The Best Frozen Tater Tots You Can Buy Are Crunchy Outside And Pillow-Soft Inside

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Homemade tater tots don't require any fancy ingredients, but they do take time to shape and deep fry. This isn't so much of a problem if you don't mind pottering around the kitchen on a weekend afternoon, but on weeknights when time is short? The pre-frozen variety is the solution. Need a recommendation? After taste-testing five popular frozen tater tots, we ranked Ore-Ida crispy tater tots as the best because of their crunchy outside and pillow-soft inside.

These gluten-free guys are made of potatoes, vegetable oil, salt, and dehydrated onion, but interestingly, they also contain yellow corn flour, which is likely the ingredient that makes them so wonderfully crispy. We ranked them highly on three counts. Firstly, the exterior was crunchy, which is the number one mandatory feature that every tater tot requires without question. It's this crispy outside that creates that inviting textural contrast against the pillowy inside.

Additionally, the taters had a genuinely earthy potato taste, unlike some of the other options we tried that had an artificial taste to them. Finally, the spuds were seasoned with a good kick of salt, which gave them a savory flavor that surpassed all of the other contenders. While this seasoning could've been a little heavier, Ore-Ida's tater tots easily outpaced the competition.

Ore-Ida crispy tater tots have over 6000 five-star reviews on the Walmart website alone, highlighting their quality and wide-ranging appeal. One reviewer said, "I love how versatile these tater tots are. I can cook them in the oven, the air fryer, or even the deep fryer. Or I can make tater tot casserole. They are always crispy and taste delicious!" Meanwhile, another said, "We like pan-frying our tater tots and then adding them into simple foods like homemade beans and franks, for an extra texture and a fun flavor, and don't forget the shredded cheese!" Others recommended pairing them with bacon bits, melted cheddar cheese, and sour cream, or even adding them to a potato corn chowder.

The secret to making the best frozen tater tots is to bake them for longer than the recommended cook time and leave plenty of room between each one for the hot air to circulate freely. Those extra couple of minutes are just enough to make the exterior of each tot super-crispy, creating the perfect contrast with the fluffy middle. You can also spritz them with cooking spray to maximize their crunchiness and boost that golden brown color. This trick might've helped the loser in our ranking, Signature Select seasoned tater puffs, become crispier on the outside. However, the texture of the potatoes in the center was so mushy (almost like the consistency of baby food) that even fixing the outside wouldn't have given it a shot at ranking any higher.