I added mushrooms and used lots of fresh thyme based on the other reviews. Read all the reviews and understand it's broth base or cubes. Used black pepper, white pepper, and dried thyme. I cut it in half, and it worked in a 8.5' square pyrex dish. When I first put it in oven I thought it might be to runny but when all done it was perfect. Cooked it about 20 minutes then added the tots and upped the heat to 450 for another 30 minutes. I added any and all veggies I had in fridge- peas, corn, frozen spinach, onions, celery, radishes and more. Many said it was bland so I added all sorts of spices like “Everything but Bagel” and “21 seasoning salute” and garlic and seasoned salt and I thought it was delicious.

but I added white wine and Dijon mustard to the roux. It’s tough to find a dish my whole family actually likes. I'll try again, less flour, adding sliced mushrooms for more 'bite', flavor and moisture, perhaps making a cheesy sauce with some canned diced tomatoes to add color and flavor. Six tablespoons of flour rendered it gluey adding white wine made it less sticky but did not save it. Despite adding fresh thyme, mustard, white wine, celery salt, and more pepper, it was practically flavorless. Loved the idea of creamy, satisfying, hot 'farm food'. I haven’t had any issues with it being “bland” like some others have said. I love this dish! It’s easy to make, delicious, and filling. Add the milk and stir in only enough broth to get the right thickness of sauce. Heat the butter until sizzling then stir in ONLY 3 tbps flour and cook until the roux is golden. Saute the onions and carrots then add to the chicken. Transfer to a bowl and use splash of white wine to deglaze the fond.

I tossed the chicken with my standard chicken saute mix (for 1.5 lb chicken: 2 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp granulated onion, 1 tsp granulated garlic, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp baking powder) and sauted at medium high in 1 tbsp oil until well browned and no liquid remains in the pan. You might want to check the wording in step 3, first sentence Grandma would then put a layer of cheese on the meat followed by French cut green beans and topped with mushroom soup canned or homemade, followed by the tots and cooked until bubbly and hot. Ground beef and onions and the usual seasonings, browned.

I'm 73 and my grandmother used to make something similar. I don’t think this will offend a hotdish purist. But a close examination reveals that the only real differences are the subbing of chicken for ground beef and the use of a homemade cream of chicken soup instead of mushroom soup. My Tater Tot hotdish has the body of a chicken pot pie, a dish that I loved growing up, long before I knew the existence of Tater Tot hotdish.

This organizing of the tots might be one of the most sacred food rituals in the Midwest, second only to making lefse. The battle of Most Iconic Hotdish would probably come down to Tater Tot versus wild rice, which is kind of like arguing over which Matthew McConaughey role is the most definitive, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days? Or Dallas Buyers Club? Tater Tot hotdish is typically ground beef, creamed soup (often mushroom), some sort of vegetable (probably peas or green beans, maybe some corn), and then, in the words of Sam Sifton, 'You cover the bitch with Tater Tots.' But you don’t just throw them on like an abstract topping, you have to let your OCD hang out a little and organize them in rows and columns, as neatly as possible.

Tater tot hotdish recipe easy