This Chicken Bacon Ranch Tater Tot Casserole is an all time family favorite made with chicken, bacon, cheese and a delicious creamy ranch sauce that everyone will love!
You can’t go wrong with making this Chicken Bacon Ranch Tater Tot Casserole for the family. It’s an easy recipe to throw together especially on a busy night when you don’t have a lot of time to cook. Ingredients are simple and ones you probably already have in the house.
This recipe is also a great way to use up some leftover chicken if you’ve cooked too much the night before. It’s one of my family’s favorite dish to eat with usually no leftovers and a mom’s favorite time saving recipe.
How to Save Even More Time on this Recipe
Chicken: You can cook the chicken the night before and shred or you can cook in the crockpot on the same day earlier in the day. A fast and easy way to shred chicken is to use an electric mixer on medium speed or a kitchenaid mixer.
Bacon: Cook the bacon the night before or use microwave bacon right before you make the casserole.
What You Need
- cooked bacon or microwave bacon
- cooked and shredded chicken breasts
- frozen tater tots
- ranch dressing
- milk
- all-purpose flour
- butter
- shredded mild cheddar cheese
- salt & pepper
How to Make Chicken Bacon Ranch Tater Tot Casserole
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Cook chicken in a separate pan until done or use one of my time saving tips from above. Let chicken cool a few minutes and shred with a mixer.
Using a small saucepan, melt butter on low heat, whisk in flour and add salt and pepper to taste. Whisk the milk in the saucepan mixture slowly pouring a little bit at a time. Mix until you get a creamy consistency and add in ranch dressing and mix.
Spray a 9×13 baking dish and add a layer of chicken, then sauce, then half of cheese, then tater tots and cook for 20 minutes uncovered.
Crumble cooked bacon while waiting for the casserole to cook and set aside. Make sure the tater tots are a golden color and crispy and then top the casserole with the remaining cheese and crumbled bacon.
Bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Take out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes and then enjoy!
Recipe
Chicken Bacon Ranch Tater Tot Casserole
Ingredients
- 6 slices of cooked bacon or you can use microwave bacon
- 4 cooked and shredded chicken breasts
- 32 oz. bag of frozen tater tots
- ½ cup ranch dressing
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 ½ cups shredded mild cheddar cheese
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Cook chicken in a separate pan until done. Let chicken cool a few minutes and shred with a mixer.
- Using a small saucepan, melt butter on low heat, whisk in flour and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Whisk the milk in the saucepan mixture slowly pouring a little bit at a time. Mix until you get a creamy consistency and add in ranch dressing and mix.
- Spray a 9x13 baking dish and add a layer of chicken, then sauce, then half of cheese, then tater tots and cook for 20 minutes uncovered.
- Crumble cooked bacon while waiting for the casserole to cook and set aside.
- Make sure the tater tots are a golden color and crispy and then top the casserole with the remaining cheese and crumbled bacon. Bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Take out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes and then enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclosure
Nutritional facts are estimates and are provided as a courtesy to the reader. Please utilize your own brand nutritional values to double check against our estimates. Nutritional values are calculated via a third party. Changing ingredients, amounts or cooking technique will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
Ann
Can I use cornstarch to thicken instead of flour? I want to make this gluten free! Thank You, Ann
Karen
DO NOT try to print this recipe out unless you want to print all 9 pages and waste a lot of toner!
Alison
Karen you can delete what you don’t want printed before you print such as photos, text, etc. Just hover over what you want to delete and click to delete.
Ann
I asked a question Sept. but never got an an answer, I guess it was a dumb question!
Terri
Yes just use half as much cornstarch.
Alison
Sorry Ann, No it was not a dumb question at all. I am just really bad at responding to comments. It was my fault. Thanks Terri for answering for me. I appreciate it.
Lora
Ranch dressing, the bottle ranch or ranch from package?
Art
Bottle
Nicole
What size bag of tots?
Tanya
Yea that’s what I’d like to know too , there are small and big size , the small wouldn’t feed but 1 person !!
Kim
When I find a recipe where someone has forgotten the for something like tator tots I consider the size of the pan and judge what I think it would need. In this case go with a large bag if you have extra you can use it for something else! I only mean to help idk this person who posted the recipe but I hope it is good! I am going to cheat and by a rotisserie chicken which should give me extra meat as I have a large family I can make a larger batch!
Alison
I updated the recipe to 32 oz. bag of tater tots. I also use the tater rounds in my recipe.
denise
It doesn’t seem like only 3 chicken breasts shredded would sufficiently cover the bottom of a 9×13 pan
Krystal
What’s the best way to cook the chicken before putting it in the casserole?
Scott
Oh my god wow just a stab in the dark but you strike me as an American lol how do you usually cook chicken? if it was me I’d put it on the hot asphalt and let nature cook it for me or if you’re feeling adventurous try summon satan and ask nicely If he’ll take it down to the fiery depths of hell and chuck it on the BBQ for around 5 min a side depending on the temperature down there but I’m sure he knows what he’s doing!! hope this helps
Tawre Dellavalle
Scott. Be nice! No question is stupid, but there are dumb answers.
Krystal. I like to bake mine at 350 for 45-1 hour or sauté till done. Either way – use a thermometer to check temp. Needs to be 180.
Diane
I like to cook mine in the crockpot with water,
Alison
I’ll have to try this sometime.
Terri
Instead of making the sauce can you use cream of chicken soup and add the ranch that way
She Brown
Can this be frozen for individual meals?
Mimi
Yes!
mary
could you add green beans
Alison
Yes!
Jean Pearcy
Our family does not like the taste of Ranch, is there anything else to substitute ?
Gary Thordarson
Loved this dish! I changed a few things because the chicken my wife bought were precooked tubs from Walmart deli. She bought 2, and there was no way to tell how many breasts it was, but it was more than the recipe called for. I used 5 tbs butter, 4 tbs flour 1 cup ranch and 1 1/2 cups half and half, then i added 2 heaping tbs ranch seasoning. I also used 8 pieces bacon, because there’s never enough bacon. Turned out pretty great according to my wife, and I liked it a lot, too. Next time, I will increase the bacon again. Also, instead of greasing the pan, I used a paper towel and dabbed it into the bacon grease. Recycle reuse! Lol. Thank you!