- Prep Time: 15 min.
- Cook Time: 1 hour 40 min.
- Yield: 24 tater tots
About Cheddar Jalapeño Tater Tots
These cheesy, zesty potato morsels are delicious accompaniments to hamburgers, steaks, meatloaf, or alongside Macaroni and Cheese for grilled chicken.
Good restaurant tater tots contain minuscule cubes of potato for a lovey texture, so this recipe is a tad more tedious than recipes that call for shredding the potatoes. The latter lends more of a hash brown texture.
There is no filler or gluten-containing ingredient in this recipe. As I was pondering how to make the “glue” to keep the tater tots together and wanting to avoid wheat flour, I realised that the starches from mashed potatoes would work perfectly. So, I divided the potatoes.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of Yukon gold potatoes
- 3 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 small jalapeño pepper, minced
- 1 handful of fresh chives, minced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ¼ cup minced fresh dill
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- ½ teaspoon granulated garlic
- ½ teaspoon granulated onion
- ¼ teaspoon Hungarian paprika
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- ¼ cup milk
- Canola cooking spray
- ½ tablespoon minced parsley
Instructions
- Slice the potatoes very thinly into half-moon slivers. Boil generously salted water over medium-high heat, add the potato slivers, stir, and par boil for 10 minutes. The potatoes should be firm but white and no longer transparent.
- With a spoon, drain 2/3 of the potato slices into a colander and let cool completely. Rinse with cold water if necessary.
- Return the remaining 1/3 of potatoes, with the water, to boil until completely cooked and of mashing consistency, about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, stack up the par-cooked potato slices and cut them into very small cubes. Place the cubes into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Crumble the cheddar cheese by hand into the bowl. Add the jalapeño, chives, garlic, dill, sea salt, pepper, granulated garlic, granulated onion, and paprika. Set aside.
- Drain the fully-cooked potatoes. Add them back to the pot, then add the butter and milk. Simmer for 5 minutes until the butter, milk, and potatoes form a homogeneous mixture.
- Form oblong fingers of the tater-tot mixture, compressing well. Place each tater tot on a foil-lined baking sheet that has been coated with cooking spray. Allow ½ inch between.
- Bake for 1 ¼ hours until golden. Remove from the oven, garnish with the parsley, allow to cool for 5 minutes, and serve.
- Tomato ketchup, buttermilk ranch dressing, and sour cream with chives all make great dipping accompaniments.
- Serve Tater Tots with your favourite baked or grilled proteins. They complete a meal of roasted or grilled chicken, grilled beef steaks, shake-n-bake pork chops, or hamburgers.
