Name: Deconstructed Beef Totchos at Home
Yield: 4

Deconstructed Beef Totchos are Tater Tot nachos, separated into saucy beef and beans, sweet potato tots, and toppings — all on one sheet pan with under 10 ingredients!

These Deconstructed Beef Totchos are part of my Back-To-School Lifesavers — a series of recipes that are intended to have little (or no) veggie chopping, minimal prep time, around 10 ingredients or less (not including pantry staples), and use kid-friendly ingredients. Click here to see all the recipes in the series!

Deconstructed Beef Totchos

This one sounds odd but quickly becomes a favorite! It’s unique, full of texture and flavor, and comes together fast thanks to store-bought shortcuts.

Instead of layering like traditional totchos, the components stay separate to keep things crisp. The deconstructed style tastes better and makes leftovers easier—if any are left!

Quick Tip

Once everything is piled onto a plate, you can mix the components as you eat. The beef is (intentionally) quite saucy, so separating or deconstructing the meal keeps the potatoes from getting soft and mushy.

Ingredient shot-- Image of all the ingredients used in this dish

Deconstructed Beef Totchos Ingredients

There are five primary ingredients in this recipe, thanks to some serious store-bought shortcuts. Below is a breakdown of the ingredients.

Alexia® Crispy Bite-Size Sweet Potato Puffs. If you’ve never tried these, you are in for a real treat! They’re mega flavorful, light, and crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. They’re a reliable for this Deconstructed Totchos recipe! Here’s where to check if your local store carries them. If you aren’t able to access these puffs, grab regular tots instead or roast up some sweet potatoes. Here’s a recipe for a reliable roasted sweet potatoes.
Del Real Foods® Del Real Slow Cooked Beef Barbacoa. This beef is readily available in most grocery stores in the refrigerated section near other prepared (cooked) meats. This Mexican-style beef pot roast is simmered in a chili-tomato sauce and is the reliable accompaniment to the sweet potato puffs!

Quick Tip

Totchos? What??!! Totchos are a mashup of Tots+nachos and are quite trendy if you follow food on the internet. Get it? Tots…nachos…Totchos? And just to clarify, Tater Tots is a registered trademark of a potato puff made by Ore Ida Foods. We use this term in a generic sense, meaning any potato puff will work.

Process shots-- image of the sweet potato puffs being roasted; prepping the beef; mixing the beef ingredients

Deconstructed Beef Totchos Ingredients, Continued

Black beans: Add flavor and texture. They also make the beef go further, so the meal is more filling without spending more.
Fire-roasted crushed tomatoes: These tomatoes are roasted before canning, which makes them sweeter and gives a smoky flavor—more flavor with no extra work.
Colby-jack cheese blend: A tasty mix of Colby and Monterey Jack that goes great with the beef—no cheese to grate!

Deconstructed Beef Totchos Tools Needed

An extra-large sheet pan. To have room for all the sweet potato puffs and the pan holding the beef mixture, It is worth using a (this) 15×21 inch sheet pan for Deconstructed Beef Totchos. If you don’t have an extra-large pan, you may need to divide ingredients into two separate pans.
This is the 8×8-inch pan we use for the saucy beef mixture. Any similar-sized oven-safe dish will work great here!

Process shots-- Deconstructed Beef Totchos

Toppings In Deconstructed Beef Totchos

In keeping true to delivering back-to-school recipe lifesavers, we want to keep the toppings as simple as possible! Our two must-haves: a ripe avocado (or a reliable guacamole recipe) and sour cream (we use lite or fat-free to keep things on the lighter side). Look below for some other topping ideas:

A drizzle of fresh lime to add in some freshness and a touch of acidity
Some fresh cilantro to bring in freshness and a citrusy-vibrancy
Diced cherry tomatoes or a quick pico de gallo

Quick Tip

If you’re having a hard time finding ripe avocados, try this product! The only listed ingredient is mashed Hass avocados (it’s not guacamole, just mashed ripe avocados).