Happy December Friends! 🎄
As we all start planning our holiday menus, what is better than a new appetizer recipe that is family and group friendly. And - to make it even better, it's a recipe that is part of our Spanish Series!
My daughter loves Spanish croquetas. And anything she loves, I make! I made these for a recent small family gathering where we celebrated my daughter's birthday with small bites to encourage a casual grazing style meal.
Here's what you need to get started:
1 x store bought fully cooked rotisserie chicken, shredded
4 x tablespoons of butter
2/3 cup of flour
1 3/4 cups of milk
1 x yellow onion - diced
1 1/2 cups of Panko breadcrumbs - ground in a processor
1 x egg, whisked with a few drops of butter
Oil for frying
Start by shredding the chicken. Simply pull all the meat off of the chicken and place in a bowl. Exclude skin, fat and bones. Using your hand, squeeze the shredded chicken until it becomes more of a mushed up mixture. You will find that this shreds the chicken even further, leaving you with a nice texture for the croqueta.
Now you can make your béchamel. Béchamel is a white sauce made of three ingredients - butter, flour and milk. It is commonly used in the making of Italian lasagna and is a great sauce for mac and cheese. Start by melting the butter in a large pot over low heat. Add the onion and stir until soft and translucent - not browned. This should take about 10 to 15 minutes. Add 1/3 cup of flour and whisk continuously for about a minute. Start adding the milk a little at a time while still whisking. You want to avoid lumps from forming. Bring the sauce to a boil and continue whisking for about 3 minutes. You can then add the shredded chicken, salt and pepper and stir for about 2 minutes. Take a half sheet pan and spread the mixture over the pan. Place in the fridge until cold. I left mine for approximately an hour. Placing the mixture in the fridge to cool allows the mixture to harden and easier to handle when forming the croqueta. Otherwise, the mixture will stick to your hands, which makes this step much more difficult.
Onions cooking in butter. Flour added to onion and butter and whisking together.
Chicken and béchamel sauce mixture spread on a sheet pan.
Next up, take your panko breadcrumbs and grind them in a processor for a finer crumb. The panko breadcrumbs give the croqueta a nice crunchy exterior, but in its original form, its a bit too coarse. Grinding them gives you a perfect texture and crumb. Once ground, place in a bowl for your breading station.
Place the remaining flour in a bowl and your whisked egg with water in another bowl. You should now have your breading station set up with one bowl of flour, one bowl of breadcrumbs and one bowl of egg.
Take your cooled chicken mixture and use a tablespoon to scoop up a portion. Roll with your hands into a football shape. Continue with the remaining mixture until all the mixture has been used up.
You are now ready for the breading station. Take each croqueta and roll in flour one at a time, shake off the excess, coat in the egg mixture, let excess drip off, and finally dredge in the panko breadcrumbs to cover each croqueta.
Breading station with one finished croqueta.
Fill a skillet with oil (canola or vegetable oil is best) to about 1/2 inch. Heat oil over high heat. Don't know when your oil is hot enough for frying? Check out my frying tips on Instagram! Add enough croquetas to the pan in a single layer and reduce heat to medium. Once the first side of each croqueta is browned, flip using a fork to brown the other side. You are looking for a nice golden brown croqueta. Place fully fried croquetas on a paper towel lined plate and continue the process until all the croquetas have been fried.
All the happy croquetas frying up in the pan.
The finished croquetas can be served hot or at room temperature. They are crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside - absolutely delicious! They are a great crowd pleaser and can also be made with other filling variations - jamón serrano (ham), leftover turkey, and cheese. Try it and let me know what you think! Be sure to share any recipe you make from Bea's Kitchen so I can tag you on social media!
Enjoy!
Love Bea