Leftover Roast Chicken Dinner Croquettes

My husband inspired this recipe.  No, seriously.  We had a roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings last weekend just as a change of pace, since we're eating chicken twice a week right now.  I was looking at the remains of the chicken and trying to figure out what to do with the white meat, as we're not big white meat eaters in my family.  And that's when my husband started chanting, "Deep fat fry!  Deep fat fry!"  (that's a Garfield Thanksgiving Special reference if anyone wants to know).  I thought about it for a minute and said, "I guess I could make chicken croquettes with the leftovers."  My husband liked the idea and so this recipe was born.

This recipe quite literally uses leftovers to the fullest extent I could get them to stretch.  You could even take cranberry sauce and serve it on top of THESE leftovers in a sandwich for a filling meal the next day.  Leftovers, gotta love um!

Leftover Roast Chicken Dinner Croquettes

• 2 1/2 to 3 Cups leftover cooked chicken, diced into chunks
• 1 cup leftover stuffing
• 1/2 to 1 cup leftover bread crumbs (great way to use up some leftover rolls that have gone stale when you forgot to put them away the night before...uh wait...where was I?  Oh yeah...)
• 1 TBS dehydrated onion
• 1 egg
• 1 celery stalk, chopped into chunks
• 1 can (in my case it was a box) cream of chicken soup
• 1/4 cup milk
• Salt and Pepper
• Dry bread crumbs (for breading/dredging)
• Vegetable oil (for frying)

For gravy:

You can use leftover gravy or you can take...

• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 3/4 cup milk

Procedure:

Take chicken, stuffing, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, onion, egg, celery, cream of chicken soup, the 1/4 cup milk and a pinch of salt and pepper and place in the bowl of your food processor.  Pulse the mix all together and take a glance at it.  If it's not the consistency of thick toothpaste, add some more breadcrumbs and pulse again until the mixture looks right (this took me probably about 3/4 of a cup of bread crumbs, but it's going to vary depending on what you have for breadcrumbs).

Once the right consistency is reached, pour the mixture out into a bowl or dish (I used a 9x11 Pyrex dish of mine for this), cover and refrigerate the mixture for at least two hours (this would be a great thing to do in the morning and then cook it at night).

When ready to cook:

Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in a large deep skillet or pan.  Shape the refrigerated mixture into large patties (I actually use an ice cream disher for this) and place on a plate with bread crumbs on it and dredge the patties in breadcrumbs (the mixture is going to be soft, so be gentle).  Slide the patties into hot oil carefully and cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side or until golden brown and the patties are heated through thoroughly, being careful not to overcrowd the pan.

While patties are cooking heat up gravy or mix the cream of mushroom soup with milk and set over medium heat until nice and bubbly and thickened.  Reduce heat to a bare simmer to keep the mixture warm.

Serve patties on top of a mound of mashed potatoes and drizzle gravy/mushroom soup over the top.

This is a great way to dress up leftovers and keep chicken from getting too boring!