Buffalo Chicken Tater Tot Casserole

Great pub food and \ comfort food combined. Buffalo chicken with blue cheese covered with Tater Tots and grated cheese. Baked and then topped with celery before serving.

I love wings. We don’t eat out that often, but when we do, I often like to get wings. There are many flavors that I like, but my favorite has to be buffalo. Buffalo is the classic wing flavor and I love it when it is extra hot. Buffalo flavor has moved well beyond wings anymore and is now popular with potato chips, cans of soup and even Velveeta cheese.

I was craving buffalo chicken and decided it was time to make a buffalo chicken casserole. The buffalo chicken is covered with Tater Tots which are little bite size hash brown potatoes. They are found in the freezer section of your grocery store.

This buffalo chicken tater tot casserole is the perfect combination of great pub food and comfort food!

Great pub food and \ comfort food combined. Buffalo chicken with blue cheese covered with Tater Tots and grated cheese. Baked and then topped with celery before serving.

If you go to a restaurant and order buffalo wings, not only do you get awesome flavored wings, but you also usually get celery sticks and blue cheese ranch dip. They all work so well together and really seem to be part of the buffalo flavor experience.

So, I had to make sure that both blue cheese and the great crunch of celery made it in this casserole. The celery is not baked with the casserole, but instead sprinkled on the casserole just before serving. This provides a nice crunchy textural component for this casserole.

Spread the buffalo chicken filling with blue cheese

Mix the cubed cooked chicken breast with the buffalo sauce and spread it on the bottom of the 13×9 baking dish. Sprinkle the crumbled blue cheese on top of the buffalo chicken and then lay the Tater Tots on top of them. Lay them length wise and in straight lines as seen in the picture above.

Place Tate Tots on top and drizzle with buffalo sauce and grated cheese

Drizzle the reserved buffalo sauce over the Tater Tots and sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in a 350F oven for 30-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and tops with the diced celery before serving.

Bake the casserole until tots are crispy on top

This Tater Tot casserole turned out amazing. I love buffalo chicken in so many things and this dish is one of my new favourites.

I made another casserole with chicken and tater tots and it goes great alongside this buffalo chicken version.

Check out the other recipe here: Country Chicken Tater Tot Casserole.

Buffalo Chicken Tater Tot Casserole

4.46 out of 5
11 reviews
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Great pub food and comfort food combined. Buffalo chicken with blue cheese covered with Tater Tots and grated cheese. Baked and then topped with celery before serving.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Servings: 8

Ingredients

  • 4 cooked chicken breasts diced (about 2 pounds)
  • 3/4 cup butter
  • 1 cup hot sauce
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
  • 1 package (1kg) Tater Tots
  • 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
  • 3/4 cup diced celery

Instructions

  • Make the buffalo sauce by melting the butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Whisk in the hot sauce, garlic powder and salt. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes and then remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
  • Preheat oven to 350F.
  • Take 1/3 cup of buffalo sauce and set aside for later. Take remaining buffalo sauce, mix it with the cubed chicken and spread it in the bottom of a 13x9 casserole dish.
  • Sprinkle the crumbled blue cheese on top of the buffalo chicken mixture.
  • Take the Tater tots out of the freezer. Lay them, lengthwise and in straight lines (rows), evenly on the buffalo chicken and blue cheese. One bag (1kg or 2 pounds) of Tater Tots should be more than enough to cover the casserole dish.
  • Drizzle the reserved buffalo sauce on top of the Tater Tots and sprinkle with grated cheese.
  • Bake in the 350F oven for 30-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes.
  • Sprinkle with diced celery before serving.

Notes

Slow Cooker Option: If you desire to use a crockpot instead of the oven, assemble the casserole in the slow cooker dish. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

 

Categories

Great pub food and \ comfort food combined. Buffalo chicken with blue cheese covered with Tater Tots and grated cheese. Baked and then topped with celery before serving.

Did you try this recipe?

Leave a comment and let me know how it turned out. Or, take a picture to share on Instagram and tag me @theblackpeppercorn.

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Recipe Rating




32 comments

  • 4 stars
    Excellent dish! I made this today and used chopped up bits of leg quarters instead of chicken breasts. Like many other commenters, I am not a fan of blue cheese. So, I drizzled a bit of ranch dressing on that layer; I also drizzled some ranch dressing on top. It was incredible. My only complaint / suggestion for revision would be the butter. I found 3/4 cup of butter entirely too much, and when I make it again, I would most certainly cut it down to at least 1/2 cup, if not less.

    • Reply
  • 5 stars
    I make this pretty often for my guys.. they LOOOOVE it! I don’t add the celery on top and most times, no salt. The hot sauce is salty enough! Ty so much for this awesome recipe!

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  • 5 stars
    My husband and I love blue cheese, so this was perfect for us. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  • Do you need to cook the chicken breast before hand?

    • Reply
    • Yes, cook the chicken before.

      • Reply
      • If you use the slow cooker version, should the chicken be cook ahead?

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  • Do you cook the tater tots first? Or put them in the dish frozen?

    • Reply
    • I use frozen and they crisp up nicely when in the oven.

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  • 5 stars
    I made this today and it was fatastic!! I didn’t have blue cheese as we don’t care for it so I just sprinkled a little shredded Fiesta cheese over the chicken mixture. I only used 1/2 cup of Buffalo sauce because my boyfriend doesn’t like real hot dishes but it was so darn good we both had second helpings! This recipe is certainly a keeper. Maybe next time I’ll sneak in a bit more sauce. Thank you for a great, and easy, recipe.

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  • 4 stars
    I really liked the idea of this recipe. But like another reviewer, I HATE blue cheese. So, I added an 8oz pkg of cream cheese to the chicken-buffalo sauce on bottom. I think it added better flavors and texture so it doesn’t fall apart. I also used a package of powdered ranch mix to sprinkle over the top to substitute the blue cheese.
    it turned out delicious!! Thanks for the idea!!

    • Reply
  • Thanks for sharing this recipe! We just featured it on our blog, Recipe Chatter. Check it out here: http://www.recipechatter.com/crazy-obsession-tater-tots/

    Thanks!

    • Reply
  • my husband LOVES hot wings but eats them with ranch because he hates blue cheese. any suggestions for subbing the blue cheese? another white cheese or maybe drizzle ranch at the end? thanks!

    • Reply
    • I would just omit the blue cheese and maybe add extra cheddar. Drizzling it with ranch once it comes out of the oven might work also

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    • Why not use mozzarella? That’s what I did and it was yummy

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  • Sounds delicious! But I don’t like blue cheese. How could I sub ranch dressing instead?

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  • Looking foward to making this today for gameday! My kids are going to be blown away! Mahalo Steve 🙂

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  • I’ve made this a few times and each has been just as good as the last! It’s perfect because the recipe can be tweaked to make a larger or smaller portion.

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  • Terrific! Very easy and delicious.

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  • The recipe calls for 4 cooked chicken breast. Would you say that’s a pound of chicken? More? We all know the varying sizes of chicken pieces. Thanks.

    • Reply
    • I would say it is closer to 2 pounds of chicken. You want a decent amount to cover the bottom of the casserole dish.

      • Reply
  • I just made this up here in Alaska…it was AWESOME! 2 thumbs up from SE AK!

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  • 4 stars
    This was awesome Steve! I believe I said you were on a roll one week on G+ and I wasn’t kidding! I just had to make this one and post about my experience making it! My pictures made it look radioactive 🙂 but it was delicious! And I linked back to you a few times over! Thanks again for the recipe! Cheers!

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  • My kids would do cartwheels for this one. Wow… love it. 🙂

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  • This looks good too! I love buffalo wings – a nice way to get all the flavours together in one dish! Mmmmm!

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  • great idea!!!
    I made it with Frank’s Hot Sauce, and used chicken thighs.

    • Reply
  • This combination appealed to me greatly, Steve. (Not just because I have cooked chicken breast and blue cheese to use up in my fridge, although I love recipes that aid my “recycling” efforts!) It’s imaginative, flavorful, and creative… thank you!

    • Reply

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