Chicken Thigh Patties - Juicy Ground Chicken Recipe with Photos

Chicken patties are probably the easiest and quickest way to get a chicken dinner on the table. Chicken cooks very fast. An ordinary chicken breast cutlet is done on the grill in 10-15 minutes, no more. And patties made from ground chicken mixed with spices and herbs, plus a bit of bread soaked in milk, take no special cooking skills at all.

Patties are usually made either from white chicken meat, the breast, or from dark meat. Since a chicken has plenty of dark meat, most often a whole bird is cut up and the skin and excess fat are removed. The wings, giblets, neck and other parts without much meat on them are set aside for soups. The breast is separated and kept for other dishes. Then all the dark meat is carefully trimmed from the rest of the bird and turned into chicken patties.

White meat, the breast, can be used to make Pozharsky chicken cutlets. This is an old dish that, as legend has it, was first cooked by Yevdokim Pozharsky, an innkeeper in the town of Torzhok. Whether that is true or made up, nobody knows. But chicken cutlets with a crispy crust are still made today, quite possibly by the original recipe. By the way, Alexander Pushkin wrote about Pozharsky and his cutlets in a letter to a friend. Though who knows, maybe those were pike cutlets.

Chicken cutlets made from a whole chicken breast are the world-famous Chicken Kyiv. A pounded chicken breast wrapped around a piece of butter, lots of breading and a chicken bone sticking out with a paper frill on it.

There are hundreds of recipes for chicken patties. Chicken is a great choice for ground meat in general. But keep in mind that chicken is high in fat and protein, and it is not as dense as pork or beef. While a mature, though not too old, bird is best for soup or broth, young chicken is the better choice for patties.

These days you do not need to buy a whole bird to make chicken patties. Since only the dark meat is needed, you can simply buy a pack of chicken thighs or whole legs. They hold most of the dark meat, and it is easy to cut off the bone. The patties are fried over high heat until golden brown, then either braised in a sauce or finished over low heat under a lid.

To make chicken patties for a dinner for two, 3-4 chicken thighs without the drumsticks are enough. You end up with 350-400 g of ground meat, which is plenty for a good meal.

Chicken patties are usually served with a side dish, such as braised vegetables or mashed potatoes. I prefer rice with vegetables or just plain boiled rice. Sometimes, for the holidays, we serve roast chicken with fried rice. It is a very tasty side. Which one to choose is up to you.