Andrew Zimmern’s 5-Ingredient Casserole Is a Midwestern Classic

Chef Andrew Zimmern may be best known as an award-winning TV host, food writer, and all around must-follow on Instagram, but you may not know that he calls the Midwest home. While his sticky wings and French onion soup are legendary dishes, the New Yorker-turned-Minnesotan can also make a pretty mean hotdish. What’s a hotdish, you ask? Only a Midwestern staple for which every home cook has a go-to recipe waiting in their back pocket.

A hotdish is essentially a casserole that typically consists of a starch (potatoes or pasta are most common), frozen vegetables, a meat, and a can of cream-of-something soup. It’s almost always assembled and cooked in one dish, or, if a separate pot/pan is used, everything is later assembled in the same vessel to keep it simple and help the flavors meld.

One of the most popular hotdishes also happens to be the one Zimmern says is his go-to dinner when he just doesn’t feel like cooking—the tater tot hotdish.

“I live in Minnesota, but I’m from New York. I’d never eaten a hotdish or casserole in my life until I moved here,” Zimmern said in an interview with Allrecipes. “The tater tot hotdish is a classic that I kind of altered a bit, and that is literally five ingredients.”

Those five ingredients are ground beef, onion, condensed cream of mushroom soup, frozen green beans, and frozen tater tots. Zimmern says that he always has those ingredients stocked in his house, so that when he gets back from a long day of judging on “Silos Baking Championship” (whose finale airs Sunday, June 25), or creating content for his site and social media, he can easily throw the dish together.

“I always have those ingredients on hand, in fact, they’re on hand in my house right now as we speak. So, if you were coming for dinner tonight and wanted tater tot hotdish, I could make it for you,” he added. 

Despite the ease of this five-ingredient recipe, you might not always have those specific ingredients on hand. But that’s okay, Zimmern says you can use whatever you have in your freezer or pantry.

“You want to change the potato? Great. You want to change the meat? Great. You want to do cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom? Great, by all means, do it.” he said. “I try to be a smart shopper. So, I always have ground meat in my freezer, I always have tater tots, I always have the frozen veggies. [But] if you have a head of broccoli that’s on its dying days in your vegetable crisper, by all means, just chop it up and throw it in there.”

Now that we know what we’re making for dinner tonight, here’s how to make Zimmern’s favorite hotdish.

How To Make Andrew Zimmern's Tater Tot Hotdish

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 (16 ounce bag) cut frozen green beans
• 24 ounces frozen tater tots
• Salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Over medium-high heat, brown beef and onions together in a large casserole pot. Season the meat with salt and freshly ground black pepper while it’s browning.
3. When the beef is cook through, nicely browned and the juices have collected and evaporated, pull from heat. Place green beans on top of the meat. Season with salt and pepper. Using a spatula, spread the undiluted condensed soup over the beans. Add the tater tots as the final layer.
4. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 35-45 minutes until the tots are browned and well crisped. Season with sea salt. Let cool for 5 minutes, scoop and serve. Ketchup is a nice touch.

This recipe was developed by Andrew Zimmern and has been adapted slightly for clarity and to reflect our interview with Zimmern.