Tater tots are a great standby, but tater tot scampi takes them to the next level. They’re comforting, easy, and yummy. They’re very customizable, and one thing I absolutely love to do is take a guilty pleasure, in this case our humble tot, and elevate it with a surprise element. In the spirit of this blog, it needed to be interesting, easy, and fast. Bear with me here, as this may be the pinnacle of craziness, but one of the quickest meals you can make that actually feels fancy is shrimp scampi.
Shrimp scampi is an Americanized dish that makes the most of shrimp, lemon, garlic, and white wine, which is saying a lot as those ingredients are some of the best things in this world. (Fun fact: “scampi” is actually a kind of shrimp, so this dish essentially translates to “shrimp shrimp.”) It is traditionally served over linguine, but why not try tater tot scampi, and it is always very impressive considering that it takes almost no time to make.
Links related to this post:
- Tater Tot Poutine
- Air Fryer Shrimp Boil
- Old Bay Shrimp
- Pyrex FBA_1105395 Basics 8.1″ Square (2 Quart), 8 inch, Clear
- Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven 7 in 1 with Rotisserie, 10 Qt, EvenCrisp Technology
While your tots are crisping up in the air fryer, melt the butter in a saucepan, add a goodly portion garlic, and let it soften & make your house smell lovely. Sacrifice a little bit of white wine from the bottle you just opened to deglaze the pan. Let the alcohol cook off, then add the shrimp (buy the kind that is already cleaned without shells or tails – nobody has time for all that.) Cook them for a few minutes, just until done. Finish off with a good squeeze of lemon juice, fresh parsley, salt, and a pinch of red pepper flakes to make things interesting. At this point, you should have perfectly pink shrimp bathed in a sauce that can coat the back of a spoon, and it took only the time that your tots took to air fry.
Or, if you’re like I am most days and even that is too much effort, a frozen pack of shrimp scampi can be purchased at your grocery store. It’s a cheat, but it’s even easier and fairly cheap.
Either method you choose, you’re going to love the juxtaposition of fancy white wine garlic shrimp on top of perfectly crispy tater tots. This unique dinner is best suited with the rest of the white wine and some Netflix bingeing. The garlic butter makes for an incredible dipping sauce that’s part guilty pleasure, part fancy, and all the way deliciousness in the tater tot scampi.
Tater Tot Scampi
Equipment
- Air fryer, or oven and saute pan.
Ingredients
- 1/2 bag Tater tots, or tater rounds/crowns I prefer tater rounds
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 4 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup White wine I use Chardonnay
- 1 pinch Red pepper flakes
- 1/2 lb Shrimp
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer, or oven to 400 degrees.
- Use cooking spray on both trays, and add half a bag of tater tots.
- Cook for 10 – 15 minutes (I went 15 minutes, but prefer extra crispy tots), flipping every 5 minutes.
- In a saute pan add butter and olive oil over medium heat until melted. Add garlic and cook for an additional minute. Add wine and red pepper flakes and allow to cook for another two minutes.
- Add shrimp and cook for 3 – 4 minutes, or until they turn pink. Add the lemon juice, remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper.
- Top tater tots with shrimp, and add any remaining to sauce to a bowl for dipping.
Notes
Nutrition
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You come up with the most creative recipes!
I agree they are creative and am looking forward to making thus.
Thanks! Let me know how they turn out if you do.