Servings 4 servings

Equipment

  • cheesecloth
  • box grater to grate the potatoes
  • Deep Fat Fryer

Ingredients
  

  • 3 lbs Russet potatoes peeled and kept whole
  • ¾ cup all purpose flour
  • ½ ts basil leaves
  • 1 ts garlic powder
  • ½ ts onion powder
  • 1 ts Jalapeno seasoning mix you can omit this or use cayenne for a spicy kick!
  • ½ ts black pepper
  • 2 ts salt reduce the amount if you are watching your salt

Instructions
 

  • Prepare a large bowl with ice cold water. Peel the potatoes but keep them whole.
    Peeled Potatoes in a colander
  • Bring a large saucepan to the boil. Add a pinch of salt, and boil the peeled potatoes (kept whole) for 7 minutes. Drain and then add to the ice cold water for 3 minutes to cool the potatoes down.
    bowl with ice water and potatoes
  • Using a box grater, grate the potatoes. You may want to heat up your deep fat fryer to 300F at this time.
    Box grater with a whole peeled potato and grated potato
  • Place the grated potatoes into cheesecloth and squeeze to reduce the water content.
    grated potatoes on a cheesecloth
  • Mix the flour and all the seasonings together in a large mixing bowl. Add the grated potato to this mixture, and mix with your hands to ensure the grated potato is thoroughly incorporated into this mixture.
    various seasonings and all purpose flour
  • Take the potato mixture, and form it into tubes approximately ¾" diameter. The use of wax paper may help make it easier to shape the potatoes.
    grated potato formed into a tube placed on wax paper
  • Cut into 1" pieces to make the form of a tater tot.
    grated potato cut into 1 inch pieces for tater tots
  • Deep fry the tots in batches, making sure not to overcrowd, approximately 5 minutes until golden brown. Drain on paper towels!
    tater tots frying in hot oil

Notes

Enjoy these tots straight out of the fryer for a most luxurious treat!  Add additional seasonings if you like or serve with condiments such as ketchup or mustard.  Great as is, or as a side dish!  Try to have strong willpower otherwise you'll need to prepare to make another batch.  🙂  
Keyword Potatoes, tater tots
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About Me

Hi I’m Grace! I'm married and a mom to my fur baby, Toby, and food and travel are two of my greatest passions! Since our bank account does not allow us to travel or eat out as much as we'd like, I decided I would cook delicious meals that could give us a taste of all the places we'd like to go. My goal is to get you in the kitchen, and inspire you to cook and taste delightful meals that will transport you too. Let’s throw some actual travel in from time to time, all with an emphasis on keeping your wallet full and happy as well. Let’s get cooking and let’s start exploring!! I'm excited to be on this journey with you!!

By the way most of these recipes are Toby taste tested and Toby approved!!

Chief Taste Tester Toby

Toby Chief Taste Tester

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