In 2016, future Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took home first place in Sen. Al Franken's sixth-annual “Hotdish Off.” The guv’s Turkey Taco Tot Hotdish recipe notched him his third such win in the contest, beating out nine other congressional entries. He bragged about these victories, unprompted, to Racket early last year—and in a normal world, that would have been the last time we heard anything about it.
But this is America in 2024! And so, last week, after Walz made a crack to Vice President Kamala Harris about black pepper being the spiciest seasoning he could handle, Republicans on Twitter unearthed the recipe for this winning hotdish in possibly the stupidest moment of the election cycle so far.
The “seasoning” in question here appears to be two teaspoons each of the following: garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder. That’s it. And while it’s never quite clear to me if these people are serious or not, the outrage was somewhat widespread—others cited the presence of mild diced green chilis and medium (gasp!) taco sauce as proof that the Minnesota governor has a spice tolerance higher than he’d alluded to. What else is he lying about???
Obviously it’s an incredibly stupid thing to get mad over. Walz was joking; many Minnesotans love spicy food; his particular love of food is so well established The Atlantic published a whole feature about it pre-black peppergate. As Racket’s own Keith Harris wrote in a spicy edition of The Flyover last week, “Taking affront to Walz’s joke is like launching into a heated defense of the majesty of the loon when you hear someone say the mosquito is our state bird.”
And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a Bon Appétit recipe developer to look at that list of ingredients in Cernovich’s screenshot and determine the “spices” here won’t be punching much. You’re putting two teaspoons of chili powder up against literally a 16-ounce tub of sour cream and four (four!) cups of shredded cheddar. It’s the culinary equivalent of pissing in the ocean.
Of course, if you love cheddar and sour cream—and boy do I—then it sounds like kind of a fun hotdish spin. It certainly sounded more enjoyable than the last legislative stunt recipe I’d prepared…
So on Sunday evening, I loaded up my shopping cart with frozen tots and assorted canned vegetables and prepared to put Walz’s Turkey Taco Tot Hotdish to the test.
If you’ve made or enjoyed hotdish before, you know the routine: brown some meat (in this case turkey, which we know Walz does not consider meat but “special”), mix it with various vegetables and liquids, and layer it into a casserole dish before topping it with tots and baking it at a temperature between 400 and 700 degrees.
The whole recipe for this version is below, but it doesn’t veer from that formula—you’ll sauté bell pepper and onion in olive oil (“I wonder if the Walz family uses Graza or if it’s not aw-shucks enough for them?” I wondered at this step), then brown the turkey, adding half of the garlic/onion/chili powder mixture to it (we used Chili 9000 from Penzeys hoping to pick up some heat).
Now, go ahead and add in your veggies—canned sweet corn, mild chilis, etc.—along with taco sauce, sour cream, and cheese, and mix it all up. At this point, you’ve got a pretty mean taco dip—I scooped some up with Tostitos just to try it out, and a baked but non-totted version of this recipe might be my election night snack.
I know the addition of cheese can be controversial, depending on who you ask and what Lutheran cookbook they prefer, but the Turkey Taco Tot Hotdish goes all-in on dairy with two cups of shredded cheddar in the mixture and then another two cups on top, before you scatter on the tots. A hotdish for the lactosically challenged among us it ain’t, but the result is a decadent, gooey, rich casserole that’s nice and flavorful—even if that flavor isn’t spicy. It will make a small smoky mess in your kitchen; if you live in an apartment, take the batteries out of your smoke alarm first.
The sweet corn is a star here, popping enticingly through the creamy base, and the discernable bites of bell pepper and onion are a nice surprise from bite to bite. The recipe recommends reserving half of the onion/garlic/chili powder mixture to dust upon the tot topping before tossing it in the oven, which gives them a really nice crispy seasoned crunch—like a Potato Olé, or Taco Bell’s long-discontinued Border Fries. It’s a Timmy Stimmy for the senses.
Some of the success here is due to what happens after you pull the hotdish from the oven and top it with veggies; you need the burst of green onions and fresh shredded lettuce to cut through the dairy. And we did take some liberties with the last line of the recipe—“Serve with sour cream, hot sauce, avocado, cilantro or your favorite taco topping”—reasoning that diced jalapeños are included in our “favorite taco topping” category. It needed some heat! As one Reddit reviewer who tried the recipe wrote, “On an Indian food heat scale, it’s a -3.”
But overall, this is a great little hotdish recipe, and a justified award-winner. I wouldn’t exactly recommend turning your oven on in the summer to make it if not for the bit, but maybe keep it in mind when the temps start dropping later this year. And I’ll add that like all the best hotdish recipes, it makes an absolute heap of food—anyone want to come over for lunch? I’ll heat you up a plate.
Tim’s Turkey Taco Tot Hotdish
Rep. Tim Walz
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 large red bell pepper (or two medium ones)
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 can sliced black olives
- 1 can diced mild green chilies
- 1 bottle taco sauce (medium)
- 1 16 oz sour cream
- 1 bag of frozen tots
- 4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 3 cups sweet corn
- cherry tomatoes
- green onions
- shredded iceberg lettuce
- paprika
- chili powder
- onion powder
- garlic powder
- olive oil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dice the onion and bell pepper into 1-inch dice and sauté in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper for 15 minutes, until tender. Remove onion and bell pepper and set aside in a mixing bowl. Brown turkey. In a small bowl, mix 2 teaspoons each of paprika, chili powder, onion powder and garlic powder. Add half of mixture to the turkey while browning. Reserve the other half of mixture to sprinkle over the tots prior to baking. When finished, add the turkey in with the sautéed onion and bell pepper. Add black olives, sweet corn, chilies, taco sauce, 2 cups of cheese, and sour cream. Stir mixture until combined. Pour into a baking dish and sprinkle the remaining 2 cups of cheese on top. Add tots on top of the mixture and cheese. Sprinkle spice mixture on top of tots. Bake in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes or until tots are crispy and golden brown. After removing from the oven, sprinkle with shredded lettuce, green onions and diced tomato. Serve with sour cream, hot sauce, avocado, cilantro or your favorite taco topping.
