Minnesota Tot Hotdish (Ground Beef, Green Beans and Potato Tots)
The Upper Midwest church-supper classic: browned ground beef and green beans folded into a from-scratch creamy sauce, covered edge to edge with frozen potato tots and baked hot until they crisp.
Edited by JP Lambiase
Change the estimate
Swaps change the price only: cook any meat to its own safe temperature. Where these numbers come from
In Minnesota and the Dakotas a casserole is a "hotdish": a starch, a meat and a canned or frozen vegetable held together with canned soup, baked in one dish and carried to family reunions, potlucks and church suppers (Wikipedia:). Wikipedia traces it to "budget-minded farm wives" feeding families and congregations in the basements of the first Minnesota churches, says it took hold in the Great Depression and through World War II rationing, and notes that cream of mushroom soup is so common in it that it is nicknamed "Lutheran binder", after the Lutheran church cookbooks it fills.
The oldest printed one anyone has pointed to is from a church cookbook. MPR News reported in 2016 that Food & Wine credited a cookbook compiled in 1930 by the Ladies Aid of Grace Lutheran Church in Mankato, Minnesota, with the first written hot dish recipe, on page 49 under the heading "HOT DISH". Wikipedia lists that 1930 recipe as hamburger, onions, macaroni, celery, canned peas, tomato soup and tomatoes: no tots and no mushroom soup.
The tots came later. Wikipedia says the frozen-food company Ore-Ida's founders, F. Nephi and Golden Grigg, developed Tater Tots in 1953 to use up potato slivers left from cutting fries, and first sold them in stores in 1956; the name is still Ore-Ida's registered trademark, though most people use it for any potato puff. Tot hotdish became the classic: Senator Amy Klobuchar won the first Minnesota congressional Hotdish Off with a "Taconite Tater Tot Hotdish" (Wikipedia, Hotdish). This version keeps the church-supper build but swaps the can for a quick homemade sauce, the way Food Network's Molly Yeh does.
🇺🇸 This one is American
The Upper Midwest church-supper classic: browned ground beef and green beans folded into a from-scratch creamy sauce, covered edge to edge with frozen potato tots and baked hot until they crisp.
🇬🇧 The original
Britain's shepherd's pie is lamb under a mashed potato crust. See the British Shepherd's Pie (Lamb, with a Cottage Pie Option) recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Browning first
Cooking the beef and green beans in the skillet and lifting them out with a slotted spoon leaves the fat and water behind, so the sauce stays creamy instead of greasy and thin.
A hot oven
450°F crisps the frozen tots on top in the same time it takes the sauce underneath to bubble through, the way a fryer would.
🧰 You'll need 8 items
Everything the steps call for. Tick off what you have before you start.
Appliances
Pans and pots
Tools
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 450°F with a rack in the upper third. Have a 9x13-inch baking dish ready (metal if you plan to freeze it).
- Step 2
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onion with a pinch of salt 5 to 7 minutes, until soft. Add the beef and 1 tsp salt and cook, breaking it up, 8 to 10 minutes, until no pink remains. Stir in the frozen green beans and cook 3 minutes, until thawed.
- Step 3
Spoon the beef and beans into the baking dish with a slotted spoon and spread them flat. Pour off the fat in the skillet and wipe it out.
- Step 4
Make the sauce in the same skillet over medium heat: melt the butter, whisk in the flour and cook 2 minutes. Whisk in the broth in four additions, letting it thicken before each one. Whisk in the cream, thyme, nutmeg, pepper and the remaining 1/2 tsp salt and simmer gently 5 minutes, whisking now and then.
- Step 5
Pour the sauce over the beef and fold it through. Scatter the cheese over now if using. Stand the frozen tots in tight rows over the whole surface.
- Step 6
Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until the tots are deep golden and the center of the dish reads 165°F. For extra crunch, broil 2 to 3 minutes, watching closely.
- Step 7
Rest 5 minutes, then serve with ketchup on the side.
Minnesota Tot Hotdish (Ground Beef, Green Beans and Potato Tots)
Serves 8 · one 9x13-inch pan · 1 hr 20 min total
Beef layer
- 1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
- 1 medium onion (about 5 oz / 150 g), finely chopped
- 1 1/2 lb (680 g) ground beef, 85% lean
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt, divided
- 12 oz (340 g) frozen cut green beans
Creamy sauce (replaces 2 cans of condensed cream soup)
- 4 tbsp (56 g) butter
- 1/2 cup (62 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 cups (540 g) chicken broth
- 1/2 cup (120 g) heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Topping
- One 2-lb (907 g) bag frozen potato tots, still frozen
- 1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar, optional
- Ketchup, to serve (optional)
Equipment: Oven, 9x13-inch baking dish, Large skillet, Instant-read thermometer, Chef's knife and cutting board, Measuring cups and spoons, Whisk, Slotted spoon or spider
Method
- Heat the oven to 450°F with a rack in the upper third. Have a 9x13-inch baking dish ready (metal if you plan to freeze it).
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onion with a pinch of salt 5 to 7 minutes, until soft. Add the beef and 1 tsp salt and cook, breaking it up, 8 to 10 minutes, until no pink remains. Stir in the frozen green beans and cook 3 minutes, until thawed.
- Spoon the beef and beans into the baking dish with a slotted spoon and spread them flat. Pour off the fat in the skillet and wipe it out.
- Make the sauce in the same skillet over medium heat: melt the butter, whisk in the flour and cook 2 minutes. Whisk in the broth in four additions, letting it thicken before each one. Whisk in the cream, thyme, nutmeg, pepper and the remaining 1/2 tsp salt and simmer gently 5 minutes, whisking now and then.
- Pour the sauce over the beef and fold it through. Scatter the cheese over now if using. Stand the frozen tots in tight rows over the whole surface.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until the tots are deep golden and the center of the dish reads 165°F. For extra crunch, broil 2 to 3 minutes, watching closely.
- Rest 5 minutes, then serve with ketchup on the side.
Adapted from Molly Yeh, "Classic Beef Tot Hotdish", Food Network (Girl Meets Farm), 6 to 8 servings. We follow her method: 450°F, beef and green beans browned and moved to a 9x13, a butter and flour sauce built in the same skillet with stock and cream, tots in neat rows, checked from 35 minutes. Our changes: 1 1/2 lb of 85% lean ground beef instead of her 2 lb of 93% (budget), one onion instead of two shallots, dried thyme for fresh, and chicken broth in place of her pale ale. The 165°F center check is ours (FoodSafety.gov chart, baseline). Estimated cost: about $21.38 for the pan, about $2.67 a serving (site/prices.json; tots priced at the frozen french fry rate, green beans at the fresh rate; the optional cheddar adds about $0.19 a serving). Food Network. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (4)
Tips
- Canned shortcut: skip step 4 and stir 2 cans (10.5 oz each) condensed cream of mushroom soup with 1/2 cup milk into the beef instead.
- Make ahead: assemble through step 5 with the tots on top, cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours (our house rule; Molly Yeh says up to 2 days) and add 10 minutes to the bake. Or freeze the assembled pan up to 3 months; Molly Yeh bakes it from frozen covered loosely with foil at 350°F for 1 hour, then uncovered at 450°F until golden, from about 20 minutes. Either way, bake to 165°F in the center.
- Leftovers keep 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator; reheat portions to 165°F in a 375°F oven so the tots crisp again.
- Swaps that stay in budget: frozen corn or mixed vegetables for the green beans; ground turkey for the beef (cook it to 165°F).
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- The first written hotdish recipe is the 1930 Mankato church cookbook. Disputed: Food & Wine credited it, as MPR News reported in 2016, but neither named the recipe's inventor, and Ann L. Burckhardt, author of *Hot Dish Heaven*, told MPR she had never heard Mankato was the origin and that the first cookbook to mention hot dishes would be hard to track down.
- Real hotdish has to use cream of mushroom soup. Disputed: Wikipedia says some commentators call the soup a defining ingredient, but the 1930 recipe it describes used tomato soup.
- Cream of mushroom soup is called "Lutheran binder". Documented (Wikipedia, Hotdish).
- Tots were invented in 1953 and reached stores in 1956. Documented (Wikipedia, Tater tots).
- The tots must stand in neat rows. Folklore: it is how Molly Yeh lays them out and it looks best on camera, but scattered tots bake the same.
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