Nifty Thrifty: Chicken Croquettes From Leftover Roast Chicken

Lately, every time we’ve had a roast chicken dinner, we’ve made stock from the carcass, skin and giblets (except the liver, which I’ve fried as a snack). And the next evening we’ve enjoyed a tasty risotto made with some of the stock and leftover roast chicken.

But last time we had roast chicken, we’d had a pancetta and parmesan risotto (made with home-made stock out of the freezer) the night before.

So we fancied trying something different to use up the roast chicken leftovers.

We started flicking through our cookery books for inspiration. The first one I picked up was a book I’d not even read yet – Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Meat Book, which I bought only recently.

In the chapter on dealing with leftovers, after the many pages on making home-made stock, I found the suggestion of chicken croquettes. It’s not a detailed recipe; it simply advises to “Chop the chicken fairly small and mix with a roughly equal quantity of coarse fresh breadcrumbs. Mix in enough beaten egg to get a sticky but spoonable mixture and season well. Shallow fry spoonfuls in hot oil, turning occasionally, until golden and crisp.

Bingo! Just what we fancied. And we had some ageing bread to make into breadcrumbs too!

5 from 2 votes

Leftover Roast Chicken Croquettes

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • eggs to bind
  • seasoning
  • vegetable oil for frying

Roughly equal quantities:

  • leftover roast chicken
  • breadcrumbs

Instructions

  • We used our Magimix to blitz slightly stale white bread into breadcrumbs and to chop unevenly sized chunks of leftover chicken into tiny, evenly-sized pieces (just a brief blitz will do, you don't want to make purΓ©ed chicken meat!)

  • Combine the chicken and breadcrumbs and then mix in enough beaten egg to bring the mixture together without it getting too sticky to handle.

  • Form the mixture into balls and flatten slightly into patties.

  • Fry gently in about half a centimetre of cooking oil until brown on the bottom skin. Turn over to brown the other side. Don't let the oil get too hot or the outsides will burn before the insides heat through.

  • Drain on kitchen paper and eat whilst piping hot.

We enjoyed ours with some of my home-made spicy green tomato ketchup!

 


 

 

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13 Comments to "Nifty Thrifty: Chicken Croquettes From Leftover Roast Chicken"

  1. Sarah, Maison Cupcake

    I've been having risotto after my roast chickens lately too. Sometimes I make Wagamama style noodle soup meal with the stock instead though. These croquettes sound very easy, must try those too.

    Reply
  2. Su-Lin

    Definitely going to try this when we have some leftover chicken! The Spanish croquettes are lovely and all but so time consuming – this looks much faster for a quick dinner.

    Reply
  3. photolee

    Thank you for this. I bought a roast chicken today, stripped it, and am making stock just now. Tomorrow, chicken croquettes! Makings of a very good lunch I'd say.

    Reply
  4. June

    The River Cottage Meat Book is great! I LOVED the TV series and miss it. We'd love to get the book but I refuse to buy the American edition so we'll be picking it up next time we're in the UK.

    Reply
  5. Roxanne

    I made these tonight. They were a hit! Thanks for the recipe. I used turkey instead of chicken and used a cup of leftover dressing along with the bread crumbs. πŸ‘πŸΌπŸ‘ŒπŸΌ

    Reply
  6. Cris

    Made these using gluten free bread crumbs made out of 2 heels of gf bread. Had a full quart bag of rotisserie chicken frozen so thawed that and put thru food processor. Added 4 egg yolks (can’t have the whites) about 2 tablespoons garlic powder and pepper, 2 tsp paprika and one whole finely chopped onion. Rolled them in purchased gf bread crumbs. Sprayed them liberally w oil and baked at 400 degree oven for 40 minutes! Allergies are a pain thought someone who was restricted like I am with gluten and egg whites might find this helpful.

    Reply

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