Traditional Chicken Croquetas

Hi, there’s traditionally 2 types of croquetas: the more usual ones based on a bechamel sauce and the traditional old fashion using the leftovers of a broth or a roast.

Nowadays in Spain, you can find an endless type of croquetas based on chicken, ham, morcilla, mushrooms, sobrassada, etc…

Today we will look at the traditional ones, and I’ll do a new post about the bechamel ones.

So, you do a chicken broth, which will let you with lots of very nice left-overs, including the chicken, some vegetables, potatoes, etc…

• Separate and ‘clean’ the meat of the chicken* from the bone, discard skin
• Keep a potato (no skin) and some carrots from the broth
• In a frying pan, caramelise an onion; you can drop in also a prune and some pine nuts (optional)
• Mix it all in a bowl and mince; if it’s too dry, you can add some of the broth, if it’s too wet, add some breadcrumbs
• Season the mixture with salt and pepper at your taste
• You should have a mixture consistent enough to do the balls, but not too hard. The trick is to find this fine line, which will result in a croqueta crispy outside and really melty inside
• It helps to rest the mixture in the fridge for few hours before start doing the croquetas
• Then, using a tablespoon and your hands, start making balls, giving it a long oval shape of about 2 inches
• As you do the balls, you should have 2 bowls, one with breadcrumbs, and one with beaten egg
• dunk the ball into the breadcrumbs, then into the egg, and then into the breadcrumbs again (or you can use flour for the first one)
• Then deep-fry it in olive oil for few minutes until golden and set aside to drain on a kitchen paper or in a small mesh strainer to make sure they are not too oily
• Serve immediately and enjoy!

*(you can also roast some extra meats, like chicken or pork to add to the mixture)