If you’re like us, you love tater tots. If for some ungodly reason you don’t love tater tots, well, then you’ve stumbled into the wrong place. Get out. For your sake and ours.
Tater tots are delicious but also magical. We’ve long asked ourselves: “How are they made?”, “Why are they so crispy”, “What’s in them besides potatoes?” Those questions could’ve been answered with a minute or two of Googling. But instead, we opted to ponder. A little here. A little there. Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. The years flowed by out the window. How did we grow so old? From where did the grey in our hair come?
We recently attended a farewell lunch for a co-worker, and the restaurant boasted about making tater tots from scratch. We ordered them. They weren’t the archetypal tater tots—from a freezer bag or fast food joint. Their shape was almost like a gumdrop. Flat-ish on bottom; rounded everywhere else. The outside was crisp, of course, but the inside was kind of mushy. Not like devoid of texture. But soft, maybe velvety.
We enjoyed these tater tots. They inspired us. We decided to seek the answers to our tot-related questions but, more than that, to craft our own tots.
We love kitchen gadgets, and in fact, we’ve dedicated an entire bookshelf in our basement for their storage. Or their display. It’s more of a gallery, which is different than a library because strangers can’t check them out. That’d be gross. We don’t want strangers cooking with our kitchen gadgets.
Despite our vast collection, we’ve never acquired a deep fryer. Purposefully. Of course, we love fried food. Who doesn’t love fried food? The problem is that we love fried food too much. Being able to deep fry at home is a recipe for terrible life decisions and pants that never fit.
Our significant other, however, gifted us with an airfryer. We don’t feel guilty because an airfryer sounds healthy, almost. We’ve mastered French fries in the airfryer. Now, armed with buckets full of inspiration, we got the tots as well.
Air Fryer Tater Tots from Scratch
Ingredients
- 5 medium-sized Russet potatoes
- 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground oregano
Directions
Peel potatoes. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook potatoes for five minutes. Remove potatoes, and let cool.
Grate potatoes. Remove excess liquid from potatoes by squeezing in a nut milk bag or by pressing with paper towels.
In a small bowl, combine cornstarch, salt, garlic power, onion powder, black pepper and ground oregano.
In a larger bowl, add grated potatoes, then work in half of the dry mixture from the small bowl. When it is evenly mixed in, work in the remaining half of the dry mixture.
Using a melon baller or your hands, form individual tots.
Heat the air fryer to 350°F. Spritz tops and sides of tots with olive oil. (We use this Ideal Olive Oil Mister from The Fine Life.) Cook at 350°F for 8 minutes. Flip tots and spritz again with olive oil. Cook at 350°F for another 4 minutes. Increase temperature to 400°F and cook for about 3 minutes or until tots reach the desired golden brown.
Remove tots, toss in seasoning and serve. This Joe's Kansas City French Fry Seasoning is sheer perfection.
32 Responses
My potatoes were much more starchy, and need more flour to hold together, but, I love being able to season my way. I love them!
Wonder if I can do this with just a few potatoes at a time. As a single diabetic who has a serious tot addiction it would not bode well for me to make 5 pounds at a time.
ut7lwr
p9qhgr
dak1vj
0ij7qr
mgxf6v
mgrs87
6jj3vj
b7o0nm
fxz9zs
wfv3bj
zio23b
zatznh
y69fgn
sm9h9p
ln5hhx
w39pc8
i37q12
4jcuq6
ey138k
aehg7l
q1a5g8
p21muf
cs2lrr
bo0lza
yd15vn
b7met9
47ry74
j3tyqd
dz8kuu
w0f57y