Bacon Wrapped Tater Tot Bombs
The most amazing tater tots ever, baked to crisp bacon-perfection. It’s so good, you’ll want to double or triple the recipe!
I have been sick with the flu for the past couple of days, feeling extremely fatigued without any kind of appetite. That’s when Jason offered to cook me breakfast, my favorite meal of the day, except all we had was bacon, cheese and tater tots. But before I could even think about ordering breakfast delivery, I just knew I had to make these tater tot bombs I’ve been seeing all over Pinterest.
And yes. The name definitely lives up to its hype. These tater tot bombs are, well, bomb. No joke. Now I haven’t used the word “bomb” since middle school but hey – that word describes these perfectly. And these tater tots may even have some epic powers because after eating about 20 of these, my flu magically went away.
Flu or not, I’ll still be making these weekly. I just have to remember to double the recipe because these are very hard to share!
Bacon Wrapped Tater Tot Bombs
Ingredients
- 2 cups frozen tater tots, at room temperature
- 1 ounce sharp cheddar cheese, cut into 1/4-inch squares
- 4 slices bacon, quartered
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat; set aside.
- Working one at a time, wrap each tater tot and cheese square in a piece of bacon. Repeat with remaining tater tots, cheese squares and bacon pieces. Dredge each tater tot in the brown sugar, pressing to coat.
- Place tater tots seam side down onto the prepared baking sheet. Place into oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, using metal tongs to turn at halftime.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
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Potato bomb is EXACTLY what they are BOMB…. They ended up in the trash . Cheese is a waste, melts all out.. Then burns. Tried several batches and got 1 batch that kinda worked. They fell apart , burnt, or bacon not cooked , hashbrowns too mush to turn halfway cause if you try they fall apart . Kept trying to find the problem .EVEN my hubby that likes everything said they didn’t have that great of taste . Went to super bowl party with nothing to pass because even the ones that kinda turned out were just so so, not that great of a taste and wouldn’t put my name on them. The trash can is where they ended up. Waste of time, money and food. Never again! I’m not very pleased right now because all that’s left is a mess to clean up from trying. Don’t try these if you smart.
Tam, I’m sorry that this didn’t turn out for you but instead of blaming the recipe, please remember that there are many factors at play here. First off, the recipe calls for tater tots, not hashbrowns. Secondly, the recipe also calls for diced cheese. Perhaps you used a different kind of cheese or too much cheese? If substitutions are made or if the recipe is not followed as written, the results can be mediocre.
That being said, I hope you get to try this super easy recipe again with stellar results because it really is “the bomb”!
I added a piece of jalapeno, added to the deliciousness!!
I want to make these for a Superbowl party in my only question is can I make them Saturday night and keep them in the fridge and then pop them in the oven Sunday
Yes, that should be fine.
I’m madly in love with these! Since I made them for the first time, I’ve been making them ALL the time! Mmmmmmmmmmmm
Can you use sweet potato tater tot for this recipe?
I haven’t tried it myself but I don’t see why it would be an issue.
I JUST made them with sweet potato tots and they were great. I used Havarti cheese and it did melt all over the pan. We all agreed that the cheese was unnecessary. They were super delicious!
I made these for “girls nite” on Friday and they were a huge hit! I had a different recipe that called for stuffing the tot with cheese. DISASTER!! I gave up and just put the cheese and the tot together and wrapped the bacon around it as you suggest. It worked fine. Yes some cheese oozes out but you definately still taste cheese in these little bites of goodness, I also found the pre sliced cheese to be easier than cubed. My only problem was the brown sugar not sticking to the bacon. I eventually gave up rolling them and just pressed the sugar on top while they were on the baking sheet. Worked out fine.
Baking with a toothpick definatly helps hold the bacon in place and leaves a little handle to grab them off the dish to pop them in your mouth when they are done. I love them!
All my tots exploded in the oven. Had them out and they were at room temperature so I have no idea how they all exploded.
I’m not entirely sure how that coulld happen! Maybe your oven is super hot?!
OH EHM GEE!!! Why oh why have I not seen these until now??? So totally going on the menu the next time I have friends over!! They will be devoured before I can even put them on the serving tray!!
I made this recipe today and although delicious, I had issues with the directions. 2 cups of tater tots yielded me 26 and 4 slices of bacon quartered would have yielded 16 pieces. So already there were issues with quantity but then I quickly discovered that a quarter of a slice of bacon didn’t wrap around a tater tot much less with a piece of cheese. I ended up using small sticks of cheese rather than cubes and thirds of a slice of bacon rather than quarters.
In the end I ended up with 15 tater tot bombs as I had 5 slices of bacon to begin with. The cheese completely melted out onto the pan so I am not sure how much stayed in the bombs. Since I had a bunch of extra thawed tater tots I just cooked them on the same pan.
I would make these again in the future because they were delicious but I would have to experiment with the technique and measurements.
Pia, 2 cups is simply an estimate as I know that some people will not take the time to count out their tater tots. Also, if your bacon is super thick, a quarter-slice will not be sufficient. But with a package of bacon and a bag of tater tots, there’s plenty of room to experiment!
Have you tried this with the lil smokie hot dogs? Same thing just no cheese..wrap them in bacon stick a toothpick in them and pour brown sugar and bake.. amazing!
Can you make these ahead of time and refrigerate?
Yes, that should work just fine.
Great, thank you!!
I just wanted to share something that worked well for me… I took the slice of bacon I cut and pressed it in the brown sugar, placed it sugar side down on my cutting board, took my tiny slice of cheese, placed it in the middle of the bacon slide, placed the tater tot on top and wrapped it. It was truly an easy and amazing recipe! Thank you for your wonderful recipes 🙂
I was disappointed that all the cheese melted onto the pan. Great recipe idea, any recommendations what to do with the cheese? Is it needed?
Thanks!
I love all your recipes on-line, keeping creating!
How much cheese did you use? It’s best to use cut cheese rather than shredded since the latter can become really messy!
I found this on Pinterest, and pinned it for a Christmas appetizer. Well, we forgot to make them Christmas day, so we decided to try them last night. What an epic failure! And I am a really good cook. They stuck to the foil so when I tried to turn them, they got squished. Half the bacon was under cooked and half was over cooked. It was truly, one of those epic – Pinterest fail – moments. But yours just look perfect!! 🙂
Oh no – I am so sorry to hear about your Pinterest fail! Although I would shy away from using aluminum foil. It’s really best to use nonstick spray, or even parchment paper.
Good to know, I missed that in the instructions. I was about to grab the parchment, but usually use foil to bake bacon so I wrongly assumed it would work. Thank you!
I made these last Christmas. The recipe I had called for cutting a hole in the tater tot and inserting the cheese. I found out that trying to cut a hole in a thawed-out tater tot meant a lot of mooshed up mess! So I tried cutting holes in half-frozen tots, and while that wasn’t easy either, it did help a bit. Then I wrapped in bacon, rolled around in brown sugar, inserted a toothpick, and baked on a cookie sheet, seam-side down. Then I transported them to Christmas dinner in a pre-warmed glass baking dish. Once at our dinner, I transferred these to a chafing dish to keep them warm but not hot. I also had a side of BBQ sauce for dipping. Needless to say, they went over BIG TIME and were completely gone in less than an hour. I want to make them again this year, and I think I will try just wrapping the cheese this time instead of inserting it. However, if you are serving these as an appetizer at a dinner party, I highly recommend the use of a chafing dish (if you can find or borrow one). That worked REALLY well for keeping them warm but not making them sogged-out or over-baked. I’m afraid a crock pot would make them too soggy and/or over-baked, and they really aren’t as good served at room temp!!
Ok, my husband is away this week. I would love to give these a test run but I simply KNOW it will end badly – READ: I’ll eat them all in a sitting!! However, I will give them a try next week with family so the decadence can be spread out amongst us. Thanks for the idea!!
I made this for very picky eaters at a pot luck. they were gone in moments! Who doesnt love potatoes and bacon and cheese? They need toothpicks in them during baking.
Chungah, thank you for sharing this most awesome taste explosion! I like to mess around with tastes and have found a couple fav’s with the cheese. First switch was to the jalepeno jack cheese, yummy and to anyone who hasn’t tried the jalepeno jack cheese because they think it will be hot… it is zesty not hot and with the bacon and brown sugar it was delish. The next adventure was with a smoked cheese… smokalicious! The only other change was to have the deli slice the cheese at about a 10 and then I used a pizza cutter to make skinny lengths that were same length as tots. Rolled nicely and got cheese in both bites! Thank you again 🙂
LOL I just have to ask? Both bites?? You are far more restrained and obviously more refined, than I…I fear I will pop the whole thing in my mouth…every time! 🙂 Love the idea of pepper jack…my husband likes spicy and the smoked idea…..BAM!
Cant wait to try them!
Very good recipe!
A few observations:
tater tots at room temperature are more fragile than you think
it takes more bacon than you realize to wrap a tater tot
Check with your wife during cookie season before using all the brown sugar!
1. Yes, tater tots can be fragile, but only if they’ve been sitting out at room temperature for a very long time.
2. Bacon length – that’s really dependent on your taste preferences and how “stretchy” the bacon is. I found that 1/4 piece of bacon is more than enough – anything more is just overkill and too much bacon-to-tot ratio in my opinion.
3. Checking with wife during the holiday season – yes! Good thinking! 🙂
Tried to make them and they were a complete disaster this way. All the sugar burned after 10 mins and smoked up my entire house. I’ll cook the bacon, cheese and tater first and then add sugar see if it works next time.
Oh no! That should really not be happening. I’ve made this at least 5 times and I’ve never had any issues with the sugar burning so quickly. I worry that maybe your oven temperature is not calibrated and it may have been set way higher than it should have been. I highly recommend using an in-oven thermometer – it’s a life-saver!