Chicken Croquettes are my all time favorite food to keep in the freezer for a quick, tasty meal. These croquettes do take some time to mix, form and fry but the few hours of work will seem so worth it when you are having a busy day and can just pull them out of the freezer and have a tasty meal on the table in short order. These croquettes are delicious served with mashed potatoes and gravy.
Chicken Croquettes Recipe
I buy a 10 lb bag of boneless, skinless chicken breast when it is on sale and then use it to make these croquettes.
Cook up 10 lb of chicken. Cool and shred. I use my food processor and it chops the chicken to a perfect texture.
We like celery and onion in the croquettes, and I chop that up in the food processor as well. I use approximately 1 – 1.5 cups chopped celery and 1/2 cup chopped onions. Put chopped chicken, celery, and onions in a large pan or mixing bowl. Then make the following white sauce.
White Sauce
18 Tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups flour
9 cups milk
5 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper
Melt the butter in a large pan; add flour and using a wisk, mix together. Wisk in milk and seasonings and cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Pour the white sauce over chicken and mix well. Refrigerate meat/sauce mixture until thoroughly chilled. Do not skip this step, if the mixture is not chilled you will have problems when you try to fry the croquettes. I usually refrigerate the mixture overnight before forming the croquettes and frying them.
After mixture is chilled, shape into patties. I use my largest size cookie/ice cream scoop so all my croquettes are uniform size. I scoop the chicken out and then flatten slightly into a patty shape.
Fry until golden brown, then flip and fry other side until golden brown also. I then flash freeze the croquettes on wax paper lined cookie sheets. After they are frozen, I place the croquettes in freezer bags. What I love about this is that you can then pull out the amount you need for your meal and heat them up.
To heat place frozen croquettes on baking sheet and bake at 350° until hot.
Do you know about how many croquettes this recipes makes?
As I recall it makes around 50 croquettes.
do you serve these with a sauce on top!? I remember my sister loved these growing up and would buy the Howard Johnsons ones from the freezer section, and I remember a sauce, can’t remember if it was another white sauce or gravy type sauce.
Yes, I often just make chicken gravy and serve that with the croquettes. I remember when I was a kid my mom bought the frozen ones you are talking about and they did have a pouch of sauce with them.
Can these be cooked in a deep fryer instead of in a skillet?
Yes, my sister always makes hers in the deep fryer!
Hello, how much to use to make a small amount for 3 people, because I would just want to cook and not freeze any. Thank you
I would use like one or two pounds of chicken and then divide the sauce recipe way down like made take it down 6 times. As long as you enough of the white sauce to “hold” the chicken together, you will be good. Hope that helps.
Hi my name is Bridget I just wanted to say thank you for your recipe I enjoyed crouqettes when I was a kid my father made them every Monday from left over roast chicken couldn’t remember how to make them thanks again for the recipe.
Aww so glad I could give you those good memories and the recipe too. Enjoy the croquettes.
I remember Howard Johnston’s used to have chicken and fish croquettes that were the bomb! I can’t wait to make these! Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Is it possibly OK to bake them?
I haven’t tried that but it possibly could work. You just need them to stick together nicely so they can be frozen easily and then reheated.
Can they be made in a air fryer How would you do them
Yes, after they are fried you could easily reheat in the air fryer. I would just heat until hot.
Hi,
I love your breezy style. I was googling around for freezing instructions for my low fodmap croquettes and I found your cute blog. I also appreciated reading a different recipe just to see how far off I am by making everything low fat, lactose free and gluten free. Turns out I wasn’t so far off. OK I know a baked croquette is not the same as a crispy fried one, but they can still be crispy enough and have a good flavor and the plus side of my recipe is that I can eat it and not have to run to the loo for an undetermined amount of time. lol.