Don’s Chicken Croquettes

This started out because we had a pound of ground chicken in the fridge, and no plans for dinner. Don looked around to see what we had, and created this. It turned out to be fantastic and will be on our list of quick and easy favorites.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground chicken

Olive oil

Soy margarine

1 egg

1/4 block of cream cheese (light would be fine)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

3 tablespoons bread crumbs (we used gluten free breadcrumbs)

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 clove minced garlic

1 tsp ground pepper

zest from half a lemon

handful of basil, chopped

handful of parsley, chopped

twig of oregano

1 leaf of sage, chopped

a few stems of dill

* note on the herbs, we grow ours in the garden and always have access to them, use dry if you don’t have it, or leave some out.

Directions

Heat oven to 400°

Heat large skillet with some olive oil and soy margarine

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl

When the pan is sizzling hot, put in handfuls of the mix. A large pan should make 5 or 6, the whole batch. Cook several minutes at medium high heat until browned  on one side. Flip. Cook again. They should be pretty thick, so don’t worry about cooking through.

Remove from heat and place in a glass baking dish and put in the oven. If you don’t plan on making a sauce, and your pan can go into the oven, just put it into the oven. Cook for about 15 minutes until the internal temp is above 165°.

Serving suggestions

We served ours on a bed of jasmine rice with a choice of two sauces, and a side of green beans.

Sauces

White pan sauce: After moving the croquettes, deglaze with some white wine, put some corn starch in some cool chicken stock, dissolve and add as a thickener. Toss in some chopped onions and shop chopped up croquette. Reduce, stirring often.

Light cheese sauce: Put some soy margarine in a small sauce pan, add a few table spoons of milk (or cream) and stir in about a tablespoon of corn starch, heat lightly. Stir in about 1/4 cup of finely chopped Parmesan cheese, and maybe a little cheddar/jack for flavor and density.

Serve croquette on top of bed of rice, pour sauce on top and veggies on the side.

YUM!