Chopped Chicken Patties (Breast and Thigh) – Easy Recipe
What I love about chopped chicken patties is that you need no kitchen gadgets to make them – no meat grinder, no food processor, nothing of the kind. All it takes is a knife and a cutting board. And a frying pan, of course. By the way, chopping chicken for patties is quite an absorbing process – I feel like a mountain man in the Caucasus cutting meat for khinkali with a dagger on a stone.
For myself, I draw a line between ground meat and chopped meat, although in the vast majority of cases the two terms are used as synonyms. Home meat grinders mince meat fairly finely. That said, there are grinder plates with fairly large holes that leave bigger pieces of meat in the mince. Chopping chicken with a knife is simple, quick and gives a great result. And an important bonus – you don't have to take apart and wash the grinder afterwards.
Chicken breast is soft, tender meat. Ground chicken doesn't need any binders – flour, eggs or white bread crumb. As an exception, when I want a firmer mixture, I add a little cracker crumbs or really good breadcrumbs. I also prefer to fry chopped chicken patties without any breading.
The patties we are used to calling cutlets aren't really cutlets, strictly speaking. A cutlet traditionally means a whole piece of meat with a rib bone. Dishes made from ground or chopped meat are closer to croquettes, meatballs or rissoles. The most famous chicken cutlets are Pozharsky cutlets, made from chopped chicken and fried in breading. In the USA, chopped chicken patties are often grilled to be used in burgers.
Ideally, buy a fresh farm chicken, then cut off the breast and some of the dark meat. You can also buy chilled chicken breasts and thighs. A mix of different meat makes excellent patties.
Chopped chicken needs no added binders. Thanks to its softness and high protein content, the patties hold together well and don't fall apart. In Eastern countries, all kinds of poultry kebabs cooked on a grill rack or skewers are popular. Their chopped mixture often contains nothing but meat and spices – even onion is rarely added.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Large chicken breast fillet 1
- Chicken thigh 1-2
- Butter 1 tbsp
- Salt, black pepper, paprika, curry powder to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Trim the chicken breast of membranes and any bits of bone. If there is skin or visible fat, it's best to cut it off. Clean the chicken thigh of fat and skin as well, cut out the bone and all the cartilage. Rinse the meat and pat it dry with paper towels.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the chicken on a cutting board into cubes, trying to keep them as small as possible. Then chop the meat further to make the pieces even finer. If you look closely, you can clearly see how the bits of meat are held together by the sticky part of the mixture, which is also chicken. I once read that you can cut the chicken fairly coarsely and then flatten the pieces a little with a meat mallet – part of the meat turns into a kind of meat paste that binds the larger pieces perfectly during cooking.
- Put the chopped meat into a bowl. Add a little salt or 1-2 tsp of soy sauce – it's pleasantly salty and goes well with chicken. Add a pinch of curry powder and paprika, and season the mixture with pepper. Mix the chopped meat thoroughly so that all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- If the chopped chicken is a bit runny and you're worried the patties will fall apart, you can add a little grated stale white bread or really good breadcrumbs. Then mix the meat thoroughly once again. The chopped meat mixture is ready for making patties.
- Heat the butter in a frying pan. By the way, vegetable oil works just as well if for some reason you'd rather not use butter. With wet hands, shape small oval patties, flatten them slightly and place them in the hot butter.
- Fry the chopped patties over medium heat until a golden crust forms. Then turn them over and fry the other side until it is browned too. From here you have two options. You can turn down the heat and cover the pan with a lid – the patties will cook through in 10 mins. Or, which is better, keep frying them, turning often, until they are completely done.
- Serve the chopped patties with mashed potatoes or a side of rice with vegetables. Or, the way I like it best, add sliced fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs to the plate. You can serve tomato ketchup with the dish, but not a spicy one.
| Yield: | 2 servings |
| Calories: | 160 |
| Prep time: | 10 mins |
| Cook time: | 20 mins |
| Total time: | 30 mins |
| Category: | Main Dishes |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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4.7
(8)
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