Homemade Tater Tots

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I used to love Tater Tots until we started eating from scratch foods. The ingredients on the bag were always questionable (even on the organic ones!) and besides, they were much too expensive to fit into my regular food budget and rarely ended up being worth the cost.

But Tater Tots are a fun treat to have every so once in a while and as it turns out (like with most homemade food experiments) they are not so difficult to make and much cheaper than their store counterparts!

homemade tater tots

Homemade Tater Tot Recipe

This recipe for homemade Tater Tots you can make and then enjoy warm, fresh from the pan, or you can flash freeze and enjoy later when you need them. You can use these as a substitute on casseroles and other dishes as well or just enjoy with some Homemade Ketchup!

Skip the preservatives on the store version and make your own homemade Tater Tots!

Ingredients in Homemade Tater Tots

  • 8 medium potatoes, cooked and peeled
  • 4 Tablespoons Flour (can be Gluten Free Flour)
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • Oil for frying

Step By Step Instructions for Making Homemade Tater Tots

a box grater, whole potato and pile of shredded potato on a wooden cutting board

Finely shred potatoes while they are still warm. Place them in a large bowl, stir in flour and salt. (Without mashing them)

a green bowl of shredded potato and a ball of shredded potato

Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a frying or sauce pan. Form into small balls ( a cookie dough scoop works great) and drop into oil. Fry till slightly golden.

Drain on paper towels, eat immediately or cool and then flash freeze. To flash freeze, place the homemade Tater Tots on a baking tray in the freezer until frozen, remove and store in a freezer container or bag until ready to use.

To re-heat after frozen, place tots on a baking tray and warm in the oven at 400 degrees until warm through.

homemade tater tots

Want to print this recipe for Homemade Tater Tots? Grab it below:

Homemade Tater Tots Recipe

This recipe for homemade Tater Tots you can make and then enjoy warm, fresh from the pan, or you can flash freeze and enjoy later when you need them.

Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Keyword Homemade Tater Tots
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 6
Calories 237 kcal

Ingredients

  • 8 potatoes medium size, cooked & peeled
  • 4 tablespoons flour you can also use gluten free flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • oil for frying

Instructions

  1. Cook and peel your potatoes.

  2. Finely shred potatoes while they are still warm. Place them in a large bowl, stir in flour and salt. (Without mashing them)

  3. Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a frying or sauce pan. Form into small balls ( a cookie dough scoop works great).

  4. Drop potato balls into oil. Fry until slightly golden.

  5. Drain on paper towels, eat immediately or cool and then flash freeze. 

Recipe Notes

To flash freeze, place the homemade Tater Tots on a baking tray in the freezer until frozen, remove and store in a freezer container or bag until ready to use.

To re-heat after frozen, place tots on a baking tray and warm in the oven at 400 degrees until warm through.

Nutrition Facts
Homemade Tater Tots Recipe
Amount Per Serving
Calories 237 Calories from Fat 3
% Daily Value*
Fat 0.3g0%
Saturated Fat 0.1g1%
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.01g
Sodium 405mg18%
Potassium 1201mg34%
Carbohydrates 53g18%
Fiber 6g25%
Sugar 2g2%
Protein 6g12%
Vitamin A 6IU0%
Vitamin C 56mg68%
Calcium 35mg4%
Iron 2mg11%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Yum! These are such a fun little treat and so relatively easy to make! For a little variety you could add in Homemade Seasoning Salt instead of regular salt in this recipe.

More Potato Recipes

What meal will you enjoy your homemade Tater Tots with?

Me and Kady

Merissa Alink

Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.

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39 Comments

      1. Hi –

        These look great. How do you cook the potatoes in the crockpot? And, once they are done, do you let them cool down before you peel them? I can’t wait to try them 🙂

        1. I clean the potatoes well and then place them in the slow cooker with about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom. Cook them on high for about 3 to 4 hours or until soft. I do let them cool a bit before peeling otherwise they will burn your fingers. 🙂

  1. Hi Merissa! What a great recipe the kids will love! And adults too! So glad you posted on FB! Thanks for sharing! Have a great week! Blessings from Bama!

  2. Have I told you how much I admire you? I don’t know how you cook from scratch with little ones running around. It was all I could do last night to make a packet of instant oatmeal for my son for dinner. haha. I hope someday I will have enough time and energy to try these because they sure do look good and they are healthy for you too.

    Erica
    WE Three Crabs

  3. These look delicious! Tater tots are one of those things I’ve always *thought* about making, but they looks like they’d be too time consuming to actually do it. You make it look easy!

  4. Oh wow! I never knew how simple they were to make! I am definitely going to make them for breakfast this coming Sunday morning!! I may add a little fresh ground pepper along with the salt and flour for a little kick. I love your website! Thank you for all you do!!!! You make so many people happy! 🙂 God bless you and your sweet family!

  5. This is such a great idea! As tasty as tater tots can be, they can also be quite expensive. I love that this is a healthier and homemade alternative. Great job.

  6. What I read was to cook them in a waffle iron. Sounds like these would be perfect for that! I want to try them!

  7. Any recs for how long to warm the flash frozen tots in the oven later? Figured I’d try 10 minutes and go from there but I thought I would check and see if anyone has an exact time.
    I just made a big batch, they turned out yummy btw, and am currently freezing them for future dinners! Thanks for the recipe!

  8. what a handy homemade recipe…. I never thought about making my own. And I do prefer to make anything homemade. Thank you so much!!

  9. I’m processing my left over potatoes from last years garden(didn’t use em for seed this year, we started over with all new varieties) and I’ve been filling my freezer with hashbrowns like crazy. I would like to try ur tot recipes but was hoping they don’t need to be fried before freezing them, what do ya think?

  10. These look delicious! I had a question about the first direction: You start off saying to shred the potatoes while they are still warm. What are they warm from? Do you microwave them first?

    1. You will want to start with cooked potatoes when making this recipe. You wouldn’t have to make them into Tots right after cooking them (I boil mine) but I did so that’s why I said to start with them warm 🙂

  11. These look great. I’ve never cooked my potatoes in the crock pot, but I love that idea to get a nice baked potato.

  12. Great recipe, Merissa. I made these with Gorgeous’s world famous hamburgers, and they were fantastic. Much better than the store-bought variety, and easy to make. I noticed you boil your potatoes. I baked mine. Have you ever tried baking them? If so, what worked better?

  13. Never thought about these,I make hash browns with cooked potatoes, I just pat them into a square and freeze them right away then. Will try these as we like Tatar tots so well.

  14. This looks really great but I’m off nightshades, have you tried this with sweet potatoes or do you think it would work?

  15. This is a great recipe! Thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with us at Full Plate Thursday and come back soon!
    Miz Helen

  16. I love this idea! They look delicious, and I can’t wait to give them a try! Thanks for sharing at Celebrate It!

  17. These look so delicious. I’m bringing back my Monday link party @ DIY Home Sweet Home (first one will be Oct. 16th) and I would love for you to stop by and link up your tater tots recipe or any new projects your working on!

  18. OMG! My husband is a tater tot freak! But I don’t see what is so great about them…except from the ridiculous price for so few. So I have only bought them a couple of times for him in all the years we have been married. In fact, when we were grocery shopping today, he wished he could have some. (A recently diagnosed health issue has him of that kind of stuff for a while.) But these would be far safer for him.
    This recipe is going on my “Recipes to Try” list when we have that medical condition stabilized. The recipe even looks safe enough for me to eat.