Mmmmmm - croquettes! Nothing says delicious French easy food like a good fried croquette - and these Chicken Croquettes with White Pepper Gravy are delicious.
Made with cooked (read that as "leftover") chicken or even turkey, these fried up balls of tasty are easy to make and loved by everyone.
But let's back up a bit. Croquettes originated in France and historically had a mashed potato center. As the croquette moved around the world (Spain took them and created centers of bechamel - I'll have to do a whole post on bechamel one day - I just love, love, love it!) they morphed to eventually come to how we know them today.
In Spain, they are called croquetas, the Dutch call them kroket, the Japanese - korokke. Even the Southern Hushpuppy can trace its origins back to the French croquette. With its universal popularity, there's no reason for us not to dive in and get to making some - and just wait until you see how easy they are!
They begin with leftover cooked chicken. Confession - I love croquettes so much, I actually cooked chicken and made it leftover just for this meal. But seriously, if you are cooking chicken, or turkey, make a little extra and plan to make croquettes, trust me!
I churned cooked chicken chunks in the food processor until completely minced/smashed/tiny. You can cut this by hand, but in my opinion, croquettes are best when the meat is small, so the food processor it was for me. When that was done, I set out to make a simple bechamel sauce (butter/flour/milk) and then combined the two together. The whole mixture gets placed into the fridge for a few hours to get cold and to harden. You need this for two reasons: 1) the mixture gets rolled into oval like balls, so they need to retain their shape, and 2) the balls get fried and the cold mixture will cook a little longer than a warm mixture which may fall apart in the fryer.
Each little croquette ball gets rolled in bread crumbs, placed on wax paper while the fry oil is heated, and then fried on all sides until golden brown and warmed through. Everything in these croquettes has been cooked, so although I see recipes saying to heat them to 165 degrees, you'd be doing that to have a hot meal and not because the mixture may be undercooked. Once fried up nice and hot, drain to a paper towel.
I served these croquettes with a White Pepper Gravy, which is nothing more than a hopped up bechamel. Melting butter, whisking flour, adding milk and chicken broth, if desired, thickening to gravy consistency and seasoning with salt and white pepper. Served hot, its perfect with the croquettes.
They would be perfect with mash potatoes (using more gravy) and roasted vegetable or buttered carrots. I love that they only need a fork, no knife required. You can make them any size you like and I've even seen people mash them into patties, but I like a traditional round/oval croquette.
I told you they were easy and now it's time for you to try. Have a go at Chicken Croquettes with White Pepper Gravy and then let me know what you think.
Comments