I am such a fan of steak totchos. Tater tot nachos, that’s a thing! Super tender steak, marinated in a citrus and southwest marinade. Served on a sheet pan with crispy tater tots, colby jack cheese, tomatoes, green onion and cilantro!
Southwest food is my absolute favorite thing to make for dinner, like these Mexican street corn baked taquitos, Chipotle corn salsa copycat and chicken street tacos with chipotle aioli.

I am so glad totchos was invented, that somewhere along the way someone decided to use tater tots as a nacho base instead of tortilla chips.
Totchos should be more popular, we need more totchos in our lives!
With all the tater tot recipes out there, like tater tot casserole or tater tot hotdish it’s like the little sibling recipe, overshadowed, under appreciated. But it doesn’t have to be!
Today we’re giving life to the tater tot nachos.
These steak totchos are made with the yummiest spice and citrus marinade, they have green onions and extra cilantro.
I am so here for this.
I hope you are too.

Steak Marinade
Southwest marinades need a citrus and a spice. It will give you the best flavor and balance. Usually for me its a 1:1:1 roughly. Equal parts oil, citrus and spice.
You’ll need oil, lime juice, cumin, garlic powder, chili powder and salt. Pretty basic for a marinade. It doesn’t always need to be the entire contents of your spice rack.
So here’s the deal with marinating a piece of meat when citrus is involved. You don’t want it to marinade for too long or else the acid will start to break down the meat.
For this recipe, you only need to marinade the steak for 2-3 hours.

How To Make Steak Totchos
Did you take notice that this a sheet pan meal? Oh yeah, hello easy weeknight dinner that everyone in the family will love!
Once the steak is done marinating you are going to cook it on the stovetop until it’s about medium rare. The reason why is that it will wind up cooking in the oven also, so you don’t want tough well cooked meat.
The tater tots get cooked to be extra crispy, so they can support the weight of the steak, cheese and toppings.
Chop the steak up into small bite sized pieces, sprinkle them over the tater tots with some cheese and bake just until the cheese has melted.
What Toppings are on Steak Totchos
After a quick cheese melting session in the oven you can add all of your toppings.
Cherry tomatoes, diced green onions, sour cream and extra cilantro.
Want to make a fancy sour cream drizzle? All you have to do is add a tiny splash of milk to sour cream in a squeeze bottle. Just enough to thin it out a bit.


More Southwest Recipes
- Crock Pot Chicken Enchiladas With Elote (Mexican Street Corn) – These are seriously amazing, the Mexican street corn is out of this world
- Skillet Carnitas Nachos – A quick and easy carnitas nacho recipe
- Easy Southwest Steak Frites and Guacamole – Tender steak, wedge cut seasoned fries, guacamole and and all covered in jack cheese
- Skillet Chicken Jalapeño Cream Cheese Enchiladas – A bit quicker than rolled up enchiladas
- Short Rib Enchiladas With Tomatillo Sauce – The tomatillo sauce is so easy to make, or you can use a jar if you want
- Freezer Friendly Chicken Tortilla Soup – the best freezer friendly chicken tortilla soup, this stuff is amazing
- Baked Elote Chicken Taquitos – Mexican street corn (elote) and juicy chicken all in a baked taquito, you have to try these!
- Chicken Street Tacos with Chipotle Aioli – this aioli is a showstopper and you need it
Make sure to follow the Modern Crumb Board on Pinterest for lots of yummy meal inspiration!
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Sheet Pan Steak Totchos (Tater Tot Nachos)
Ingredients
- 1 lb skirt steak
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 lime juiced
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 bag tater tots
- 8 oz colby jack cheese shredded
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes quartered
- green onions sliced
- cilantro chopped
- sour cream
Instructions
- Mix together the oil, lime juice, cumin, garlic powder, chili powder and salt
- Coat the skirt steak in this and marinate 2-3 hours in the fridge
- When steak is ready start preparing everything
- Preheat oven to 425
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and cook tater tots per package instruction, they should be golden and crispy when done
- Cook the steak in a pan on the stovetop until medium rare (see notes), let stand 10 minutes before cutting into bite size pieces
- Pull the tater tots out of the oven
- Spread the steak over, followed by the grated cheese
- Place back in the oven just until the cheese has melted, just a few minutes
- Pull from the oven
- Top with the tomatoes, green onion, cilantro and sour cream
- Serve immediately
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