- 1/4 cup margarine
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 cup each minced onion and celery
- 2 cups cooked chopped chicken or
turkey
- 1 egg, mixed with 1 tablespoon water
- 1/4 cup additional flour
- 3/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs
These are really really good. They are sort
of like chicken cutlets, but much much
better. This recipe has to be started in the
morning, after breakfast because it has to
cool down quite a bit before you can form
the croquettes.
First you make a thick white sauce. Get out
a 2-quart saucepan and melt the margarine in
it, over medium heat. Stir in the flour with
a whisk or a fork. Keep stirring the flour
until all of the lumps are gone, and the fat
totally absorbs the flour. Slowly whisk in
the milk. Stir it until it is smooth. Add
the salt and pepper. Cook and stir the sauce
over medium heat until it comes to a full
rolling boil. Boil for one full minute.
Remove it from the stove, and stir in the
minced celery, onion and chopped cooked
chicken or turkey. Put it into the fridge.
Let it cool until it is very stiff, at least
several hours.
When the mixture is cold and firm, you can
start making the croquettes. Using 1/4-cup
of the mixture for each one, form a patty,
about 1/2-inch thick. You should have enough
of the chicken mixture to make 8 patties.
Lay them on a plate and prepare the breading
procedure.
Get out 3 bowls. Put the 1/4-cup additional
flour in one bowl, the egg beaten with the
water in the next bowl, and finally the dry
bread crumbs in the last bowl. You are
making an assembly line of sorts. Lay a
patty into the flour first, then into the
egg, and lastly into the dry bread crumbs.
Coat the croquettes the best you can, but
don't worry too much about them being
perfect. As each croquette is finished, lay
it on another plate or platter, or cookie
sheet. When they are all coated, chill them
again for about an hour.
To cook these, you have several options.
They can be deep-fried like French fries or
chicken nuggets. Kids like 'em best this
way, but it isn't always practical. They can
be pan-fried in a well oiled skillet until
they are golden brown. Or they can be baked
at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes. They
have to be turned over after about 15
minutes, so that both sides form a nice
crispy crust. Serve with chicken gravy if
desired, or just plain with ketchup is good
too.
This recipe makes 8 croquettes. It is also a
bit more work than most of my recipes. For
this reason, I recommend boiling up a lot of
chicken leg quarters and using the meat to
make double or even triple amounts of this
recipe. It has a lot of kid appeal and it
tastes really good, so it is definitely
worth the effort. The extra croquettes can
be arranged on a plastic wrap lined cookie
sheet and frozen solid. Then collect them
all in a bread bag and store them in the
freezer. When you want them for lunch or
supper, just take out how ever many you need
and cook them up as you see fit. They are
very easy to deep fry when they are frozen.
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