Cracked-Out Chicken Tater Tot Casserole

 

 

How did we ever cook anything in the old days without the world wide web to inspire us.  I had only two cookbooks when I first started out (plus a host of clippings in my Big Blue Binder).  The Fanny Farmer Cooking School and Madame Benoit Cooks at home.

These days we have a wealth of recipes and cooking ideas at our fingertips to draw from.  I am always being inspired by something that I see.  Now there is only me however, I try to cut everything down to feed only one or two people.  I know I am not alone in having that need.

 

Unless I'm having company, full-sized recipes just don't cut it for me anymore.  But that doesn't mean I can't still be inspired by full-sized recipes.  The other day I saw a recipe for a Cracked-Out Chicken Tater Tot Casserole on a blog called Plain Chicken.

It looked great and sounded amazing. Of course, I did make a few adaptations to the size of it and how I put it together. In other words, I put my own twist on it.  I cut it down to feed only two, or maybe three people, depending on how hungry everyone is.

What you have here is a delicious casserole, perfectly sized for the smaller family, jammed with plenty of chicken, bacon, cheese, green beans (to be healthy) and a few other odds and sods, topped with delicious brown tater tots.

Baked until the filling is bubbling and gooey and those tater tots are crisp and golden brown. In short, what you have here is a chicken casserole that goes above and beyond a chicken casserole in a most delicious way!

 

The original recipe used twice as many tater tots and had them stirred into the chicken mixture. Soggy tater tots didn't impress me much and so I opted to pop them on top so that they stayed nice and crispy.

I also had a half a can of green beans which needed using and so I stirred them into the mix, along with some French-fried onions from the can. It's like the combination of a chicken casserole with a green bean casserole, all topped with tater tots and cheese.  In short, scrummy yummy!

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE CRACKED OUT CHICKEN TATER TOT CASSEROLE

This is a store cupboard dream of a casserole. Stir, spread, and bake.

 

• 1 cooked boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1/2 cup (60g) dairy sour cream
• 1/2 tin of condensed cream of chicken soup (freeze the remainder for another day)
• 1/2 TBS dry ranch dressing mix
• 2 slices of streaky bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
• 1/2 cup (120g) grated cheddar cheese, plus a few TBS to scatter on top
• 2 TBS crushed crispy salad onions (such as the French's)
• 1/2 can cut green beans, drained (freeze the remainder for another day)
• 20 frozen tater tots, unthawed

 

If you also have some leftover cooked ham, you could leave out the bacon and add the ham in its place. Then it would be like a chicken cordon blu casserole.  Sounds lush eh?

You don't have to use canned green beans, you could use thawed frozen, or even leftover cooked green beans. Don't like green beans? Use a vegetable that you do like and that you have, or any combination of vegetables. I can promise you it will still taste fabulous!!

 

    HOW TO MAKE CRACKED OUT CHICKEN TATER TOT CASSEROLE

This is truly easy peasy lemon squeasy. Trust me. I'm lazy and if I only have one baking dish to clean, so much the better.

Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a small casserole dish. Mine is about 6 by 8 inches. Set aside.

Mix together in a bowl, the chicken, sour cream, soup, dressing mix, bacon, cheese (except for the few TBS to sprinkle), green beans and crispy salad onions. Spread into the prepared casserole dish.

Lay the tater tots over top of the chicken mixture evenly.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Return to the oven for about 10 minutes. At the end of that time, it should be bubbly and golden brown. Serve hot.

 

All you need on the side is maybe a salad.  Crusty bread if you are really hungry.  This is truly delicious and such a simple thing to make.

If you are a fan of chicken casseroles, you may also like the following chicken casseroles:

GRANDMA'S CHINESE CHICKEN CASSEROLE - This is one of my all-time favorite chicken casseroles. I can't begin to tell you why it is called a Chinese casserole because there doesn't seem to be anything remotely Chinese about it. Not unless you count the crispy chow mien noodles and salted cashew nuts on top! Everything else reads like an ordinary chicken casserole!

CHICKEN AND DUMPLING CASSEROLE FOR TWO - This is a "just-like-magic" kind of an entree.  Almost like a pudding cake. You know the ones I mean . . .  the self-saucing ones, except this is not a sweet pudding, it's a savory delicious casserole, with a rich chicken filling and moreish dumpling topping that forms like magic while the casserole bakes.

Cracked Out Chicken Tater Tot Casserole

Yield: 2 - 3

Author: Marie Rayner

Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 45 MinTotal time: 50 Min

This is amazingly delicious. Sized perfectly for the smaller family. This is a lick your plate clean kind of a casserole.

Ingredients

• 1 cooked boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1/2 cup (60g) dairy sour cream
• 1/2 tin of condensed cream of chicken soup (freeze the remainder for another day)
• 1/2 TBS dry ranch dressing mix
• 2 slices of streaky bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
• 1/2 cup (120g) grated cheddar cheese, plus a few TBS to scatter on top
• 2 TBS crushed crispy salad onions (such as the French's)
• 1/2 can cut green beans, drained (freeze the remainder for another day)
• 20 frozen tater tots, unthawed

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a small casserole dish. Mine is about 6 by 8 inches. Set aside.
2. Mix together in a bowl, the chicken, sour cream, soup, dressing mix, bacon, cheese (except for the few TBS to sprinkle), green beans and crispy salad onions. Spread into the prepared casserole dish.
3. Lay the tater tots over top of the chicken mixture evenly.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Return to the oven for about 10 minutes. At the end of that time, it should be bubbly and golden brown.
5. Serve hot.

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