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If you’ve got an air fryer then you’re just 15 minutes away from super crispy, super fluffy, perfect tater tots, cooked straight from frozen! Once you’ve tried air fryer tater tots, you’ll never cook your tots any other way.
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.
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
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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shake the basket like a crazy person every 5 min lol
We hope you enjoyed them! 😊
Perfection! 15 minutes in the fryer is just right for tots that are as crispy and yummy.
So glad they came out perfectly! Thanks for sharing, Kelly Ann! 😊
Worked great. We got a side by side comparison with oven cooked because we were trying to feed someone in a hurry and air fryer was faster. When family tasted the oven ones, they threw them into the air fryer to try and crisp them up like the batch with your directions. This is especially great for warmer months to not have to use the oven. Thanks!
Oh, I love that so much! So happy these were such a hit for everyone. Thank you for sharing, Terri!
Nice and Crispy. Easy to do.
So glad you enjoyed them, Barbara! 😊
Taste great
So glad you enjoyed them, Cindy!
You are correct, this is how we will always make them
So glad you enjoyed them, Judi! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Excellent!
Great! Thanks so much for the review, Ronald!
Thanks, it was great w/ chilli and chs-
Great! Thanks for the review!
Why would organic tater tots be healthier?
Organic versions tend to be made with better ingredients, fewer ingredients, and fewer additives and artificial preservatives than regular versions.
I did not get good results–set the air fryer to air fry at 400. Waited a few. Cooked for 15 minutes–shaking and baking every 5–and even pushed it to 35 minutes—not just as good as a deep fried tater tot. And, I don’t mean to be a hater-hot-(= but, am I missing something; they tasted weird and crumbly, not crispy. Did the cooking spray coating too. Any advice? I used one of those toaster oven looking air fryers
I’m so sorry you had that experience with this method, Joe! It sounds like your tater tots may have been expired before you cooked them. Were they frozen for longer than 6 months? An off-taste and crumbly or mealy texture are definitely signs of tater tots gone bad. I hope you’ll give it another try!
We tried air frying tater tots and they were very good. I had forgotten to pick up spray oil so they weren’t as crisp as they could have been. But still came out really well.
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Joretta! 🙂