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Originally and chiefly American English, the slang phrase three hots and a cot means: three daily meals plus a bed for the night—i.e., basic food and shelter.

This phrase is principally used in relation to the military, to prison, and to shelters for homeless people.

In this phrase, the noun hot designates a hot meal. Incidentally, three hot meals occurred in collocation with a cot in the following from a report on the Union Mission, 49 South Raymond avenue, Pasadena, assisting homeless and very-low-income people, published in the Pasadena Star-News (Pasadena, California, USA) of Monday 17^th July 1933 [page 2, column 4]:

The Union Mission can supply three hot meals, and a cot for 20 cents.

The phrase three hots and a cot occurs, for example, in the following from Self-employed, by Charlie Melton, published in The Mt. Carmel Hometown Register (Mount Carmel, Illinois, USA) of Tuesday 21^st January 2025 [page A-5, column 1]:

A Columbian [sic] drug lord is self-employed. He has millions of dollars and really big houses. He has a great retirement plan which includes “three hots and a cot” in a penitentiary. He may need a girlfriend to move his product while he’s incarcerated.

These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase three hots and a cot that I have found:

1-: From the Chattanooga Daily Times (Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA) of Wednesday 26^th June 1929 [page 8, column 4]:
—Note: The fact that Don Pamplin did not feel the need to explain the phrase suggests that it was already well established:

WHAT THEY SAY
THE QUESTION:
How come you to do this, anyway?
THE ANSWERS:

[…]
Don Pamplin, Flying Cadet Corps Recruit, Fayetteville, Tenn.—I think my primary reason for joining up is search of diversion. Then there is the guaranteed “three hots and a cot.”

2-: From an interview of Staff Sergeant Jack K. Kyes, of the 1733^rd Air Transport Squadron, Travis Air Force Base, California—interview published in the Vallejo Times-Herald (Vallejo, California, USA) of Sunday 1^st July 1951 [page 4, column 5]:

“You can’t beat this life,” Kyes declares, “three hots and a cot, plus plenty of spending money. And on the night shift, a fellow can work in six meals a day.”
(He is on the night shift.)

3-: From Life in the U.S. Army: Fantasyland, Peacetime Variety, by Harris Dienstfrey, published in Commentary (New York City, New York, USA) of September 1958:

Soldiers, career men included, refer to civilian life as “the outside”; the terminology of leaving the service and of the time spent in it is also prison talk: “When are you getting out?” and “How long have you been in?” […]
The Army is a topsy-turvy fantasyland, and talk of “outside” and getting there is a clue to its uniqueness. Some characteristics pertinent to the creation of this fantasyland are the pay, once a month, regardless of work done; three daily meals and a bed (three hots and a cot), broke or not; the same routine each day.

4-: From Extension 12, by Wes Hughes, published in The Bulletin (Anaheim, California, USA) of Friday 23^rd September 1960 [page B-1, column 1]:

I think every young man should see a tour of duty with military service. And I think that tour should be at least two years.
You may hate it while you are in there, but once you’re out you wouldn’t trade your experiences for anything. For the mama’s boy, it is often his first chance to stand up on his own two feet and do something. At the same time he still has some security. In the Army they call it “three hots and a cot.”

5-: From Leave Reading Till After You’re 25, and Where Are You?, by Tony Emery, published in the Victoria Daily Times (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) of Saturday 15^th October 1960 [page 4, column 5]:

These ideas to which the thinking animal aspires are sought and found by him in books; books take time to read, and many will have to be sampled and rejected before the seeker finds the idea that suits him best: he will not put up, as most people will, with a ready-made kit of reach-me-down notions handed out along with the parental three-hots-and-a-cot.