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Pizza Tots are the ultimate football party food! Crispy tater tot cups filled with pizza sauce, melted mozzarella and mini pepperonis. Every bite is a pizza explosion.

Close-up of a mini pizza cup made from hash browns, topped with melted cheese and three slices of pepperoni.


 

These cheesy, Pizza Tots are the new addition to our tater tot appetizer family. We started with Cheeseburger Tots and they have become one of our #1 game day appetizers. Now we’ve filled our crispy tater tots with spicy marinara, melted mozzarella, and mini pepperonis for the ultimate football game food!

Ingredients You’ll Need

This simple recipe only requires a few ingredients:

  • Frozen Tater Tots – A bag of 48 tots will make 16 tater tot cups.
  • Mozzarella cheese – We buy pre-shredded mozzarella for this recipe to keep it simple.
  • Mini pepperoni – These tiny pepperoni were made for this!
  • Pizza sauce – Your favorite tomato sauce or pizza sauce.

Of course, you can add any other pizza toppings you like. Finely dice them and mix them in with the cheese when you stuff the tots!

A muffin tin filled with Cheeseburger Tots

How to Make Tater Tot Cups

Let’s get started by making the tater tot cups. These bite-sized, crispy tot cups are the base for our cheeseburger tots, loaded tater tot bites, and taco tater tot bites as well.

  1. Prepare the oven. Preheat oven to 425°F.
  2. Pre-bake the tots. Grease a mini muffin pan and place three tater tots in each cup. Bake for 10 minutes. This will partially cook the tots, and get them warmed up and ready for the next step. 
  3. Form into cups. After 10 minutes remove the muffin pan from the oven and use a tart tamper to press the tater tots down into each cup. This will create a tater tot cup.
  4. Now you’re ready to add your filling!

Note: If you don’t have a tart tamper that’s ok (but I do recommend it!) you can use a small shot glass, or anything cylindrical that is smaller than the mini muffin tin opening. You just need to have enough room around the edges for the tots to push up and form a cup. 

Assemble and Bake

Slices of eggplant topped with cheese and pepperoni, arranged on a baking sheet.
  1. Sauce. Fill the tater tots with pasta sauce
  2. Cheese. Add the mozzarella cheese
  3. Toppings. Top with the mini pepperoni.
  4. Bake. Place the tater tots back in the oven and cook for another 15 minutes.
  5. Serve. Remove the pizza tots from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin pan. Don’t rush, if you let them cool a little they should hold together for the perfect pizza tot bite!

Tips for Making Pizza Tots:

  • Yes, it is really 3 tater tots in a mini muffin tin. Have faith! The tots won’t fit in perfectly for the first round of baking but once they have baked for 10 minutes they will have thawed and they will fit perfectly.
  • Use finely shredded mozzarella cheese. You would think this doesn’t make a difference but the finely shredded cheese fills the pizza tots up better so they are packed full of cheese.
  • We limited the amount of sauce in these because we didn’t want them to have soggy bottoms. If you love sauce as much as we do we suggest serving them with a bowl of pizza sauce for dipping!
  • Get creative! We used pepperonis but if you like veggie pizza then add diced peppers and mushrooms instead. The sky is the limit!
Three pepperoni pizza muffins on a dark surface, showing melted cheese and pepperoni slices on top of a crispy crust.

Can You Make Pizza Tots Ahead of Time?

It’s best to pop your Pizza Tots in the oven right before people arrive. That way when people get there they are crisp, and hot and ready to be eaten! Tater tots need to be served immediately for the best experience so we don’t recommend making them ahead of time.

More Tater Tot Recipes:

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Servings: 16
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Pizza Tots

Created By: Kat Jeter & Melinda Machado
Pizza Tots are the ultimate football party food! Crispy tater tot cups filled with pizza sauce, melted mozzarella and mini pepperonis. Every bite is a pizza explosion.
Close-up of a mini pizza cup made from hash browns, topped with melted cheese and three slices of pepperoni.
Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Ingredients

  • 48 Tater Tots, frozen
  • 16 tablespoons Mozzarella cheese, finely shredded
  • 48 Mini pepperonis
  • 3 tablespoons Pizza sauce

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 425°F.
  • 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 each tater tot cup with a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of pizza sauce, 1 tablespoon mozzarella cheese, and 3 mini pepperonis.
  • Place the tater tots back in the oven and cook for another 15 minutes.
  • Remove the pizza tots from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin pan.
  • Enjoy!

Nutrition

Serving: 1tot, Calories: 103kcal, Carbohydrates: 7g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 6g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 13mg, Sodium: 259mg, Potassium: 98mg, Vitamin A: 110IU, Vitamin C: 2.2mg, Calcium: 78mg, Iron: 0.3mg
Nutrition Disclaimer: We are not certified nutritionists. Nutrition facts are an estimate and are provided as a courtesy. They are generated by an online API which recognizes ingredient names and amounts and makes calculations based on the serving size. Results may vary.
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: American
Handwritten signature for Kat & Melinda