Cheeseburger Tater Tot Cups
These mini cheeseburger tater tot cups are crispy one bite tater tot cups filled with cheeseburger and topped with Big Mac sauce. They are an easy appetizer for your game day party!
I’ll admit I’m a tater tot fanatic. If I find a place with tater tots on the menu they are instantly my new favorite restaurant. Tater tots are little, crisp, golden, bites of potato deliciousness!
These delicious cheeseburger tater tot cups are like wrapping your cheeseburger up in french fries. Are you drooling yet?!
This is one of the best game day foods! Serve it alongside one of our slider recipes and some crispy chicken wings and air fryer nachos while you cheer your team on.
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Ingredients You’ll Need
Cheeseburger Tater Tots:
- Frozen Tater Tots – Any brand will do!
- Ground beef – We use 80/20 ground beef. Make sure to drain off the excess liquid after cooking!
- Onion – a small onion, preferably yellow or white.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper are the only seasonings you’ll need for your ground beef.
- Condiments – Mayonnaise, yellow mustard, ketchup, and pickle relish all come together to give the ground beef that burger flavor.
- Cheddar cheese – Shredded cheddar cheese is out go-to for burgers but you can use any cheese you like.
- Mini Pickles – Tiny pickled that are usually found with the condiments and other jarred, pickled foods such as pickled onions, artichoke hearts, and roasted red pepper.
Big Mac Sauce:
- Condiments – Mayonnaise, yellow mustard, and pickle relish give this special sauce it’s bold flavor.
- White wine vinegar – this vinegar is slightly less sharp than straight white viengar and we think it gives the sauce a more pleasant flavor.
- Seasoning – Paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder
How to Make Big Mac Sauce
- Step 1 – Combine. Place all ingredients in a bowl and whish together. It’s that easy!
How to Make Cheeseburger Tater Tots
Step 1 – Prepare oven. Preheat oven to 425°F.
Step 2 – Cook meat. Brown ground beef in a skillet over medium high heat. Once meat has browned drain the grease then add beef and onions back to the skillet and cook until the onions have softened.
Step 3 – Add condiments and seasoning. Add mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, and pickle relish to the ground beef and stir to combine. Salt and pepper to taste.
Step 4 – Prepare pan. Grease a mini muffin pan and place three tater tots in each cup. Bake for 10 minutes.
Step 5 – Create cups. After 10 minutes remove the muffin pan from the oven and use a tamper to press the tater tots down into each cup. This will create a tater tot cup.
Step 6 – Fill. Fill the tater tots with the ground beef mixture and top with cheddar cheese.
Step 7 – Bake cups. Place the tater tots back in the oven and cook for another 15 minutes.
Step 8 – Cool. When the Cheeseburger tots come out of the oven let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes or so, then gently remove them from the pan and place them on a serving tray.
Step 9 – Garnish and serve. Drizzle the special sauce over the cheeseburger tots and top with mini pickle slices. Serve and enjoy!
More Tater Tot Recipes:
- Taco Tater Tot Bites
- Loaded Tater Tot Bites
- Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Tots
- Ham and Cheese Tater Tot Skewers
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Cheeseburger Tots
Ingredients
Cheeseburger Tots
- 48 Frozen Tater Tots
- 1 pound Ground beef
- 1/2 cup Finely diced onion
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons Mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons Yellow mustard
- 2 tablespoons Ketchup
- 2 tablespoons Pickle relish
- 1 cup Shredded cheddar cheese
- 24 Mini Pickles for garnish
Special Sauce
- 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
- 4 tablespoons Pickle relish
- 2 tablespoons Yellow mustard
- 1 teaspoon White wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Onion powder
- 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Brown ground beef in a skillet over medium high heat. Once meat has browned drain the grease then add beef and onions back to the skillet and cook until the onions have softened.
- Add mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, and pickle relish to the ground beef and stir to combine. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Grease a mini muffin pan and place three tater tots in each cup. Bake for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes remove the muffin pan from the oven and use a tamper to press the tater tots down into each cup. This will create a tater tot cup.
- Fill the tater tots with the ground beef mixture and top with cheddar cheese.
- Place the tater tots back in the oven and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Remove the cheeseburger tots from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin pan.
- While the cheeseburger tots cool mix together all of the special sauce ingredients.
- Drizzle the special sauce over the cheeseburger tots and top with mini pickle slices. Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Wholy Mard! The is some good stuff!
LOL, thank you thank you! Love hearing that about our recipes.
I want to make these for an upcoming game night…do you know if I could make them ahead of time (like the night before and just pop them in the oven before everyone gets there?)? Any advice would be so appreciated 🙂 Thank you!
I think that would work. Let us know how they turn out!
Did you try making them ahead and if so did it work?
No we did not. When we remake them for tailgating, I will let you know!
I made these last night and the taste is amazing. I did however have a difficult time getting them out of the muffin tin. The tater tots were not as crispy as I had hoped and kind of fell apart when removed. Any ideas?
You could try spraying the muffin tin before. We didn’t find that we needed to but I would suggest letting them cool for a couple of minutes before trying to pull them out. They firm up more as they cool. If they weren’t as crisp as you would like you could bake 10 minutes, use the tamper to form the cup, then bake for another 5-7 minutes or so THEN add the cheeseburger mixture and finish baking according to the recipe. That would give them just a little more time to cook and crisp before they are filled with meat. Let me know if you try it again!
Mine were delicious but soggy too. Going to try the extra cooking time for the squished tots.
You can try putting the tot cups (before they are filled) back in the oven for 5-7 minutes then take them out and fill them and proceed with the rest of the recipe. Hope that helps!
Hey! I just wanted to let you know that someone stole this recipe and is messaging people on Pinterest to repin it: http://worldtruthmagazine365(dot)com/2017/01/cheeseburger-tots/
Thanks so much for letting us know!
This Is a silly question but what is a tamper? Looks like a great appetizer for the Super Bowl!
Not silly at all. We linked to one in the post because we know not everyone has one (or knows what it is called if they do!). If you don’t have one handy you can also use a small shot glass or anything that is slightly smaller than the opening of the mini muffin tin so you can press the tater tots down and they will form a cup shape. If you’re looking for something even easier that has the same great taste try our https://www.homemadeinterest.com/loaded-cheeseburger-fries/
Do you use dill pickle relish or sweet relish?
I used dill pickle relish
This recipe looks great. I can’t find a mini muffin pan with 16 cups. Will it work with a 24 cup pan? Thanks!!
Sure! It is 3 tots per cup so just add a few more 🙂 I think you will have plenty of filling as is
including this in my post tomorrow xox
These look amazing. Can they be made ahead and frozen and then reheated? Thinking of making them SuperBowl Sunday would rather have them ready to serve and not making while guests are here. Or prep, keep cool them
Then cook.
Hi Mary, we haven’t tried making them ahead and freezing but I’m not sure it would work very well. If you would like to make them ahead of time the best thing I can suggest is making the meat mixture ahead of time and the sauce ahead of time. You should definitely reheat the meat before stuffing the tots later. I would partially bake the tots ahead of time then stuff and finish baking before guests arrive. Turn off the oven and leave them in it to stay warm. Just a thought since we haven’t tried making them ahead of time
I made them without special sauce and froze them…the reheat at 375 for about 15 minutes were amazing actually crisper…
Thanks so much for taking the time to write and tell us! I’ve had a few people ask if they could be reheated and I really appreciate you letting us know it worked for you. Glad you enjoyed them!
I’m making this today!!! So excited!!! Thanks for posting. I’m always up for fixing new dishes!!
Hope you liked them!
I veganized these after Nikki Limo made these on her YouTube channel. They were fantastic. That special sauce is delish!
That is awesome! So glad you liked them and thanks for telling us about the video! 🙂
These were a hit! Two things to note, the sauce made way too much for the amount of “burgers” the recipe made- may want to cut half at the least! Second, they are really really good hot- but after an hour when people came back to munch on more (SuperBowl Party) they didn’t think the tasted as yummy cold- so either gobble them up right away or note they may want to be rewarded in the microwave or something if they have coooled off. Killer recipe and one I will definitely keep and use again and again!
Used the tater tot crust for EnerG egg replacer quiche egg mix with chorizo and cheese. Big hit for family!
Thanks for the idea :0)
Love this! Sounds delicious. I love anything with chorizo!
Made these for dinner and they are the bombdotcom! I put the squished tots back in the oven for 5 minutes before adding the meat & cheese and they turned out nice and crispy. ????????
Love! Love! Love!
So glad you liked them!!
I soooo look forward to making these !!! :). But, I must have a different idea on what a mini-muffin tin is, cuz mine would only hold 1 tot in each spot , if I used it. I will use my regular size muffin tin, cuz that would hold 3 tots at a time and I will post on how it turns out. ????
It is definitely a mini muffin tin. 3 won’t be enough for a regular size muffin tin. The three tots should crowd into a mini muffin tin and then when you press them down it is enough excess to go up the sides and make a cup. That won’t happen with three in a regular muffin tin.
Is there something else I can use if I don’t have a tamper?
shot glass? Anything that won’t stick and fits into the hole will work.
I made these for a party. I’ve never had an app disappear so fast. I followed the instructions strictly. I might pre-cook them a little longer next time just so they are crisper, but everything was wonderful.
So glad they were a hit! I just made them again the other day and that secret sauce is so good!!
I made the cheeseburger tatot tots for a party. I wish I had made a test batch first!
I found that the tator tots did not stay in the form of a cup that held up after I filled them with burger mix and cooked them another 15 minutes. The whole thing fell apart as soon as I tried to take them out of thier muffin holes. The food tasted good, but it was a mess. everyone had to spoon them up and eat them like a bowl of chili!
Hi Lauren I’m so sorry this wasn’t successful for you. I’m not sure why yours fell apart. We haven’t had that problem.
This was a great recipe. I have a little 15 month old girl and try to take a load off my wife by making a few lunches for our daughter. She loved these. I actually used ground turkey and bought frozen veggie tots made of spinach and cheese. If you do use these tots go lite on greasing the pan, they will look a little wet. Other than that the temps, cook times and other ingredients are all the same. Thanks for the recipe
Love the changes you made and I’m so glad your little girl liked them!
Do you use the muffin pans with 24 spaces or the regular 12 spaces? I can’t tell in the photo. This looks delicious!
You will use a mini muffin pan. Ours had 16 spaces. So 3 tots per space.
Thanks a lot! Can’t wait to make these
Made these last night. They were very good. I did cook them for about 6 minutes after I smashed them and had more than enough meat for a 24 tin pan.i didn’t have that tool you used but I just used something else similar, however I think it would have been easier if I had that. We plan on making them again for a party we are having!
So glad you liked them!
Can you freezer the cheeseburger tater tots before baking them? I’m looking to make a head some appetizers.
I’m not 100% sure. I think the best way to do it is make all of the filling ahead of time (that can be frozen and reheated before stuffing the tots) and cooking the tots on the day of. If you try freezing the tots please let us know how it turns out!
We have not tried freezing them first. I would be worried they would fall apart since you’re only halfway cooking them before filling them. If you remove them from the mini muffin tin before fully cooked, they will not hold their shape.
The outcome of this recipe is very satisfying. There is one ingredient that came out too strong and it’s the mustard. I’m not a fan of mustard so I would probably use less next time. Overall, this is an excellent dish to make…
Glad you liked it! I am a fan of mustard myself but tweak it however you like!
We’re not fans of mayonnaise or pickle relish, or pickles. Can we go without?? Also where would I find white wine vinegar and a tamper?? Please and thank you
Hi Bridget, you can customize these any way you would customize your cheeseburger so feel free to leave the pickles and pickle relish out of the burger mix. Pickle relish does play a part in the taste of the secret sauce so I’m not sure how that will be without pickle relish but I think you will be fine :). White wine vinegar is usually with the other vinegars in the condiments section if your grocery store. There is a link to the tamper in the post. If you can’t find one you can use anything smaller than the mini muffins tin opening. Perhaps a small shot glass or even the back of a tablespoon. You just need to smooth the middle down to make a deep indentation and press the total together.
Hey! I can’t wait to try these! Just wondering, how many does this make?
It makes 16 . You are going to love it!!
I just made the Cheeseburger Tots for a group of middle school boys on a snow day. They were a hit! A fun twist on a cheeseburger and the special sauce was great.
I’m so glad they liked it! Great idea for a snow day lunch 🙂
I have a house full of boys.. ages 6-16 plus a husband… they love this!! I add crumbled bacon to the ground beef… I have to hide a few for me before I serve them!! They are gone in a blink of an eye… ????
The taste was great but my tater tots fell apart. Is there a secret to keeping them together?
Jodi,
Do you think it fell apart because they were under cooked or not tampered together enough?
Looks great will try a few.
Thanks D
They are so good and easy to make! It’s hard to find something the hubby and the little one both like this is going in the supper rotation! 🙂
That’s awesome! Try filling them with other family favorites too.