Cheeseburger Casserole is a downright delicious easy dinner with crispy tater tots, ground beef, lots of cheese and all the toppings! It’s everything you love about a cheeseburger, all tossed into one casserole dish and baked to perfection. Treat yourself and your loved ones to this new family favorite recipe tonight!
Why You’ll Love This Cheeseburger Casserole Recipe
When you think about all American cuisine, two main dishes probably come to mind first – cheeseburgers and casseroles. Just like our smash burger tacos, this easy dinner combines two good ol’ fashioned American diner classics into one! Here’s why you’ll love it:
- Kids LOVE It: If you have little ones in the house like we do, you’re going to love this cheeseburger casserole recipe SO much! It’s a dinner that is definitely picky-eater approved. Next time you want to make your kids smile, skip the happy meal and make this delicious casserole instead!
- Flavor Explosion: So, what is a cheeseburger tater tot casserole exactly? Well, a bed of crispy tater tots is covered with layers of cooked ground beef and lots of melted cheddar cheese, then topped with chopped tomatoes, sliced pickles, and shredded iceberg lettuce. Yes please!
- Special Sauce: Oh – and you can NOT skip the special sauce on top! You can make it homemade or store bought, but it finishes off this cheeseburger casserole perfectly. Seriously, that stuff is addictive. If you like Big Mac sauce, you’re going to love our copycat recipe.
- Make Ahead (Sort Of): While you can’t fully put the casserole together ahead of time, you can prepare the ground meat before hand to speed up the process. Easy peasy!
What You’ll Need
Like all the best easy weeknight dinners, the ingredients needed to make this casserole are simple and inexpensive. Scroll down to the recipe card for exact amounts.
- Frozen Tater Tots: You can use french fries instead, but we’ve found that tater tots provide a much sturdier base for the casserole.
- Ground Meat: Beef, turkey, or a vegetarian alternative will all work!
- Onion: We use a yellow onion sautéed with the ground meat. For the topping, you can use yellow or red onion – up to you!
- Seasoning: We’ll keep it simple with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- Toppings: These are optional, but our favorites are chopped tomatoes, sliced pickles, and shredded iceberg lettuce.
It’s All About the Special Sauce
I don’t think either of us can fully enjoy a cheeseburger (casserole or not) without a drizzle of special sauce! It’s what McDonald’s drizzles on their famous Big Macs. It’s a mouthwatering savory sauce that really makes any cheeseburger taste extra special!
You can buy special sauce at most grocery stores in the aisle by the ketchup/mustard. When we are in a rush, we like to use the brand Sir Kensington’s Special Sauce Dressing! It’s the closest to homemade we have found.
If you want to make your own Special Sauce, simply combine all of the ingredients together until you have a smooth, creamy sauce. You can store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week! Here’s the recipe:
Homemade Big Mac Sauce
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons French dressing
- 2 tablespoons pickle juice
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 2 teaspoon yellow mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
How to Make Tater Tot Casserole
Easy casserole recipes are meant to be easy! And this one is no exception. Check out the recipe card at the end of this post for detailed instructions.
- Prepare: Start by preheating the oven to 450°F. While that’s heating up, spray a 9×13 casserole dish with non-stick spray.
- Bake the Tots: Line the prepared casserole dish with the frozen tater tots. Bake for 22 to 24 minutes, until golden and warmed through.
- Cook the Meat: While the tots are in the oven cooking, brown the ground meat for 5 minutes in a large skillet. Add seasonings and onion and continue to cook until no longer pink and the onion is translucent. If you’re using ground beef, drain any excess fat before adding the seasoning and onion.
- Layer It: Remove the cooked tots from the oven and cover them with the cooked ground meat. Evenly spread the shredded cheese over the meat.
- Bake: Return the casserole dish to the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
- Top It: Quickly layer shredded lettuce, pickles, tomatoes and uncooked onion over the melted cheese. Drizzle with the homemade special sauce over the top and serve immediately.
Tips and Tricks
Here are a few tips from our kitchen to make sure this tater tot casserole turns out perfectly!
- Timing is Everything: Definitely read this recipe through once before you dive into cooking. You’ll want to cook the meat while the tater tots are cooking so they’ll be ready to layer at the same time.
- Broil It: Turn on the broiler for a few minutes if you want extra gooey and crispy cheese on top!
- Don’t Skip the Sauce: While 100% optional, that tangy special sauce really ties this entire cheeseburger casserole recipe together! It really only takes a few minutes and can be thrown together while the tots are cooking.
How to Serve Cheeseburger Tater Tot Casserole
There aren’t too many dishes that we say you absolutely don’t need anything else to eat, but this is one of them! Cheeseburger tater tot casserole is hearty, filling, and hits all the food groups in one bite! If you want to be good, you could throw in a light side salad to balance out the richness of the dish. Enjoy!
Does Tater Tot Casserole Make good Leftovers?
Sadly, this delicious dinner isn’t great the next day and doesn’t reheat very well. It’s definitely an eat it or lose it kind of meal!
We have tried reheating it a number of ways, but you only get those crispy tater tots, hot meat and cheese and cool topping combo when it’s made fresh and served right away.
More Easy Casserole Recipes
Cheeseburger Casserole
Ingredients
- 28 oz frozen tater tots
- 1 pound ground meat, beef or turkey
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Toppings:
- Chopped tomatoes
- Sliced pickles
- Shredded iceberg lettuce
- **Special sauce, store bought or homemade
Instructions
- Preheat oven 450°F. Spray a 9×13 casserole dish with non-stick spray.
- Line casserole dish with tater tots. Bake for 22 to 24 minutes, until golden and warmed through.
- While tots are in oven cooking, brown the ground meat for 5 minutes in a large skillet. Add seasonings and onion and continue to cook until no longer pink and onion is translucent. If using ground beef, drain any excess fat before adding seasoning and onion.
- Remove tots from oven and cover with ground meat mixture. Evenly spread shredded cheese over ground meat. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.
- Quickly layer shredded lettuce, pickles, tomatoes and raw onion over cheese as desired. Drizzle special sauce over the top and serve immediately.
Video
Notes
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons French dressing
- 2 tabelspons pickle juice
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 2 teaspoon yellow mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Delicious easy dinner! Since I made it for 2 people and you said it doesn’t reheat well I kept the toppings on the side for us to top individually and it was just as delicious the next day. It requires more Tupperware, but if you reheat the meat/cheese/tots in the oven then top with the cold toppings it might be even better the second day!
Looks yummy you said you can get store bought special sauce what kind is it?
Hi Nancy! If you are looking for it at the store, it’s usually called Burger Sauce or Special Sauce for Burgers!