Tater Tot Casserole Freezer Meal
This Tater Tot Casserole Freezer Meal is classic comfort food you can make ahead and freeze. Tasty ground beef is layered with cheese and crispy tots to create an irresistible family favorite meal! It’s one easy recipe!
If you have a busy family, you know the virtues of freezer meals, or you need to know them!
This Tater Tot Casserole is one of our favorite easy meals from the freezer. I grew up eating this and still LOVE it! Let’s make and store a delicious Tater Tot Casserole Freezer Meal so you can grab it when things are a little crazy, and dinner needs to get on the table!
Make sure to try our incredible Cheeseburger Tater Tot Casserole too!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This yummy Tater Tot Casserole is one of our favorite freezer meals because:
- It’s real COMFORT FOOD the whole family loves.
- It’s a GREAT RECIPE FOR PICKY EATERS. The tots, cheese, and ground beef come together perfectly and are mild in flavor!
- COOK ONCE AND EAT AT LEAST TWICE. The recipe is so easy. Mix up a double or triple batch of the meat mixture and layer with tater tots and cheese, so you cook once and eat many times.
Here is the base recipe for Tater Tot Casserole you will need. We also like this Slow Cooker Tater Tot Casserole that’s easy and delicious!
Ingredient Notes
- Ground Beef – we like a 90/10 ground beef to fat ratio, but an 80/20 blend also works. Ground turkey is also an option.
- Onion – diced to give the meat mixture a good flavor. For picky eaters, it can be left out.
- Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup – we like to use Campbell’s. In a pinch, you can use cream of chicken canned soup.
- Milk – low-fat or whatever you have on hand. You can also substitute sour cream.
- Worcestershire Sauce – gives the dish enhanced flavor.
- Cheddar Cheese – freshly grated is best. Mild or sharp cheese will work.
- Frozen Tater Tots – the star of the recipe!
- Salt and Pepper – to taste.
If you add a cup of green beans or corn to your meat mixture, you’ll have a complete meal.
PRO TIP: Use the Cascadian Farms brand for a cleaner version of Tater Tots. It doesn’t seem to have the preservatives as many regular versions.
Ritika
Freezing a Tater Tot Casserole
The way we prefer to store a Tater Tot Casserole in the freezer is as an assembled casserole. However, there are a couple more options below that also work well for meal prep.
Simply follow the Tater Tot Recipe and before you place it in the oven, cover it with plastic wrap and then foil and place it in the freezer. You always want to make sure you prevent freezer burn so your casserole tastes great.
You can freeze and simply reheat leftover tater tot casserole in disposable aluminum pans or a casserole dish.
Tips & Tricks
- If you freeze this meal for future use, make sure to label it appropriately. If stored in an aluminum pan, cover with plastic wrap and aluminum foil to seal properly and label and date.
- Because this recipe contains tater tots that are best when kept frozen, we don’t recommend taking the casserole out of the freezer to defrost overnight if it isn’t cooked first.
FAQs
Yes, tater tot casserole freezes well, either baked or unbaked. You can either meal-prep several batches of the meat mixture, cheese, and tater tots or freeze it as a whole casserole. Please see the recipe card for instructions on how to do each method.
This is a common question. If sealed and stored correctly in an airtight container, this make-ahead Freezer Meal lasts for up to 4 months in the freezer. It’s great. There is always something in the freezer that’s easy to pull out for dinner!
How to Reheat a Freezer Meal
To cook, remove the casserole from the freezer, take off the plastic wrap/foil/lid, and place it in the oven at 350 degrees F. for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
To get a nice crisp on top, you can turn the oven to broil and cook a few minutes longer.
The crispy bits are the best!
Alternative Ways to Freeze Tater Tot Casserole
These alternatives to making and then freezing Tater Tot Casserole also work well, especially if you are making more than one batch at a time. Choose the one that best fits your cooking style.
1. How to Store casserole UNASSEMBLED in Freezer:
- Brown the meat and onion in a large skillet. Work in batches if necessary. Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir in the Cream of Mushroom Soup, milk, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Divide proportionally into bags (for instance, divide into four bags if you make four batches).
- Now, divide the cheese into four other bags.
- Divide the tater tots into four more bags.
- Label and date all bags.
- Rubberband one ground beef mixture with one cheese bag and tater tot bag together and freeze.
- The day before you want to serve, take out one bag of meat and one bag of cheese and thaw them in the fridge.
- Lightly grease a casserole dish with a paper towel dipped in olive oil or cooking spray.
- Pour in the meat/soup mixture, and top with half of the cheese.
- Top with the frozen tater tots and remaining cheese.
- Bake uncovered at 425º F for 25 minutes.
2. How to PRE-BAKE Casserole to Freeze:
- Brown the meat and onion in a large skillet. Work in batches if necessary. Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir in the Cream of Mushroom Soup, milk, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Lightly grease however many baking pans you are using with a paper towel dipped in olive oil or use cooking spray.
- Fill each dish with meat mixture, then half of the cheese, then tater tots, and the rest of the cheese on top of the casserole.
- Bake at 400º F for 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.
- Remove from the oven. Let cool slightly. Cover with airtight lids or foil to seal.
- Place the partially baked casseroles in the refrigerator to cool the rest of the way. When they are no longer hot, place them in the freezer. Once they are frozen solid, you can pop them out of their pans, so you can use the pan while the casserole is in the freezer. Wrap in foil or plastic wrap, or use a large zipper freezer bag. Don’t forget to label it.
To serve: Remove the wrap from one of the casseroles, replace it in its original baking pan, and place the frozen casserole in the fridge to thaw overnight. Turn the oven on to 400º F and bake for 15 – 20 minutes.
How long to cook from frozen: 1 hour before you wish to serve it, place the casserole in a cold oven and turn it on to 300º F. Bake for 1 hour. Then turn the oven to broil setting and cook for a few more minutes to get a nice crisp on top.
What to Serve with Tater Tot Casserole
So many things go with tater tot casserole. Here are some of our favorites
- green salad
- roasted Brussels sprouts
- green beans
- roasted carrots
- steamed broccoli or cauliflower
- roasted asparagus
More Easy Dinner Casseroles:
Love this Tater Tot Casserole Freezer Meal recipe? Please leave a 5 star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below ⬇️ and/or a review in the comment section further down.
Hungry for more? Follow Suburban Simplicity on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest to see more DIYs, recipes, and home tips!
Also, don’t forget to sign up for email!
I only send one email a week, and it’ll include my latest recipes, DIYs, and tips, information about exclusive “email only” giveaways, and more! See form below!
Want to subscribe to the Suburban Simplicity Recipe Club? It’s only $5 per month, and you’ll get ad-free PDFs of any new recipes that I post while supporting me at the same time! Join the club, here.
Tater Tot Casserole Freezer Meal
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef, or turkey
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 10.75 ounce can Campbell’s® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
- ½ cup milk, low-fat or full-fat
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, mild or sharp
- 3 cups frozen Tater Tots
- salt and pepper, to taste
Equipment
- Aluminum Foil
Instructions
- In a large skillet, brown the meat and onion. Work in batches if you need to—season with salt and pepper. Pour off any fat.
- Stir in the Cream of Mushroom Soup, milk, and Worcestershire sauce. (Add green beans if using.)
- Lightly grease however many baking pans you are using with a paper towel dipped in olive oil or use cooking spray.
- Fill each dish with meat mixture, then half of the cheese, then tater tots, and the rest of the cheese on top of the casserole.
- Bake at 400º F for 20 minutes until the top is almost golden brown.
- Remove from the oven. Let cool slightly. Cover with airtight lids or foil to seal.
- Place the partially baked casseroles in the refrigerator to cool the rest of the way. When it is no longer hot, place them in the freezer. Once they are frozen solid, you can pop them out of their pans, so you can use the pan while the casserole is in the freezer. Wrap in foil or plastic wrap, or use a large zipper freezer bag. Don't forget to label it.
- TO COOK AFTER FREEZING: Remove the wrap from one of the casseroles, replace it in its original baking pan, and place the frozen casserole in the fridge to thaw overnight. Turn the oven on to 400º F and bake for 15 – 20 minutes.TO COOK FROM FROZEN: 1 hour before you wish to serve it, place the casserole in a cold oven and turn it on to 300º F. Bake for 1 hour. Then turn the oven to broil setting and cook for a few more minutes to get a nice crisp on top. Check to make sure the center is hot before serving.
Notes
- How to Store casserole UNASSEMBLED in Freezer
- In a large skillet, brown the meat and onion. Work in batches if you need to—season with salt and pepper.
- Stir in the Cream of Mushroom Soup, milk, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Divide proportionally into bags (for instance, divide into four bags if you make four batches).
- Now, divide the cheese into four other bags.
- Divide the tater tots into four more bags.
- Label and date all bags.
- Rubberband one ground beef mixture with one cheese bag and tater tot bag together and freeze.
- To Cook:
- The day before you want to serve, take out one bag of meat and one bag of cheese and thaw them in the fridge.
- Lightly grease a casserole dish with a paper towel dipped in olive oil or cooking spray.
- Pour in the meat/soup mixture, and top with half of the cheese.
- Top with the frozen tater tots and remaining cheese.
- Bake uncovered at 425º F for 25 minutes.
I made this recipe to freeze to have post-partum, but while making it I was using 9×13 disposable pans, and I cooked 2.25 lbs of 85/15 beef (just what my grocery store had) with plans to make two dishes – but separating the filling mixture in two I barely had enough to even cover the bottom of the pans – was there something I missed? I ended up just making one. Still, very excited to have this meal ready to make later!
Great feedback, Ellen. I’ll have to remake this recipe and adjust, if you didn’t have enough beef to cover the pans. I hope the one pan still turned out delicious!
I am not sure if this is an active recipe, so I don’t know if you’ll see this—but do you happen to have a fluid or weight measurement for approximately how much each bag of the meat mixture should contain per casserole? (If that makes sense…)
I don’t want to just guess putting it in bags and end up having to redistribute them to each other and all that, ideally. If that’s the method, that’s fine though!
Hi Millie, If I understand your question right, you’re asking how much meat to put in each bag. If your using a pound of ground beef per recipe, the bags should be just over a pound when placing them in the individual freezer containers. If you’re asking another question, please let me know.
Yum – my family went crazy. Everyone asking when I’m going to make this again. Thanks for a great recipe.
So glad your family loved the recipe, Melissa. You can never go wrong with tater tots!
this is amazing and I love this recipe so much! thank you so much for sharing this delicious recipe
Glad it worked so well for you, Jess. We love making casseroles with tater tots because they’re so good!
My family loves this!! Tater tots are their favorite!! When I make this, I like to make two, so that I could take it to someone.
I’m confused about the pre-bake method. Toward the end of the article, you say “To Serve [the frozen pre-baked hotdish]: . . . Place in a cold oven turned to 400° for 15-20 mins.” But then it says “If cooking from frozen” to bake at a lower temp for an hour.
So do I need to thaw it first in order to do the 15-20 min option or are you just giving two different heating options?
OR is it just 5 am and I don’t know how to read yet? Lol
We updated the instructions so hopefully, it’s more clear. Yes, the 15-20 minute option does require you to thaw it first. Enjoy the recipe!
I am making several tater tot casseroles for an exchange. Could you add all the layers and not bake the tater tots? In other words add frozen tater tots to the top and then wrap and freeze?
If you do it quickly, Leah, that should be fine. If they thaw, I don’t think it would work as well.