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.