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No deep frying here – just golden tater tots, cooked perfectly in less than 15 minutes thanks to the air fryer! With this easy method, you can go from frozen potato barrels to fluffy, crunchy crispy crowns with zero prep and almost no effort. You’ll never cook tater tots any other way again!
How to Make This Recipe
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
Preheat your air fryer.
It seems simple, but I’m calling it out with its own mini-section here because it’s that important! Preheating the air fryer lets the tater tots start crisping the moment they hit the basket. It’s not hard to do – just turn the air fryer on and wait about 5 minutes before adding the tater tots.
Shake, Shake, Shake.
Once you add the tater tots to the basket and put the basket in the air fryer, you’re basically done – but not quite. The next step is just as important as the preheat. Every 3-5 minutes, pause the air fryer, remove the basket, and give it a good shake.
Cheryl’s Tip: Shaking the basket tosses the tater tots so they cook evenly on all sides – but it also gives you an opportunity to check on them and make sure they’re not getting too crispy.
Serve & Enjoy!
When you’ve got your tater tots as crispy as you like them, transfer them out of the basket, serve them with kitchup, ranch, or whatever else you like, and enjoy!
What I Love About This Recipe
- No deep frying, no pots full of oil. Air fryer tater tots crisp up just as beautifully as traditional fried tots, but they’re so much lighter. There’s less work and clean-up involved, too!
- It only takes about 15 minutes or so to air fry tater tots, and that’s with them starting out in the freezer! That’s right. No need to defrost them for any length of time. Just rip open the bag and dump them straight into the preheated air fryer.
- You don’t need any extra ingredients or anything – just frozen tots and a little spray oil. You can add salt if you want, but it’s not mandatory.
5 Ways to Serve Air Fryer Tater Tots
- Totchos: Think nachos, but replace that bed of crunchy tortilla chips with crispy tater tots. You can load them up with any of your favorite toppings: BBQ pulled pork and nacho cheese. Ground beef and burger sauce. Shredded chicken with a creamy ranch dressing. Shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, sliced green onions, or whatever you like!
- Breakfast Tots: Air fried tater tots are a great, easy alternative to traditional breakfast potatoes. Make them the base of your breakfast bowl with scrambled eggs, shredded cheddar, crumbled breakfast sausage, and a drizzle of rich white gravy. A delicious way to start the day!
- Baked Potato Tots: Once the tots are fully cooked, turn off the air fryer and sprinkle a little shredded cheese over them. Pop the basket back in the air fryer for 30-60 seconds, just long enough for the residual heat to melt the cheese. Scoop the cheesy tots on to a plate, top with crumbled bacon, a dollop of sour cream, and chopped fresh chives. So much faster and easier than baking whole potatoes!
- Tater Tot Skewers: Air fry the tots as instructed, then thread them onto bamboo skewers. I like to alternate each tater tot with small cubes of pepper jack or cheddar. You could also fit 5-6 tots on each skewer and then drizzle melted cheese on top instead! To beef them up a bit, thread strips of cooked bacon in between each tot, too. Serve with ranch, or drizzle ranch over the assembled tot kebabs.
- Bacon Jam Tots: Air fry the tater tots then serve them with sweet, savory bacon jam for dipping. INCREDIBLE! Of course, you could use bacon jam on top of the crispy tater tots along with any other topping combo, but I love the simplicity of the dip + vessel duo.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Air Fryer Tater Tots Recipe
Equipment
- air fryer
- neutral-flavored spray oil must be safe for air fryers
Ingredients
- 16 ounces frozen tater tots
- salt to taste, optional
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer to 400° Fahrenheit.
- Lightly spray air fryer basket with neutral spray oil, then place 16 ounces frozen tater tots in basket. Lightly spray tops of tater tots with oil. If desired, sprinkle salt over tater tots to taste.
- Place basket in preheated air fryer. Air fry tater tots 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, remove basket from air fryer and shake basket to toss tater tots. Return basket to air fryer and air fry tater tots 3 minutes more.
- Repeat process, shaking basket every 3 to 5 minutes, until tater tots are as crispy as desired. Note: check tater tots often to prevent burning.
- When satisfied with crispiness of tater tots, remove basket from air fryer and transfer tater tots to bowl. Serve as desired.
Video
- This method works for any number of tater tots. If if your air fryer is small or you’re cooking a large amount of tots, you’ll want to work in batches.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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- Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken in the Air Fryer
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I’ve eaten a lot of taters but this is the only way I’ll ever eat them again. thanks (*!*)
Our pleasure, Kelma! Thanks for your review!
I love your instructions on cooking Potato Gems/Tater Tots. So easy, and so much healthier than cooking them in a deep fryer.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Easy and very good
Agreed!
I love my air fryer and I absolutely love tater tots in the air fryer. Made according to your recipe. They are the best! Ty
Thank you, April! We couldn’t agree more. 🙂
Best tater tots ever!!
Thank you! We agree. 🙂
Used this recipe just yesterday and they were the best tater tots we’ve ever had! Done in 15m and were perfectly brown and crispy. Yum!
Just got an air fryer and looked up recipes for tater tots. Saw this one and it turned out perfect! So easy, too! Turned out crispy outside and soft inside!
So simple but they made the tater tots SO GOOD
A wine paring with tater tots? I love it! Turned out great!
So tasty!!
These were VERY close to deep-fried tater tots; not quite as good as ones from a restaurant deep-fryer, but definitely better than what I can bake in the oven! I’ll definitely make them again (I really want to toss them with truffle salt before serving). I do have a request: can the recipe have an approximation as to how many tots constitute one serving? The nutritional data from the package of my tots was a bit more specific, and it appears the kcals & CHO on this page would be for about 10 tots (give or take). Regardless, these were pretty dang good.
This recipe is definitely better than the oven. So crispy with less fat than frying!