The Best Homemade Tater Tots

0:00 God, I always feel like I'm saying the best

0:01 this, we're going to make the best that.

0:03 It's always about the best.

0:04 Well, yeah, you're goddamn right.

0:06 These are the best tater tots ever.

0:10 Beef fat confit tater tots.

0:13 It sounds fancy and it tastes even [music]

0:15 more luxurious than the words escaping your lips.

0:18 This is not just a tater tot.

0:21 This is a potato experience and [music] it's really a very basic dish.

0:24 You only need four ingredients, potatoes,

0:25 cornstarch, some simple seasonings and beef fat.

0:28 Super easy, not very expensive to make and anybody can do [music] this.

0:33 They're so ridiculously crunchy,

0:35 but the inside is so luscious and delicate and rich and luxurious.

0:39 So, that being said, let's make this, shall we?

0:42 Now, we've got a pretty unusual technique for making these tater tots,

0:44 but the goal is to make them the best of all time.

0:46 Then we'll shape them and let them rest and while they're freezing,

0:49 we'll whip together a quick sauce, fry and serve.

0:53 Unfortunately, if you're going to make a tater tot, you got to have potatoes.

0:56 Aw, sorry.

0:57 Someone's going to about it.

0:59 I got to say something.

1:00 3 lbs.

1:01 We got big dogs here, okay?

1:03 You put these together, these look like I'm sure there's some No.

1:06 No, Josh, don't say it.

1:07 3 lbs of russet potatoes.

1:10 We're going to peel them.

1:11 You've seen me do this trick.

1:12 You want to make cleanup easy, you can peel them over parchment paper.

1:15 Completely optional, not uh mandatory,

1:18 but it does make the cleanup a little bit easier.

1:19 So, you'll peel all them first.

1:22 [music] Okay.

1:21 See, so once you're done peeling, you just do this.

1:24 That's nice.

1:25 Sometimes you just got to make life easier, man.

1:27 Next important phase, [music] a clean tea towel, dish towel, whatever.

1:30 Lay that out on a board and directly on top of it,

1:33 box grater on this setting, right?

1:36 So, not the whatever the that is.

1:37 Not the fine setting and not the I call this the pecorino setting.

1:41 Coarse grate all of your potatoes.

1:43 We've got three large potatoes which will make approximately 3 lbs.

1:46 So, uh kind of takes a while, I'm going to be honest with you.

1:49 You know, if you have a food processor [music] with the greater attachment,

1:52 this would really go by a lot faster.

1:54 Yeah, it's low-key a tricep killer.

1:56 Woo.

1:57 This is step one of the more critical parts

1:59 of the process and it really determines the texture of your tot.

2:02 Now, once that's all grated,

2:04 gather up your tea towel and throw this in the trash.

2:06 No, I'm just kidding.

2:06 You're going to gather all this up, right?

2:09 Hear that?

2:10 There's a lot of You see?

2:12 There's a lot of water in this.

2:13 We need to get that Woo.

2:15 We need to get that starchy water out of this as much as possible.

2:18 So, hold it over a sink or a bowl and just give it a good squeeze.

2:21 There is a lot of liquid in this.

2:23 Uh I need you to either find the strongest person in your house

2:26 or maybe do a little prayer beforehand cuz you need to really squeeze this.

2:30 You can also twist the top to make it

2:32 more taut and just [music] really wring it out.

2:34 It's okay if you don't get absolutely all of it out,

2:36 but the goal is just to get out as much as you can.

2:38 [music] Whatever isn't drained out, um will find its way out of there.

2:41 Okay.

2:42 So, I've got my little workout in.

2:43 We actually have even less volume now because

2:45 a lot of that was just liquid, right?

2:47 Now, it's all compacted together.

2:48 It should feel a lot drier, not quite so wet.

2:52 Now, we can move on to the next [music] and most important step.

2:56 Here I have a large pot filled with about 2 and 1/2 3 quarts of beef tallow.

3:01 You can do vegetable oil, you can do canola oil,

3:03 but beef tallow, obviously, healthier for you, tastes way, way better.

3:07 We're going to use this oil twice.

3:09 You can see this is not fully melted, that's fine.

3:11 Most of it is melted.

3:12 We're going to keep heating that over medium heat and then

3:14 we're just going to add in our potatoes directly into the oil.

3:17 Yes, it's cold.

3:18 We're not deep frying it.

3:19 We're just going to lightly confit this first.

3:22 That's all of our potato shredded in and we're just

3:25 going to stir that to saturate it in the oil.

3:27 Now, once all your beef fat is melted,

3:29 you're going to reduce the heat to about medium low and we're going

3:31 to very gently cook this in the fat just until it turns translucent.

3:35 This is known as confiting and it's sort

3:37 of like 60 75% of the way cooked through,

3:39 but still a little bit raw on the inside.

3:41 We don't want to fully cook it,

3:42 otherwise it's going to turn into mashed potatoes.

3:44 All right, these are done.

3:45 Now, we're going to strain them through a fine mesh strainer.

3:47 Be careful, this oil is hot.

3:49 You can kind of shake it out so it doesn't splash you.

3:52 Part cooking the potato is extremely important.

3:53 You might be tempted to totally skip this.

3:55 At this point in my life,

3:56 I've realized kind of the general questions people might ask out the gate

4:00 or just do and then they'll come and complain to me later.

4:03 Let me tell you something, you cannot skip this part.

4:05 It's a different recipe at that point.

4:06 This is the key.

4:07 I know it seems annoying,

4:08 but you're already going to be deep frying them, right?

4:10 You're already going to be using the oil, right?

4:12 You can reuse this and we are going to reuse this to fry.

4:15 So, you might as well do this step.

4:16 Trust me, it is going to [music] make the best tater tots you have ever made.

4:20 It's the part cooking that gets them ready

4:23 to just become so just like The only term

4:25 I can think is like you eat it and your brain just goes goo goo ga ga.

4:28 That's the way I would describe it.

4:29 Now, try to drain all that excess oil out best you can.

4:32 You can push it out a little bit.

4:33 Now, we're going to invert onto a sheet tray

4:36 and I want you to kind of spread that out.

4:38 You can use tongs, you can use a spoon

4:39 and look at all the steam coming off this.

4:41 This is so hot.

4:43 I don't really want to add a ton of starch to really hot steamy veg.

4:46 I want it to cool down a little bit,

4:48 but this is also an opportunity to just see it all

4:50 in front of you and instead of seasoning it at the end,

4:53 we're going to season it all the way perfectly with salt now.

4:56 So, all we got to do is shape, freeze, fry.

4:58 They'll be seasoned perfectly, you just fry them and serve them.

5:01 So, in a small bowl, you're going to add 1 and 1/2 tbsp of kosher salt,

5:05 1/2 a tsp of onion powder and [music] 2 tsps of garlic powder.

5:10 Whisk that together till combined and then now

5:12 we're going to use this as our seasoning salt,

5:14 season these potatoes beautifully.

5:15 So, grab some of the seasoning, sprinkle it all over your potatoes nicely.

5:20 We're not going to use it all, just use a little bit of it for right now.

5:22 You could also add like chicken bouillon or MSG to this, I bet it'd be fire.

5:25 Now, we're going to toss all that together.

5:27 This is really hot, by the way, so I would recommend doing this with a tool.

5:30 So, toss it together, fold it together,

5:32 just get that seasoning thoroughly, thoroughly mixed in there.

5:35 See, if you fully cook these, by the time you

5:37 were finished stirring these, you would uh have mashed potatoes.

5:39 That would suck.

5:40 Okay, let's give it a little taste.

5:43 Good, but want more salt.

5:45 So, we're going to add another layer

5:47 and you're just going to keep doing this until

5:48 you either added all of this or it's

5:50 seasoned it tastes to your liking with salt.

5:53 [music] If you feel it needs to be saltier

5:53 after this, you can just add more kosher salt.

5:55 Don't add more spices.

5:56 Then finish mixing that together.

5:58 So, now the beauty of this is this is cooled down.

6:00 I can now touch it with my hands.

6:01 Okay, so spread this out evenly and then we're just going

6:03 to add 5 and 1/2 tbsp or 55 g of cornstarch.

6:07 And first I'm going to add half of it, not all of it.

6:09 Then I'm going to fold the potato in [music]

6:12 and just kind of knead that all together, kind of like a dough, right?

6:14 We're kind of just mixing this together.

6:16 You can see already it's starting to kind of form together, that's good.

6:19 Now, we're going to add the other half.

6:20 Just finish mixing that together.

6:22 So, you'll notice these are still pretty loose.

6:23 That's kind of the goal.

6:25 Like see how it still falls apart,

6:26 but if you squeeze it together, it will hold its shape.

6:30 That's kind of the goal because that's how you end

6:32 up with those nice little gnarly crunchy bits on the inside.

6:35 So, now we shape.

6:36 I've got a sheet tray that's been sprayed

6:38 with baking spray so that the parchment adheres to it.

6:41 We're going to parchment line that bad boy.

6:43 You can also spray the parchment sheet with just a touch

6:45 of oil just to make it a little more nonstick.

6:47 Now, for the potatoes, you're going to want little 1 oz portions.

6:50 You're going to kind of [music] squeeze them,

6:52 toss them in between your hand until you get a rough sort of ball shape, right?

6:56 Then you're going to take that ball, kind of form your hand around it.

7:00 So, you're kind of forming it into a cylinder.

7:01 But now it's not quite well shaped, right?

7:03 You've got kind of more of a turd shape.

7:04 I don't want that.

7:05 So, you're going to use your index and your thumb to flatten

7:08 the top and the bottom while you roll it into that cylinder.

7:11 Then you end up with a beautiful tater tot shape.

7:15 Now, you're going to repeat that process quite a few

7:17 times until you have used all of your potatoes.

7:19 I would recommend forcing a friend or family member

7:22 to help you do this so it goes by faster.

7:24 It won't take that long, probably take about 15 minutes with a helper,

7:27 20 to 25 minutes [music] by yourself.

7:29 You can also use a 1 oz cookie scoop to make

7:31 this go by a little faster in terms of portioning them.

7:33 That'll get you 50 [music] to 52 tater tots.

7:37 They're not perfect, but they're relatively similar in size.

7:40 Now, we're going to take these, we're going to pop

7:41 those in the freezer and freeze them until completely solid.

7:45 At least 2 to 3 hours, but ideally overnight.

7:47 You could hypothetically fry them right now,

7:49 but the benefit of freezing them until solid is number one, better texture.

7:52 Number two, you can leave them in the freezer

7:55 pretty much indefinitely until you're ready to use them.

7:57 So, you could do this a week ahead, a month ahead, 6 months ahead.

8:00 I don't know who's prepping that far in advance, but into [music] the freezer.

8:03 If you're going to make tater tots, you might as well make a tater tot sauce.

8:07 So, we're making kind of a riff on a remoulade, if you will.

8:10 So, we've got 1 cup of mayonnaise.

8:13 This can be any mayonnaise.

8:14 It could be Coopy, it could be Duke's, [music] it could be your own mayonnaise.

8:17 I don't care.

8:17 And then a 1/4 cup of Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp of Tabasco,

8:22 1 and 1/2 tsps of Cajun seasoning [music] and 1 tsp of MSG.

8:26 Now, whisk all that together.

8:28 Now, that's a delicious, beautiful looking sauce as it is,

8:30 but it definitely needs some sustenance to it.

8:33 So, we're going to add half of a large shallot.

8:36 I would basically just be going for like a 1/4 cup very finely chopped.

8:40 I'm going to run my knife through that a couple more times.

8:43 Here's the problem with making it too coarse.

8:44 If you make it too coarse, it won't really cling to your tater tot

8:48 in the way that you want it to cling, right?

8:49 If it's a big chunk, it's just going to kind of fall off or you

8:52 end up with a big chunk of shallot in your mouth.

8:53 Nobody wants that.

8:54 So, we're going to want to chop it pretty finely.

8:56 Slide that off to the side.

8:57 Your eyes will be burning at this point.

8:59 Mother of God.

9:00 And then one small dill pickle.

9:02 We're going to do roughly the same amount,

9:03 about 2 tbsp of dill pickle [music] very finely chopped.

9:07 And about 2 and 1/2 tbsp of finely chopped capers.

9:10 Place all those into a bowl and then

9:11 to that add about 2 tbsp of thinly sliced chives,

9:15 two cloves of freshly grated garlic,

9:17 fresh cracked black pepper and we're just going to stir that together.

9:20 Oh, yeah, now we're talking.

9:22 I mean, look at that.

9:22 It's got that perfect remoulade texture.

9:25 This would be so good on like a shrimp po' boy or a sandwich.

9:29 Even on a burger, honestly.

9:30 As a salad dressing or as a tater tot dip.

9:33 Look at this.

9:34 It looks stunning.

9:36 All right, now we fry.

9:38 We have our tallow that's been left over is now in a Dutch oven

9:41 set to 350° F and by that I mean the oil is 350° F.

9:45 So, we can drop in our frozen tots.

9:48 I'd recommend getting a spider and just loading it up with the tots.

9:51 Don't drop them in individually, it's dangerous, right?

9:53 Just lower them in.

9:54 I would probably fry these in maybe two batches.

9:57 I think that's your best bet.

9:58 You do any more than that, you might risk overflowing.

10:01 We don't want that.

10:02 And you're going to let those fry beautifully for 3 to 4 minutes.

10:05 Just be aware that if they start to stick at all, don't worry.

10:08 Let them kind of get a little browning.

10:09 Once they start to solidify,

10:10 you can use scissors to snip them if they [music] do stick.

10:13 Now, once these turn a beautiful deep golden brown, crispy,

10:17 GBD, golden brown delicious, they should look something like that.

10:20 They will feel a bit soft at first,

10:21 but they will crisp up as they sit and cool off.

10:24 So, you're going to drain those, let that kind of dribble out from your spider,

10:27 pull them out, and set over a wire rack.

10:30 You don't have to season these again cuz you've already seasoned them.

10:33 And then fry your next batch.

10:35 Wow, these look amazing.

10:36 Holy Repeat that with the rest of your tater tots,

10:38 which you should only have to do one more batch, and then serve.

10:41 Plating this is very simple.

10:42 You could literally just throw these in a bag,

10:44 you can throw them on a plate, you can throw them in a bowl.

10:45 I don't care.

10:46 Just pile them high.

10:47 Be sure to serve them with your sauce and enjoy.

10:49 You will have leftover sauce.

10:50 That was on purpose.

10:51 Use that for literally whatever else you want.

10:53 Wow.

10:53 This is a plate of tater tots.

10:55 There's not a whole lot to talk about, so let's just eat one.

11:00 Single-handedly the crunchiest little morsel of potato.

11:03 Good lord.

11:04 Possibly the best [music] flavor on Earth is beef fat and potatoes.

11:09 And it's the perfect combo of flavors here.

11:11 It lifts the flavor of the potato so much without overwhelming it.

11:14 It's seasoned perfectly.

11:15 The inside, velvety confit potato.

11:18 The outside, unbelievable airy crunch.

11:21 And then with this sauce, insane.

11:26 Perfectly balanced.

11:27 The sauce is a little spicy.

11:28 God, I mean, I feel like I'm downplaying this too much.

11:30 Guys, the greatest tater tot, period, bar none.

11:34 It's funny cuz nobody serves tater tots anymore, I feel like.

11:37 And if you're going to go somewhere and get a tater tot,

11:38 it's usually pretty subpar.

11:39 It's not the star of the show.

11:41 This is worthy of being the star of the show.

11:43 You could do nothing else and just serve

11:45 this, and people would be happy you served them that.

11:47 They would be grateful for it.

11:48 [music] And you should be proud of yourself if you made it.

11:50 So, if you do want to make it,

11:51 the link's in the description for the full written recipe,

11:53 or you can just follow along here.

11:54 I love you so much.

11:55 Subscribe.

11:56 Bye.