19 Unexpected Toppings To Load On Your Tater Tots

We love tater tots for their crispy outside, creamy inside, and, perhaps most importantly, their low-effort, no hassle preparation. Whether you're baking them in the oven as part of potato-y breakfast dish, firing up the air fryer for a quick late night snack, or dealing with a pot of boiling oil for a deep-fried fast food-style side, frozen tater tots are versatile, fast, and super tasty on their own. A pinch of salt, maybe some shredded cheese if you're looking to impress, and you're in for a treat. But with the right add-ons, you're little spuds can leap from simply delicious to absolutely decadent.  

We've had some off-the-wall tater tot takes before, and we stand by them without reservation. Whatever toppings you decide to pile on, check out our ranking of our favorite frozen tater tots. No matter how great the add-ons are, those little potato bites will always be the essential element in any and every tater tot plate, bowl, or tower.     

Like with any other potato dish, some pairings are universally accepted: Butter, salt, bacon, cheese, etc. But with these clever ideas, you can elevate your tots to unexpected heights. From relatively tame to flat-out wild, these unexpected tater toppers have arrived to test your tot-loving bona fides. 

Cheese is an obvious complement to any kind of potato, but take it to the next level by ditching the bagged, shredded stuff and going with curds. Just ask any poutine-loving Canadian.

These small chunks of cheese add both rich flavor and creamy texture to your hot, crispy potatoes. Instead of melting in the residual heat of the tots, cheese curds will transform into stringy, rubbery globs of flavor. For a true Canadian poutine experience, you can smother your tots in a rich, brown gravy. The curds work plenty well on their own, however.

You can find cheese curds at most supermarkets, and they're totally freezable. So get a big bag and as many tater tots as you can fit in your freezer. That way, anytime you get a craving, a taste of the Great White North is just a walk to the kitchen away. 

The next time you're craving pizza, sign out of Door Dash and pop open a bag of frozen tots. Cook them up, then top your tots with lots of meltable mozzarella and as many pepperoni slices are your burning heart can handle.

This potato/pizza hybrid brings two quick-and-greasy classics together to form a Frankenstein's monster of a late night snack. The fatty, flavorful pepperoni slices work just as well with potatoes as they do with pizza dough. You can pour over a little marina sauce if you like your tots soggy, but the mozzarella and the pepperoni on their own make for a cleaner, easier, pizza-style experience that's just as good. 

And if you try it and like it, you can play around with the flavor and the spice level by trying out different types of pepperoni.

Canned beans are inexpensive, convenient, and, if you know what to do, can taste just as good as their homemade, time-gobbling counterparts. Turns out, they also go great with tater tots.

Create a creamy, potato-y variation of nachos by using tater tots as the base instead of tortilla chips. Cook the tots, arrange them in a bowl, and then start to build your layers. Add whatever you usually get on your nachos: Shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, sour cream, et al. When your pile is sufficiently high enough, poor over the cooked black beans. And those tortilla chips you didn't use as the base? Employ them as scoops and scarf to your heart's content.

Think of the best loaded baked potato you've ever had, and then imagine shrinking it down into a single bite, like an amuse bouche for people that appreciate fine dining, but prefer Sonic. Now stop thinking about it and start cooking.

For this tot variation, it's best to use the oven. Scatter the frozen tater tots on a baking dish, add plenty of salt, and some shredded cheese. When the tots are cooked to your desired crispness, take them out and sprinkle them with bacon crumbles. Now the most important part: Pour on the sour cream. The smooth, tart topping clings to the tots and brightens every bite. 

For a more refined take with the same loaded flavor, make a quick cheese sauce and pour it over the tots in a casserole dish before baking.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past where chefs thought being inventive meant putting a fried egg on every dish that came out of their kitchen whether it made sense or not. Luckily, we've (mostly) left that fad behind, but that doesn't mean fried eggs no longer have a place in crave-able cooking.

Replace your hash browns and home fries with tater tots in a tasty dish that doesn't necessarily have to be for breakfast. The combination of eggs and potatoes isn't exactly a new idea, so the risk here is minimal. 

You can pick which method you want to use to cook the tater tots, but in this case, deep frying the potatoes produces decadent results. Follow these tips for making a perfect fried egg, combine, and you've got a tasty anytime treat. 

Unsurprisingly, creamy avocado pairs well with piping hot tater tots. It's like avocado toast, but with crispy, golden tater tots instead of the bread. 

Slice up the avocado and just pile it over your tots for a quick and easy application you'll want to woof down all on your own. If you feel like sharing, or maybe looking for something to bring to a party, you can add cheese and serve it to your friends as a hearty dip.

Like most any dish using the finicky ingredient, the quality of this tater tot combo will suffer if your avocado isn't suitably ripe. Get the perfect flavor and texture to pair with the potatoes by ripening them before you start cooking. It's easy, and it makes a difference. 

Tater tots are pretty much the whole package: They're creamy and crispy and salty all at the same time. The one thing they're missing, though, is heat. So if you want your tots to burn a little, you'll have to top them off with a reliable source of heat. Enter the jalapeño. 

Little slices of jalapeño peppers can be sprinkled, tossed, or piled onto your tater tot heap, depending on how much spice your mouth can handle. You can also control the heat level by choosing to remove the seeds from the peppers or leave them in. If you don't want to breathe fire, here's how you can easily get rid of the seeds while you slice. Alternatively, you could also opt for pickled jalapeños if you've got a jar in the fridge.

You can add a subtle, elegant pop to your potatoes with a heavy-handed sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. Their sweet, nutty flavor adds dimension to almost any dish, but sesame seeds pair particularly well with potatoes. Toasting the seeds in a skillet enhances and intensifies their flavor, and it multiplies their effect on the tater tots. 

You can find sesame seeds in two distinct colors. Do you go with the crunchier, un-hulled black seeds for a little added texture, or do you opt for the milder, nuttier notes of hulled white sesame seeds? Both are great on their own, but a combination of the two, in whatever ratio pleases your palate, is pure tater tot nirvana. Why choose when you can have it all?   

If you really want to bring the heat to your tater tots, reach for your favorite bottle of sriracha. It's a low-effort way to add spice using a single ingredient that everyone should have in their refrigerator. Best of all, you control the amount of heat with the heaviness of your pour.

Here's a primer on sriracha for the uninitiated, but the gist is this: It's hot sauce on steroids. It's available basically everywhere, and there are many different brands, each with its own set of tweaks and modifications. But they're all hot. That means that a little taste testing is needed to fond the one that best suits your palate. Sounds like a good excuse to cook up a bunch of tater tots, squirt on some sriracha, eat and repeat until you get it right. 

Maybe eating vegetables with your greasy, salty tater tots sounds like a downer, but if you try it, you just might change your tune. Think of it as kind of a poor man's shepherd's pie.

For this casserole, start with a layer of ground beef, then add a bag of frozen veggies over the top. In a real shepherd's pie, you would use lamb, but for this iteration, ground beef should be your go-to. Instead of topping the casserole off with a heaping of creamy mashed potatoes like in shepherd's pie, break open your bag of frozen tots. The tater tots will crisp up nicely when they're good and baked, and that will give the dish a delightful crunch that the original can't offer. 

The Korean cabbage do-it-all adds spice and tang to comparatively mild potatoes in a fun, unexpected way. Just pile it on top of your tater tots, straight from the jar, for a tasty, inventive snack. You can also make a sophisticated entree by adding some cooked ground pork to the kimchi and tots and topping it off with a fried egg. 

If you're looking to impress with your kimchi tater tot dish, eschew grocery store kimchi and make your own. It's actually pretty easy, and it allows you more control over the flavor. 

As for the tater tots themselves, deep frying is probably they way to go in this instance. The tots will be a little more rigid, and that will help them stand up to the weighty kimchi. The added crunch will also contrast nicely.

Create an odd yet flavorful dish by taking cooked, canned sardines, placing them over tater tots in a baking dish, and cooking the whole thing in the oven. You can even add tomato slices and herbs like dill and cilantro for complementary flavors.

Sardines and tater tots probably seem like an odd combination at first glance, but fish and potatoes are actually a pretty basic pairing: Think fish and chips.

The success of this pairing heavily depends on the quality of the sardines. If you know what to look for, and consider how sardines are meant to be eaten, you can have a successful shopping trip and delicious tater tots. For this preparation, get sardines that are packed in oil, not water, for a little extra saltiness that seeps into the potatoes.

Salty, briny kalamata olives pair well with potatoes, given their contrasting flavors and textures. The simplest preparation is a tasty one: Load your cooked tater tots into a bowl, then top with all the olives your tastebuds desire. Slicing the olives first tends to make this dish more fork-able, but that's just one option. You can also pour the olives on whole, which is one less step and great if you're eating with your hands.

You can also add other Mediterranean flavors to your tots and olives if you're looking for a more substantial dish. The addition of diced cucumbers, crumbled feta, and a squirt of tzatziki sauce make for a Greek-inspired pseudo-salad. You have to admit, a salad is a relatively guilt-free way to scarf down tater tots.

What if I told you that you could make a quick and easy variation on potato latkes using frozen tater tots? Fantasy becomes delectable reality with nothing more than a jar of applesauce (unless you want to go a little further).

Latkes are delicious potato pancakes that are deep in both history and flavor.  In this preparation, the potato pancake is replaced with tater tots. By adding the accoutrements traditionally eaten with latkes, you get the same great flavors with a lot less work. 

Sour cream is probably the most common latke accessory, and you could certainly use it, either poured over or as a dip. But the non-negotiable here is another traditional potato pancake add-on, apple sauce. The sweet sauce really makes that salty, fried tater tot taste explode. Other ingredients to consider adding: Sage and cheddar cheese. 

Impress your fancy friends with a tater tot appetizer that includes caviar. You can make the most upscale pile of tater tots imaginable by adding caviar, some crème fraîche, and serving it over a hard-boiled egg half. Sure, it's over the top. But the flavors actually work well together. The deep, briny saltiness of the caviar adds a dimension to the fried potato morsels that is equal parts familiar and foreign. The crème fraîche lightens things up just a little, while the hard-boiled egg half adds texture and makes for the perfect edible serving vessel. 

Stack it like this for maximum flavor and eat-ability: The egg half (cut side up), topped with a single tater tot, then a dollop of crème fraîche to hold the caviar on top.  

First things first: There's a difference between New England clam chowder and Manhattan clam chowder. This is indisputable, and both styles can be absolutely wonderful. But with tater tots, the chunkier stuff from New England is the way to go. 

New England clam chowder is thicker and creamier. This texture is perfect for tater tots to swim in, unlike the thinner, tomatoey broth base of the New York version which can turn your tots disgustingly wet rather than pleasantly soggy. 

There's two acceptable ways to eat this one. You can stir some tots into your bowl of chowder, or you can pile up the tots and pour the chowder over them. Top with a little shredded cheese, and either way, you're in for a soupy snack with a tasty potato base.

Make a bowl consisting of tater tots, soft tofu, and a spicy sauce for a dish packed with contrasting textures and complementary flavors. You can add a fried egg and some scallions for even more flavor. It might sound odd, but it really is delicious.

First, learn the difference between soft tofu and it's not-so-soft familiars. Soft tofu, with its smooth, velvety texture, is the just right combination of delicate and sturdy that's needed to stand up to tater tots. 

This dish comes together in a single bowl. The tots and tofu go in (plus the scallions, if using), get mixed around, then get a dousing of hot sauce. If you want to add a fried egg on top to make this the ultimate comfort food, go for it. You'll have to get a skillet dirty, but it will be worth it. 

For everyone that likes to dip their French fries in their Wendy's Frosty or Dairy Queen Blizzard — this one's for you. 

This tater tot concoction is one half dessert, one half hangover food. The construction here is simple: Cook up some tots, put them in the bottom of a bowl, and top with your favorite ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. 

If you've never heard of fried potatoes and ice cream teaming up, you should know that it's not some passing fad. It's so popular, in fact, fast food places have gone out of their way to make the combo super-accessible. If you're already a fan, imagine swapping out the fries for crunchier, heartier tater tots. Since the tots are better at holding their shapes, you get way more crunch and an array of textures to enjoy.

Here's another twist on the familiar. Sausage and potato hash, the staid British classic found in pubs throughout the United Kingdom, is typically made by combining pork sausage, cubed potatoes, and assorted vegetables before cooking it all on the stovetop. Replacing the cut potatoes with tater tots not only reduces the amount of wear and tear on your knife, it also speeds up the process.

The sausage really makes this dish go, and for the most flavor, blood sausage is the best choice. We understand if you're a little apprehensive from the name alone, but if you want to maximize the flavor of your tots, blood sausage, consisting mostly of congealed blood, herbs, spices, and a starchy filler, adds a savory, slightly metallic earthiness that complements fried potatoes beautifully.

Depending on where you live, blood sausage can be hard (or even illegal) to get. But if you're lucky enough to get your hands on some, and have your tater tots at the ready, you're in for quite a treat.