Crispy Air Fryer Frozen Tater Tots

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These crispy air fryer frozen tater tots come out perfect without any fuss! Only 3 ingredients and 10 minutes for the perfect air fryer tater tots!

angled view of tater tots in a metal pan

Let's be real. In life, is there much better than having a bag of frozen tater tots on hand for dinner? It's like you get to go into dinner knowing that's one less thing you kind of don't have to mess with.

Except oven tater tots are kinda fussy. They need you to babysit them and turn them and take extra special care of them and then 40 minutes later you get tater tots that aren't all the way crispy because you got sick of waiting for them to cook and gave up.

Enter air fryer tater tots.

They are:

Crispy salty on the outside, soft potatoey on the inside

100% easier than babysitting tater tots in the oven that take ages to make

Way healthier than deep frying, and seriously is that something people do on a week day? Yikes.

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Ingredient notes and substitutions
Expert tips
FAQ's
More tater tot recipes
Recipe

Ingredient notes and substitutions

Frozen Tater Tots - Obviously you need tater tots for this recipe. A substitute would be frozen potato crowns. I like to buy tater tots that are as clean as possible, meaning organic and or NON GMO as well as in an oil that isn't super awful like soy. These tater tots are our favorite.

Olive oil- I love using light tasting olive for pretty much everything in the kitchen. It doesn't have a strong taste and it is approved to use in the air fryer. You can sub in your favorite cooking oil that is ok to use per your air fryer instructions. Do not use extra virgin olive oil.

Salt - I mean, tater tots aren't tater tots without lots of salt, but feel free to leave off if that's not your thing.

Expert tips

Single layer- This is KEY to making stuff crispy in the air fryer. This means you may have to work in batches if your air fryer is small. My air fryer (which I love) is 6.8 QTS and it holds 16 oz of tater tots (half a bag) very easily.

Shake- Be sure to shake tater tots half way thru cook time.

Preheat- If your air fryer needs to pre heat don't skip this step.

Cook longer if needed- Obviously every air fryer is different, so be sure to cook longer if you need to. Cook until crispy assuming you have them in an even layer this should happen in 10 ish minutes.

basket of air fryer tater tots and ketchup with black and towel under it

FAQ's

What if they aren't getting crispy?

The first secret to crispy food in the air fryer is to keep it in a single layer. When you stack the food it can't circulate the air. And I know when if you have a smaller air fryer it might be tempting to pile them in, but don't if your goal is crispy.

Are air fryer tater tots healthy?

They sure are, assuming you use an oil that isn't terrible for you IE soy or canola or tater tots with a ton of extra ingredients.

How do I make my own oil spray?

Be sure to use an oil approved by your air fryer. You don't want to use something like extra virgin olive oil or sprays like PAM both are not good for the air fryer. Use a healthy high smoke point oil like coconut oil or regular olive oil. I make my own spray by simply pouring light tasting olive oil into a glass spray bottle.

Are tater tots gluten free?

Not all tater tots are gluten free, and some contain some really nasty ingredients. Be sure to read your labels and find tater tots with ingredients you can pronounce! Again I really like Alexia's.

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