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Chili Dog Tater Tot Casserole is a super quick dinner recipe with only a 5 minute prep time! It's also extremely easy on the budget, so try this one out when your looking for an easy, cheap dinner to make. Kids love this casserole too!
How Is This Chili Dog Tater Tot Casserole So Amazing?
80% of the time I try to cook mostly healthy food and meals for my family, but every now and then I just want something bad. I think that you need to indulge every once in a while, or you may just go off the deep end!
This Is A Casserole Kids Love!
Well, this is definitely one of those meals that is not so healthy, but it's oh so good! This is also another casserole that kids love, so that makes it a winner in our house. Anything to get my boy to eat!
This Is A Super Quick Dinner! 5 Minute Prep Time!
The other thing that I love about this is, it seriously is SO quick to make. Five minutes to put this together, and pop it in the oven and you're done! How easy is that?
The Making of a Hot Dog Casserole Recipe
I created this Chili Dog Tater Tot Casserole (aka Chili Cheese Dog Casserole by my son) since one of my fave bad foods to eat is the Chili Cheese Dog from Sonic. Oh, and also their Chili Cheese Tots. I actually found a canned chili that tastes identical to the one at Sonic, so that's what I used in this recipe. You can find it here.
But Wal-Mart does also sell it significantly cheaper.
Canned Chili or Leftover Chili - You Have Options!
If you don't like the idea of canned chili, and if you're looking for ideas for leftover chili, this would be the perfect way to use that up! This is also the answer to your question about what to do with leftover hot dogs! Leftover chili and leftover hot dogs repurposed! Win!
Even though this hot dog and tater tot casserole is beyond simple, below are step by step pictures of how to get this recipe ready in 5 minutes.
Easy To Follow Instructions
Preheat your oven to 425°F.
One thing I do highly recommend doing before putting the casserole together is precooking the tater tots. I like them to be extra crispy. You can either dump them in the casserole pan and precook them in the oven, or I like to crisp them up in the air fryer. It's much quicker. Either way will work. If you don't want crispy tater tots, you can skip this step.
First, I used a 9x13 baking pan. This one is my absolute favorite to use
for casseroles, as it's truly one of the only ones I have found to be nonstick. I don't use anything to grease the pan, but if yours isn't so nonstick, use some nonstick spray or butter to grease the pan.
Dump in all the tater tots in a single layer. Then top with the chopped hot dogs, then the chili, then the shredded cheese.
One thing I like to add is, please get the block cheese and shred it yourself. It really only takes a minute or two. They put some weird ingredients in the pre-shredded cheese to keep it from clumping together, and we don't need that in our bodies.
Bake casserole for 20 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is thoroughly melted.
You can also add any toppings you like to the finished casserole. I like chopped fresh onions, sauerkraut and jalapeños. YUM!
Chili Dog Tater Tot Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 pounds frozen tater tots
- 10 hot dogs sliced
- 20 ounces hot dog chili canned
- 8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Prepare a 9"x13" casserole dish. If your dish is not nonstick, spray the pan with cooking spray.
- If you like your tater tots crispy, precook them before adding to casserole dish. You can bake them in the oven according to the package instructions, or cook them in an air fryer for about 10 minutes.
- Add tater tots to the casserole dish. Top with sliced hot dogs. Top with chil. Top with shredded cheddar cheese.
- Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted and bubbly.
Notes
Nutrition
If you're looking for some other quick, easy dinner options, check out some of my other casserole recipes. Enjoy!
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