Thursday, May 31, 2012

Recipe: Chicken Croquettes



When I cook chicken, I like to try to get more than one meal out of it. I'll usually make "White Cut Chicken" which requires poaching the whole chicken and you get a stock which you can use for other dishes. Roommate was tired of that dish so I had to figure out a new one.

Seems like American Baby Boomers are waxing nostalgic and I've noticed a lot of interest in Chicken Croquettes, a fried ball of cooked, chopped chicken, bound with a thick bechemel and served with chicken gravy. Sounds like a great way to use left over cooked chicken!

Here's a recipe that I came up with from several I found on the internet making a delicious stock from poaching the chicken that you can use to make the gravy to go with the croquettes.

Ingredients:
  • One 3-4 pound whole chicken
  • 3 stalks celery roughly chopped
  • 2 carrots roughly chopped
  • 1 medium onion quartered
  • 2 dried bay leaves
  • salt
Directions:
  1. Put the chicken, celery, carrots, onion, bay leaves and into a large pot and add water just to cover the chicken.
  2. Bring to a boil, salt to taste (I used about 2 tablespoons), then lower heat simmering for 1 hour.
  3. Remove chicken from pot and allow to cool so that you can remove the meat from the bones.
  4. Put all the pulled meat into a food processor and pulse until the meat is finely chopped.
  5. Put into a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you prepare the bechemel.
Ingredients:
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 3 stalked celery diced
  • 1 small onion diced
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup Panko bread crumbs (or plain bread crumbs)
Directions:
  1. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and then add the celery, onion, and salt and pepper to taste. Saute for 2 minutes and then add the garlic. Saute for 1 minute more.
  2. Add the flour and continue to stir for 4 minutes. This roux mixture will start to get thick.
  3. Add the milk and use a whisk to mix everything together. Allow to simmer for about 8 minutes.
  4. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Assembling the croquettes:
  1. Take the chopped chicken out of the refrigerator and stir in the cooled bechemel with a strong large spoon. You might find it easier to use your hands to do this.
  2. Using a small ice cream scoop or your hands, form small balls of the chicken mixture and then roll in bread crumbs.
  3. Set on a Silpat or waxed paper lined baking sheet. You should get about 35 balls out of the mixture.
  4. Put baking sheet of croquettes back into the refrigerator for an hour to set up. 
 
Cooking the croquettes:
  1. Take the croquettes out of the refrigerator and fry them in a deep fryer for about 1 minute or golden brown. I did this in small batches of 4-5 in my Fry Daddy.
  2. Drain fried croquettes on a wire rack over a baking sheet. This will keep them more crisp than draining them on a paper towel.



Gravy
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 2 cups chicken stock (from poaching the chicken)
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • salt and pepper
Directions:
  1. Melt butter in a small pan and then whisk in the flour. Cook this for 2 minutes then add the chicken stock and continue to whisk until thickened.
  2. Add Worcestershire, salt and pepper to taste.
  3. Serve over the croquettes.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Revive Wilted Celery

How many of us have bought celery on sale and stashed it in the refrigerator only to reach for it later and find it wilted and sad looking?
I figured how to revive celery by thinking of it as cut flowers, it's thirsty and needed water!
Trim off a bit of the root end of the celery stalks and immerse them into a tall glass of cold water. In an hour or so, the stalk will be crisp and standing tall again ready for use!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Pre Summer sales

Summer is just about here and that means grilling, BBQ, hotdogs, and hamburgers.
Looking over the supermarket circulars I noticed (at least here in NYC) that already ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, and other traditional Summer foods and condiments are on sale and selling for... $1.
It might be a major manufacturer's brand like Kraft (use a coupon and get it for even less or free!) or the store's brand but none the less, condiments will keep for a while so stock up for the Summer months while they're on sale! I bought Dijon mustard which comes in handy for making vinaigrette and how often do you see Dijon selling for $1?
Just make sure that you look at the expiration dates and chose the ones that expire later than sooner.

If you see meats on sale (chicken seems to go on sale more often than beef or pork) stock up on them when they are less than a $1 per pound. Here in NYC, Pathmark ran a sale for chicken at 40% off and just recently quarters were 88¢ per pound! While looking over the meats, an elderly shopper came up to me and said that she's never seen such a good price in months and said that she buys two packs, freezing one for another time. Great tip!