Turkey Croquettes

Turkey Croquettes bring back warm family childhood memories. My Mom made these every year from the leftover Thanksgiving day turkey. My Dad swears they are his all time favorite, rightly so as we only ate them once a year. This was my Mom's recipe and as you know there are many croquette recipes out there. This one is simple and easy to make, but a tad bit time consuming. I highly recommend you make them early in the day and let them chill thoroughly. A very chilled and set croquette will save you the hassle of them breaking apart while cooking. I was quickly reminded of that as I rushed mine too soon and a few broke apart on me.

                 ***You will need a food processor to grind the meat for this recipe.***


White sauce;

• 2 cups milk, I used fat free organic
• 6 Tbsp of salted butter
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
•  1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat, add flour as soon as it is melted and whisk together. Quickly add the milk, salt and pepper. Stir constantly until mixture has thickened. Remove from hot saucepan and set aside to cool in a medium size bowl. Reserve 3/4 cup of the white sauce for later use.

Croquettes;

• 4 cups of turkey (I used 1 cup dark meat & 3 cups white meat)
• 1 1/2 cup white sauce
• 1/2 cup finely diced sweet onion
• bread crumbs
• canola oil
• Leftover turkey gravy

Add meat to food processor and do short pulses until meat is finely ground, it grinds quickly. Now finely dice 1/2 cup of sweet onion.

Add the white sauce to the large bowl of meat & onion mixture, mix well. Cover and chill for several hours.

Once meat mixture is chilled spoon out 1/3 cup portions of the meat mixture. I like to set them on plastic wrap on my kitchen counter. Then roll one at a time into the bread crumbs and set onto a very large platter and chill in refrigerator, covered until ready to cook.

I added the remaining 3/4 cup of white sauce to the rest of my leftover gravy to help stretch the gravy. Heat this over low heat in a saucepan and stir occasionally with a wire whisk to blend well.

Meanwhile heat up a large 12 inch skillet over medium heat with about 1 inch of canola oil in it. Once oil is hot enough cook in 2 separate batches, it important to not crowd the pan. They should take about 3 minutes on each side ( flip when nicely browned), only flipping once.  I cooked mine 5 at one time, then 6 next time. This recipe makes 11 croquettes.

Place on a platter lined with paper towels to drain off excess oil. Serve immediately with some gravy on top. Enjoy!