Cooking With Beer, Whiskey and Spirits

The Ultimate Comfort Food.

This casserole is perfect for Holidays, Football games, or just dinner for the family. The mixture of cream cheese, buffalo sauce, bacon, cheddar cheese, chicken, tater-tots and ranch… it goes together amazingly. It fills you up but at the same time you don’t care, you just keep eating it. It makes you feel warm and cozy inside, like sitting next to a fire in a cozy cabin. If you’re deciding on what to make for your next gathering, look no further. This is the tastiest buffalo chicken casserole you will find.

The History of Tater Tots.

Okay, maybe the tater tots in this recipe are the star of the show, but every Buffalo Chicken blog post tells you about the history of Buffalo Chicken, so I want to tell you about tater tots.

In 1953, F. Nephi Grigg of Ore-Ida invented the tatertot as a way to use extra potato shavings that otherwise would have been used as livestock feed. No shocker here, the tatertot was invented by a company located near the Idaho border in Oregon. The shavings were mixted with flour and spices and pushed through pipes to form logs, then they were cut into small chunks and put up for sale. Now over 70 years later, we enjoy these potato snacks with ranch, hot sauce, blue cheese or whatever your heart desires for dipping them in, some will even eat them plain.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz Softened Cream Cheese
• 12 oz – 16 oz Buffalo Sauce of your choosing
• 6 qt Casserole dish (5 qt works just fine)
• Tater Tots (Enough for 2 layers that are 1 tatertot thick)
• Ranch or Blue Cheese
• Shredded Cheddar or Mozzarela
• 5 Strips of bacon (Optional)
• 5 Chicken breasts

Directions:

Step 1- Boil your chicken breasts on a medium heat for 15 minutes-20 minutes, you want them to be pale white and to see the oil from the chicken on the surface of the water.

Step 2- Once the chicken is done boiling, let it cool down so you can shred it. I prefer to shred chicken by hand, it works so much easier than trying to shred it by using forks. Sure its less clean but you can always toss on some gloves and get it done faster. It is also entirely up to you for how you want to shred it, as long as it’s shredded.

Step 3- Line the bottom of your Casserole pan with your 16 oz of softened cream cheese. Make sure the bottom is lined evenly so everyone gets the same bite.

Step 4- On top of your cream cheese layer, add a layer of frozen tatertots, just 1 tot thick.

Step 5- Add a layer of shredded Cheese over the first layer of tater tots, do enough to cover them.

Step 6- Add shredded chicken over the tots, add as much as you want. I used about 5 whole chicken breasts shredded!

Step 7- Add your buffalo sauce, all of it. Pour it over the chicken and until the whole bottle is gone.

Step 8- Add ranch of bleu cheese over the chicken and buffalo sauce. Drizzle it like how you drizzle chocolate sauce on ice cream, not too much as you don’t want the ranch or bleu cheese to over power the meal.

Step 9- Add another layer of tots, stack 1 high and cover that layer with shredded cheese as well.

Step 10- Crisp your bacon in a skillet and add the bacon bits on top of the casserole! Now you’re ready to put it in the over.

Cook in the oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Once it’s done. Pull it out and enjoy this delicious recipe!