This Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole is easy to make and delicious. A quick and simple from scratch sloppy joe mixture is topped with cheese and tater tots for an easy recipe everyone loves!
Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole Recipe
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Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole combines ground beef with a zesty tomato sauce, topped with crisp tater tots and melted cheese. This is a quick and delicious meal for a busy weeknight and is perfect any time of the year!
My family loves sloppy joes and it is one of our staple ‘quick and easy’ meals! I knew that my family would love this recipe with the addition of tater tots! They absolutely devoured it!
The ingredients for the sloppy joes from scratch are simple and are items that you likely have on hand. In a pinch you can also use a sloppy joe mix, either in the dry mix variety or from a can like Manwich.
This Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole recipe starts with lean ground beef, onions and celery… you can add extra veggies in if you’d like to make this meal a little bit bigger. Mushrooms, canned corn, extra peppers or even diced zucchini are great additions! As with most recipes that use ground beef, you can substitute any ground meat including ground turkey in this recipe.
Casseroles are a one dish meal meaning clean up is simple at the end of the night and they can be prepared ahead of time and baked right before eating.
If you are lucky enough to have some leftovers simply cover the pan with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate. You can wash the pan the following night – even better!
If you’re feeding a hungry crowd, this Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole is the perfect dinner recipe that everyone agrees on!
Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 ribs celery chopped
- 1 (14 ounce can) tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar packed
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 (28 ounce bag) tater tot frozen potatoes
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.
- Brown the ground beef, onion and celery in a skillet. Drain any fat.
- Add the tomato sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and salt to the browned beef and onion mixture. Stir to combine and let simmer covered about 5 minutes.
- Pour the meat mixture into the prepared pan. Top with half of the cheese. Top the meat mixture with the frozen tater tot potatoes and remaining cheese.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes or until bubbly and tater tots are browned.
Video
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
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This Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole is just great when served with cornbread because the flavors really complement each other. Add a side tossed salad or cole slaw, and you have made a quick meal that you can easily prepare even after a full day at work! You’ll be pleasantly surprised by this Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole that’s actually fun to make! You and your household will be thrilled with how wonderful it tastes — so enjoy!
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The instructions don’t say where to add the brown sugar. I guessed and the recipe came out fine. Just a little side note
Thank you Madison, updated! Glad you enjoyed the casserole!
This sounds incredible, but b/c we have an elderly relative with health issues residing w/us, I always have to make our dinners as healthy as possible. In this case, I used 90/10% ground sirloin, low sodium tomato sauce, and low sodium Worcestershire sauce. We love the new “Green Giant Broccoli Tater Tots”, so I used them instead of the original ones which were called for in this recipe. I hope these minor changes & suggestions will help anyone out there, who is (also) in our position, and caring for a loved one w/health issues. Also, you can always have a salt shaker on the table, for anyone who doesn’t have to monitor their sodium intake. Try using a salt substitute called “Nu-Salt”. It’s much better than the other salt subs out there. It doesn’t have that ‘aftertaste’ which “Morton’s” has. Trust me, since I’ve tried them all. Healthy eating, everyone!
THESE SOUNDS GREAT!!!!
Hi how are you when I saw this picture I posted it over a month ago because I thought what a very different recipe and had been wanting to make it so I finally did just about an hour ago how it think it needs a little more salt and pepper but other that it was OK thanks for sharing this recipe I will make it again and add a little more salt and pepper and to top it off maybe garnish with some green onions
Can someone please tell me if the Tater Tots are frozen or thawed, when placing on top of beef mixture. Would live to try this recipe. Thank you in advance.
After reading this recipe and the time for it to cook in the oven I would say the tater puffs are frozen when placed in the oven .
Yes you’re right John, the tater tots are frozen as noted in instruction 4. Thank you for helping out a fellow reader!
This sounds so good. Thinking about making tomorrow night.
Hi Susan,
I hope you’ve found your answer. Yes, gems will work. As for the sloppy joes, go to allrecipies.com, they have some good ones there, made from scratch and easy to make. Late response….sorry!
Do you think this would work in a crock pot? I wonder how long I should cook it?
I live in Australia can you tell me what a can of sloppy joes is or what I can substitute it with also we don’t have tatter tots but we have potatoe gems I am assuming these are the same thing
Thank you
Looks like this will be a kid favorite. I found a recipe on the Kraft website calling for double of everything but still 1 lb of the tater tots. Pick which recipe for your needed number of servings.
Kraft Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 cans Manwich Sloppy Joe Sauce
add: corn or green pepper or diced tomato or onion
2 C Kraft Shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided
1 pound Ore-Ida Tater Tots
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Brown & drain hamburger. Mix in the sloppy joe sauce. Add 1C cheese.
Place this mixture into a 9×13 baking dish. Place the tater tots on top.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Put rest of cheese over the tater tots and bake until cheese is melted.
We use mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar instead of canned sloppy joe mix. No exact measurements, but more ketchup, followed by a little less mustard and then even less brown sugar 🙂
This was the way my MOM made it, when I first saw Manwich I tried got to do that, my sons looked at me and said “really MOM” and through it in the trash, That is the only way I will ever make, I learned a lesson my Mom and Sons are right:)
Thank you sons! 🙂
Love your recipes
I just made this. The picture looked like Southern style hash -browns were used (at least that’s what they call them in Iowa…they are the small cubes of ‘tater), rather than Tater Tots, and that’s what I happened to have in the freezer, so I used them. I also had fresh-frozen sweet corn, so I put that in the microwave and thawed it prior to adding. I put the hash browns on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet to thaw/cook until they were just warm and firming up. (I did this since the Tater Tots are partially cooked when you get them) I sprayed the top of the hash browns with cooking oil spray to help them brown. Wow…long message! Anyway, the dish was great!
Tried this today… I cut up some tomatoes, half an onion, and a whole green pepper and put that in instead of the corn. I also used Italian blend cheese, it came out REALLY good!!! My boyfriend says file this under the keep pile lol
Hi
It looks delicious, perfect for a cold rainy or snowy day.
But, what can I use instead of this can of Slppy Joe Mix? And what exactly are tatter tots.
Thanks
Annie
This looks so good. Can’t wait to try it 🙂
Do you serve it with anything? Like on a bun or chips or something? Or just eat it like that?
I want to eat good and save money.
Recipes are great when your in a hurry.
Love your recipes
I love the receipes
grese the bottom with what ( pam spary)