Authentic Spanish Chicken or Pork Croquets

Serves 4

picked up this recipe when I was last in Spain it’s not my own, but it is dam tasty, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! To be fair you can probably do this recipe with beef as well, or indeed most meats but I’ve only tried d it with Chicken, Pork and Quorn

I use locally reared chicken or pork for this, as well as organic flour, fresh churned local butter and fresh local ilk and free range eggs. Of course all of the ingredients are available from supermarkets. But I try to pick as much as possible from local stockists, butchers, farm shops and farers markets, even got the garlic locally! See the link at the bottom of this post for some locations of local producers/retailers (I’m constantly adding ore so don’t be discouraged, and if there’s any you think I’ve missed or you have any in your area you’d like to promote, leave a comment.

Ingredients:

250g Chicken Breast deboned and with the fat and skin removed or Pork (I tend to use either gammon or belly) cubed.

3 cloves garlic minced or finely chopped.

1 tbsp. Olive Oil

2tbsp butter

Quarter cup of wholemeal flour

Two thirds of a cup of milk

1 egg beaten,

2 thick slices of wheat bread, prepared to bread crumb and frozen.

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Equipment:

Frying pan,

Freezer

Pan for deep frying

Sharp Knife

Sieve

Mixing bowel

Saucepan

Table spoon

Method:

first fry the chicken or pork in a pan with the garlic until just cooked through take care not to burn the garlic.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan then stir in the butter and milk and whisk to remove lumps, add the salt and pepper and cook on a medium-low heat stirring constantly and cook until it is a thick and smooth Béchamel sauce, add the cooked chicken or pork and mix though rally.

Process the mixture in a food mixer (if you don’t have one you can mince the meat before you add it to the sauce, this works pretty well) until it’s the constancy of canned tuna (kind of flaky and thick but without large lumps)

Next place the mixture in the freezer to cool you don’t want it to freeze though.

Roll the cool sticky mixture into short sausages, about 3-3.5 inches long and about as fat as a sausage.

Dip the sausages in the beaten egg and roll them in breadcrumb

Heat the oil in a pan until very hot, drop a bit of breadcrumb in, it should fizzle nicely, or use a wooden skewer, if the oil bubbles with the skewer in its ready, make sure it doesn’t start to smoke though, I prefer peanut oil for this as it has a high cooking temperature.

Cook the croquets until golden brown, make sure they’re cooked all the way though, nothing worse than a cold centre!

Garnish.

Garnish with lemon wedges and apple slices in the case of the pork, a little copped flat leaf parsley and a sprinkle of finely chopped onion.

Serve.

Goes’ well with paella, or as Tapas of lemon couscous.

Like I said, I can’t take credit for this recipe, but it’s a doozy all the same. For vegies, you can substitute the chicken with Quorn or soya protean, mince works best, why not add a few Bakeos for a bit of bacon flavour!

Enjoy!

If you like this recipe please subscribe and/or leave a comment. Follow this LINK to my website for links to and info on Pembrokeshire producers, retailers, farm shops, farmers markets etc.

N.B. Cooking times are estimates, all are based on an electric hob, non-fan assisted oven, electric grill and 650w Microwave, so use some discretion. If you're allergic to any of the ingredients, don't use them! It's up to you to make sure you don't poison yourself! And always take care in the kitchen.