Tater Tot Sausage Casserole
An all-in-one breakfast casserole everyone loves. Make some blueberry muffins on the side, and voilà!
I've written about this before, but it irks me that there are food bloggers out there where it becomes obvious, once you attempt their recipe, they never actually made it themselves. Case in point here, with a recipe inspired by a website called thesouthernladycooks. This is an enormous casserole, easily able to feed 6-8 hungry people, using 2 pounds of Tater Tots, 2 pounds of sausage and nearly a dozen eggs, yet the author steadfastly insisted all of this and more will fit into a 9" x 13" baking dish. Nope! I had to change cooking vessels mid-stream, and altered the recipe to add more eggs. You need a 10" x 15" Pyrex casserole dish at the very least, the kind that is about 2" high.
By the way, Tater Tots have an interesting history, having been introduced to the public in 1954 at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, the same year that hotel opened. Tater Tots literally started the Ore-Ida company as a means to use leftover slivers of potatoes created during the production of French Fries. It is a story of pure capitalism, making two Mormon brothers immensely wealthy once the company was purchased by Heinz in 1965 for $30 million, which would be over a quarter-billion dollars in today's money. There is nothing more iconically American than a Tater Tot.
This is an all-in-one breakfast casserole requiring little else for a hearty, satisfying meal, but I served some blueberry muffins to my overnight guests as a little something to nosh on while waiting out the 75-minute cooking time. I also used Jimmy Dean pre-cooked sausage crumbles to make my life all that much easier. You can substitute 2 16-oz rolls of sausage, cooked and crumbled.
Tater Tot Casserole
Ingredients
- 32-oz bag of Tater Tots, frozen (no need to thaw them)
- 3 9.6-oz bags of pre-cooked sausage crumbles (like, Jimmy Dean)
- 1 cup whole milk (or substitute 3/4 cup 1-2% milk and 1/4 cup heavy cream)
- 10 eggs
- 1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup (like, Campbell's)
- 1- 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (either mild or sharp as you prefer)
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- non-stick cooking spray (like, Pam Butter-Flavored)
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.
- Treat a 10" x 15" Pyrex casserole baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the Tater Tots, sausage, and both shredded cheeses. Toss to combine and put the contents into the baking dish.
- In the same mixing bowl, whisk the eggs together until blended. Then, add the soup, milk, garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper. Whisk again to combine all into a homogeneous blend.
- Pour the egg mixture over the entire casserole.
- Shake the baking dish to even out the ingredients and ensure the egg mixture is thoroughly combined with the dry ingredients.
- Bake uncovered in the top 1/3 of your oven for 65-75 minutes or until the eggs have set.
Notes
- If you're cooking in altitudes above 5,000 feet, pre-heat the oven to 365°F and increase cooking time to 75-85 minutes.
