These easy Air Fryer Tater Tots are crispy, golden and perfectly seasoned! So easy to make and are the perfect side dish for breakfast or dinner! Made with just a handful of ingredients! Love tater tots? Make sure to try my Tater Tot Casserole and Crockpot Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole too!
Homemade Tater Tots
These tater tots are absolute perfection: golden, crispy, and perfectly seasoned. Great for any time of day!
Many air fryer tater tot recipes simply use frozen store-bought tater tots. That’s not the case here! Nope, I’m showing you how to make tater tots – and then air fry them to get them super crispy and delicious.
Serve them alongside Broccoli Salad, The BEST Chicken Marinade, and Easy Grape Salad for the ultimate meal!
Air Fryer Recipes
I have become obsessed with my air fryer! It produces amazing food that is so crispy you would think it was fried but it’s healthier, easier to make, faster and tastes so good!
Here are some of our favorites:
- Air Fryer Bacon
- Lemon Pepper Wings – Baked or Air Fried!
- Easy Biscuit Air Fryer Donuts
- Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts with Garlic and Parmesan
- Air Fryer Salt and Vinegar French Fries
What are Tater Tots?
If you’ve never seen these crispy bites of goodness, you’ve been missing out! Tater tots are simply small cylinder-shaped potato bites made from grated potatoes and then fried. They’re deliciously crispy on the outside and soft and tender in the middle.
You can buy them in the frozen section at the grocery store and bake them at home. But today, I’m showing you how to make them and air fry them for an even better, addictive version of a family-favorite side dish!
What To Serve With Air Fryer Tater Tots
This versatile side dish is a family favorite because it goes so well with SO many of our favorite dinners. Plus, you can have fun adding various toppings to them and turn them into Totchos!
Here are a few recipes that we frequently enjoy along with these delicious homemade tater tots:
- Chicken Nuggets with Honey Mustard
- Crockpot Chili and when you combine the two you can make up some seriously delicious Chili Cheese Totchos!
- Turkey Burgers
- Baked Mac and Cheese
Air Fryer Tater Tots Ingredients
You need just a handful of simple ingredients for this recipe.
- frozen shredded hash browns – you’ll want to thaw these out before you use them so they’ll stick together.
- olive oil – just enough to help your tater tots crisp up and taste incredible.
- all-purpose flour – helps in forming the shape of the potatoes and helps them stick together
- garlic and onion powder -adds a nice flavor to these tots
- salt
For some fun flavor variations add one teaspoon of one of these seasoning mixes to the mix: Italian Seasoning, Taco Seasoning or Cajun Seasoning!
How to Make Tater Tots in the Air Fryer
These tater tots are the crispiest, most delicious side dish around! They’re practically as easy as oven baking frozen tater tots but taste way better.
- Lightly grease air fryer basket and preheat air fryer to 400F.
- Pulse the thawed hash browns in a food processor until they are finely chopped.
- Gently fold the potatoes, olive oil, flour, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
- Scoop out mixture and shape to form a one inch tater tot in your hand and place in air fryer basket.
- Spray the tots with an olive oil cooking spray and bake for 16 to 18 minutes. Shake the air fryer basket half way through cooking so the tots cook evenly.
- Remove tots from the air fryer and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Serve immediately.
Trish’s Tips for Making the BEST Air Fryer Tater Tots
- Make sure your hash browns are thawed. If your hash browns aren’t fully thawed, they won’t stick together well. If that happens, you can always add one beaten egg to the mixture and the tots will come together.
- Make sure to fully preheat your air fryer for the best results.
- Don’t skip the cooking spray because it really helps those tater tots get crispy!
- Remember to flip your tater tots in the air fryer basket about halfway through cooking, so they cook evenly.
- Don’t overload your air fryer basket. You want one even layer of tater tots and the tots shouldn’t be touching for best results.
Variation Ideas
This recipe makes a deliciously versatile dish that can be “doctored up” in many different ways. Try adding bacon pieces, chives, sour cream and cheese for a loaded baked potato variation.
Or try Mexican-inspired “totchos” with sour cream, salsa (or tomatoes), black beans and shredded cheese or nacho cheese sauce. So fun and super yum!
FAQs
Make sure that your tater tots aren’t stacked on top of each other or stuck to each other. If you need to cook multiple batches in order to be able to cook them all separately, do that.
You can always count on the typical favorites: ketchup, honey mustard, mustard, or barbecue sauce. However, if you want to get a little crazy, try dipping them into my Spicy Ranch Dip
Short answer: no, but I highly recommend it. If you don’t preheat your air fryer, you’ll likely need to add around 4 minutes to your cooking time. I recommend checking your tater tots for crispness.
If they haven’t achieved the level of crispness that you want, feel free to add extra cooking time as needed until they do!
Preheating your air fryer helps your tater tots get that crisp outside to seal in their soft insides.
Store leftovers (if you have any!) in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Reheat in the air fryer at 400 degrees for about 4-5 minutes.
Sadly no. Sweet potatoes don’t behave the same way that regular potatoes do, so you can’t simply substitute sweet potatoes for regular potatoes. The starch factor isn’t there. But never fear! My baked sweet potatoes are equally delicious!
More Potato Recipes
- Loaded Scalloped Potatoes
- Oven Roasted Potatoes
- The BEST Homemade Mashed Potatoes
- Baked Sweet Potato (How To Bake Sweet Potatoes)
- Twice Baked Potato Casserole
- Twice Baked Potatoes
How To Make Air Fryer Tater Tots
Air Fryer Tater Tots
Ingredients
- 16 ounces frozen shredded hash browns thawed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt plus extra for seasoning after the tots are done cooking
Instructions
- Lightly grease air fryer and preheat air fryer to 400F.
- Pulse the thawed hash browns in a food processor until they are finely chopped.
- Gently fold the hash browns, olive oil, flour, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Be careful not to mash the potatoes.
- Scoop out mixture and shape to form a one inch tater tot in your hand and place in air fryer basket.
- Spray the tots with an olive oil cooking spray and bake for 16 to 18 minutes. Tater tots should be golden and crispy. Shake the air fryer basket half way through cooking so the tots cook evenly.
- Remove tots from the air fryer and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Serve immediately.
- Leftover tater tots can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
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