Polish meat croquettes (krokiety): crepes filled with broth meat, breaded, served with barszcz
The best use for the meat from Sunday's chicken soup: ground with fried onion, seasoned with marjoram, rolled in thin crepes, coated in egg and breadcrumbs and fried golden. Croquettes with clear beetroot barszcz are dinner, supper and a wedding classic. Twelve pieces, half for the freezer before frying.
Your own work in that: 1 h 15 min.
- Crepes 25 min
- Filling 15 min
- Rolling 15 min
- Breading and frying 20 min
Step by step
0 / 6 done
Make the crepes
Blend the flour, eggs, milk, sparkling water, oil and salt into a smooth, thin batter; rest 10 minutes. In a lightly oiled 24 cm pan cook 12 thin crepes, a minute on one side and half a minute on the other. Stack them.
Ingredients: 250 g plain flour · 2 pcs eggs · 300 ml milk · 200 ml sparkling water · 2 tbsp oil · ½ tsp salt
TipFor croquettes the crepes should be thin but not holey, and slightly undercooked: they finish in the coating. Sparkling water makes them lighter; resting the batter and the oil in it keep them supple, so they roll instead of cracking.
Twelve thin, supple crepes
Make the filling
Soften the diced onion in the butter 8 minutes, until golden. Pass the broth meat and onion through a mincer (or pulse finely in a food processor). Add the egg, marjoram crushed between your palms, salt, pepper and enough broth for a moist, cohesive filling that forms a log. Taste: it should be boldly seasoned.
Ingredients: 500 g meat from chicken soup (chicken and beef) · 2 pcs onions · 30 g butter · 1 pcs egg · 1 tsp dried marjoram · 4 tbsp broth · 1 tsp salt · 1 tsp black pepper
TipBroth meat is tender but bland: don't skimp on onion, marjoram and pepper. A dry filling makes a croquette that crumbles when cut; broth or a spoon of butter fixes it.
Meat, golden onion, marjoram, broth
Roll
On the lower part of a crepe lay 2 heaped spoons of filling in a log, leaving 3 cm from the edges. Fold the sides in, then roll tightly from the bottom into a rectangular parcel. Roll tight: loose croquettes burst in frying.
Sides in, then a tight roll
Bread
Beat the eggs on a plate, spread the breadcrumbs on another. Dip each croquette in egg, then coat thoroughly in crumbs, pressing them on. The seam goes underneath when it hits the pan.
Ingredients: 2 pcs eggs · 150 g breadcrumbs · 150 ml oil for frying
TipAt this stage croquettes can be frozen on a tray, then bagged. Fry from frozen over lower heat, 4–5 minutes per side, then finish 10 minutes in the oven at 180 °C so the centre is hot.
Egg, crumbs, press on
Fry
Heat a layer of oil about 3 mm deep in a pan over medium heat. Fry the croquettes in batches of 4–6, seam down, 3 minutes, turn and fry another 3 minutes, until golden and crisp. Drain on paper towel. The filling contains raw egg, so the centre must be hot all the way through (at least 75 °C: check with a thermometer or cut the first croquette open). If it is only warm, and always when the croquettes have waited in the fridge, finish them on a tray for 10 minutes at 180 °C.
Seam down, three minutes a side
Serve with barszcz
Hot, with a cup of clear beetroot barszcz or a salad. Reheat fried ones 10 minutes at 180 °C in the oven, not the microwave: the coating stays crisp.
A croquette and a cup of barszcz
Before you start
With sauerkraut and mushrooms
The same crepe, a filling of 500 g stewed sauerkraut with 30 g dried mushrooms: the Christmas Eve croquettes for barszcz.
With mushrooms and cheese
300 g button mushrooms fried with onion and 150 g grated cheese: the meat-free version.
They burst in frying
Rolled too loosely, or the oil too hot. Roll tighter, fold the sides in carefully and fry over medium, not high, heat.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
