Tachos is a fantastic comfort food of loaded tater tots, piled high with your favorite nacho toppings! This tater tot nachos recipe makes an easy game day snack, weeknight dinner, or a super bowl party food ideas meal!
Move over nachos, there’s a new sheriff in town – tachos! This recipe is everything you love about traditional nachos but made with crispy tater tots instead of tortilla chips.
This scrumptious snack is perfect for those who want the flavors of taco night but with a twist. The tater tots provide a crunchy texture and are perfect for piling high with all of your favorite toppings.
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Why We Love This Recipe
- Crispy and Filling Comfort Food: Filled with your favorite nacho toppings, this recipe makes an incredibly filling snack or meal that can easily feed a crowd.
- They’re Perfect for Parties: You can serve a platter of them as an easy game-day party snack or meal, and they’re sure to be a hit!
- Very Versatile: You can customize this recipe however you like. Just choose your favorite protein and go wild with toppings!
If you love the Tex-Mex flavors of nachos and tacos, and you’re a fan of savory appetizers and game day snacks, we think loaded tater tots will become one of your favorite comfort food meals!!
There are several different names and spellings for this seriously delicious comfort food going around.
Other names for tachos include tater tot nachos, loaded tater tots, or, as Sonic restaurant spells it, totchos. Regardless of the name, this delicious meal begins with a base of golden, crispy potatoes.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Ground beef
Using lean ground beef will prevent your snack from becoming too greasy. To reduce the calories and fat, you can substitute ground hamburger with ground chicken or turkey.
🎯 TFN Pro Tip
For additional Tex-Mex flavor, use ground chorizo or pork instead. Another great topping idea for tachos is to use Chili con Carne, or shred a few baked chicken tenderloins.
- Cheese Sauce
Tater tot nachos are the most delicious with a homemade cheese sauce. A store-bought brand is fine, but we use our cheese sauce with Velveeta recipe.
If you don’t want to use processed cheese products, you can use our cheese white sauce recipe, or make a nacho cheese sauce from scratch. - Taco Seasoning
You will need either a 1-ounce packet of taco seasoning mix, or 2 tablespoons of your favorite seasoning for chicken tacos.
Recipe Variations
- Bite-sized appetizers – Our mini appetizer cups with tater tots recipe has similar flavors to these tater tot nachos, but this is a party food that’s much easier to eat.
- Vegetarian – For a vegetarian or vegan version, substitute the beef with a plant-based protein, and use vegan cheese.
- Breakfast Totchos – Yes, tater tots for breakfast is a thing, and it is so delicious! Top your tater tots with bacon, scrambled eggs, and cheese for a savory Sunday brunch.
Notes and Tips for the Best Loaded Tater Tots
- Use frozen potato tots.
To avoid soggy potatoes, you must use tater tots from frozen.
- Roast the jalapenos for extra flavor.
Roasting the chiles will mellow the spiciness, and also add a smoky flavor.
- Drain any grease.
If you’re using lean ground beef, it’s important to cook the beef until browned and remove excess fat, if necessary. This helps prevent your tachos from becoming soggy.
- Add other seasonings.
Feel free to add other seasonings, such as a Cajun spice blend or chili powder for extra flavor and heat.
Need More Ideas for Game Day Snacks and Appetizers?
Make some taco wonton cups, a platter of cheese jalapeno poppers, or our super popular recipe for buffalo chicken appetizers.
If you love these loaded tater tot nachos, check out our huge collection of other tater tot recipes!
Serving Suggestions
These loaded tater tots are a fun and festive twist perfect as a Cinco de Mayo appetizers. Their crispy exterior and creamy interior provide the ideal base for a variety of toppings like chili, cheese, sour cream, avocado dip, and salsa. This crowd-pleasing dish is sure to be a hit!
Recipe FAQs
Tater Tots were created by F. Nephi Grigg of Ore-Ida in 1953, as a way to use the extra potato shavings that came from making frozen French fries.
Later, Jim Parker came up with the idea for “totchos” aka “tachos” with the combination of tater tots and nacho toppings.
Yes, it is possible to make this recipe vegan or vegetarian. You can use vegan-friendly proteins like plant-based crumbles, refried beans, or black beans. Instead of using dairy cheese sauce, you can use a vegan cheese sauce or vegan nacho cheese sauce.
Because this dish has cold and hot ingredients, it really isn’t possible to reheat the loaded tater tots after you assemble them.
However, you can make extra, and then store the ingredients in your fridge in separate containers. This makes the meal easy to reheat, assemble, and enjoy later.
Best Way To Reheat Tater Tots
The best way to reheat tots is in the oven at 350°F, on a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil. Similar to an oven-baked fried chicken recipe, using foil helps to crisp up the outside of the potatoes.
Love Easy Snacks? Here’s More…
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Tachos (Loaded Tater Tots)
Equipment
- large skillet
- small saucepan
- serving platter
Ingredients
- 28-32 ounces frozen tater tots
- 1 pound lean ground beef preferably 80/20 or 85/15
- 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) taco seasoning
- 1 ½ cups nacho cheese sauce homemade or store bought
- 1 large tomato seeded and diced
- 2 green onions thinly sliced
- 1 jalapeno pepper thinly sliced (See Notes)
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Optional Toppings
- sour cream
- guacamole
- crumbled Mexican cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- Arrange tater tots in a single layer on a baking sheet. Transfer the pan of tots to the preheated oven. Bake for 30 minutes, until dark golden and crispy, or per package directions.
- Meanwhile, place a large skillet over medium heat on the stovetop. Add ground beef to the skillet. Using a wooden or silicone spoon, brown the ground beef, using the spoon to break up the meat as it cooks. If necessary, drain any fat from the pan.
- Add taco seasoning to the pan; Using a wooden spoon, stir to combine seasoning with beef, then follow the package directions for preparing taco meat.
- Warm the cheese sauce in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until warmed through. If using store bought sauce, follow heating directions on the container.
- Assemble Tachos
- Arrange baked tater tots on a large serving platter. Spoon cooked ground beef evenly over top. Top with diced tomatoes and sliced green onions.
- Using a large tablespoon, drizzle tater tot nachos with cheese sauce, then top with jalapeno slices and chopped cilantro. Add your favorite garnishes on top. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Jalapenos – To decrease the spiciness of jalapeno peppers, remove the inner membrane and seeds. Optionally, bake the slices on a sheet pan at 400°F for 10 minutes. This will give the peppers a fantastic roasted flavor!
- Cheese Sauce – We recommend making our Velveeta cheese sauce recipe for the tachos, but any prepared cheese sauce will taste great.
- Because this dish has cold and hot ingredients, it really isn’t possible to reheat the loaded tater tots after you assemble them.
However, you can make extra, and then store the ingredients in your fridge in separate containers. This makes the meal easy to reheat, assemble, and enjoy later.
Best Way To Reheat Tater Tots
The best way to reheat tots is in the oven at 350°F, on a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil. Similar to an oven-baked fried chicken recipe, using foil helps to crisp up the outside of the potatoes.
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Shashi says
Such a fabulous idea! Im not a huge fan of nachos – but tater tots I adore so this has me drooling! Perfect for movie night!
Seema Sriram says
This is such cool name and my teens will be super duper happy to make these. So colourful.