cheesy hamburger tater tot casserole recipe

In this dish, we used Cabot Creamery Cooperative’s Seriously Sharp Cheddar Cheese. Certainly you can cook it on the Traeger year-round and there’s nothing as comforting as a hotdish casserole when the weather starts to turn too. While we’re still in the midst of a stretch of hot summer weather, this dish will come in perfectly for fall which is just around the corner.

You get the best of all the Traeger qualities in this cook– smoked, seared, and baked– and the end result is a perfect dish for dinner with your family. Put the whole thing in the Traeger and cook it in a 350* grill until hot throughout and the cheese is melted and bubbly. Once the filling is cooked (the beef and veggies, mixed with the soup and sour cream), top the mixture with an even layer of frozen tater tots and a hearty dose of shredded cheese.

Once the pan is searing hot, you will be able to cook the beef effectively in the Traeger, and the result means you have less mess to clean up and wood-fired flavor added to your food. This can be accomplished without the new Timberline XL– simply place a cast iron pan in the Traeger on high heat and let it get super hot. This is great, not only because it is fun and different, but also because it makes cleanup a breeze, eliminates the need to heat up the kitchen in the summer, and also is a way to impress your friends and family at dinner.īy first smoking the beef on the Traeger for 20-30 minutes before cooking it, you are imparting some great wood-fired flavor in the food. By using the new induction burner alongside the grill, the steps of cooking portions inside are eliminated and instead everything can be done on the grill. As evidenced by this recipe, you can now smoke, saute and bake on the Traeger with ease. PRIMARY INGREDIENTSĬheesy tater tot casserole ingredients WHY COOKING TATER TOT CASSEROLE ON THE TRAEGER WORKSĬooking on the Traeger is not reserved only for grilling and BBQ.

We also sauteed the mirepoix on the induction burner, and could easily have cooked the beef in the same pan, at the same time, to cut down on a step. The induction burner makes it possible to cook the entire thing outside on the grill– which makes cooking in the heat of the summer a breeze. Just that small amount of time affords the meat an extra layer of flavor, which really amplifies the dish.įor this recipe, we used the Traeger Timberline XL’s new induction burner to cook up the beef. We simply placed the entire pound of ground beef on a cookie sheet, seasoned it lightly with Garlic Junkie seasoning and placed the tray in the Traeger at 225* with the super smoke feature. To add to the wood-fired flavor of the dish, we began by smoking the ground beef on the Traeger for about 20 minutes. For an added umph to our casserole, we added a generous layer of shredded Cabot Creamery Cooperative cheddar cheese. We took the most traditional route possible– using ground beef, cream of chicken soup and frozen tater tots. Most traditionally, it seems that hotdishes are really tater tot casseroles, topped with frozen tater tots. Certainly there are a lot of ways to make a hotdish your own– from the type of meat used or on hand to the flavor of soup or the ingredients you select as a topping. The main ingredients are simple: meat, canned soup and toppings. When you look up “hotdish” on Google, you find a lot of recipes for this iconic regional casserole. And it certainly was! Finished tater tot casserole WHAT’S A HOTDISH? Partially inspired by the amazing ground beef we had on hand, and partially inspired by the fact that our twins could eat tater tots at every meal, we thought our version of Cheesy Tater Tot Casserole, baked on the Traeger, would result in a delicious meal. Living in Colorado, we don’t have such a culinary tradition (honestly, Colorado has very few culinary traditions or styles), so we thought we’d try something different when making dinner recently. In the midwest, “hotdish” is a common potluck offering that families enjoy.

Cheesy hamburger tater tot casserole recipe