Crispy Chicken Fritters (2024)

A simple 5-ingredient recipe for crispy chicken fritters or croquettes made with all-white canned chicken. Easily shape into smaller portions for kid-friendly homemade chicken nuggets.

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Oh, 2020, ain’t you something. The only good thing I can say about this year is that it’s what caused me to create this recipe. And I looooove this recipe!

When the Covid first hit, the grocery stores emptied around here (and I imagine in your neck of the woods, too). The first things that disappeared here were toilet paper, Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer (and TP is the only one of the three that’s showed back up but it’s still hard to find).

The next things that disappeared were ground beef and rice. The rice, I understood because I grabbed a few pounds of it too, along with dried beans, flour and canned milk because from the looks of the empty stores, we were about to enter an apocalyptic nuclear winter. But the ground beef threw me for a loop. I reckon everyone realized they were going to have to start cooking every meal and hamburger is easy and inexpensive.

Side note on that, I created two recipes collections for main dishes made with both rice and ground beef (because it seemed everyone around here must be sitting on a boatload of both):

• 20 Easy Recipes for Ground Beef
• 10 Main Dishes Made with Rice

Anyway, when beef started getting scarce it seemed as though food supplies might dwindle, I bought several cans of salmon, tuna and chicken to tuck away just in case. Thankfully, it hasn't come to that.

For the most part, grocery stores have returned to normal around here so I’ve been using my canned supplies. We’ve had tuna casserole, tuna melts and salmon patties (and Lord, don’t you know crispy fried salmon patties with slow-cooked stone-ground grits are a gift straight from heaven!) but I hadn’t touched the canned chicken yet.

I’d never used it before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve seen some pretty sketchy chicken salad made with it at a sub shop or two so I wasn’t too excited to get into it. I decided I would make something similar to salmon patties with it and see what happened.

I’ll tell you what happened… I struck gold! These savory little cakes are crispy on the outside, tender and tasty on the inside, crazy easy and inexpensive to make and the best part? My kids LOVE them! They say the fritters taste like “the good” chicken nuggets! I don’t know what that means but I think it’s a compliment!

I fully intend to make a few batches of these made into smaller “nuggets” to stock my freezer with for summer lunches and quick suppers for the kiddos. I’m also going to make these into larger patties for chicken sandwiches made with burger buns. I’ve never been brave enough to look at the videos of what actually goes into processed frozen chicken nuggets and patties but I KNOW what goes into these.

ALL YOU NEED TO MAKE CRISPY CHICKEN FRITTERS WITH CANNED CHICKEN:

• Canned premium white chunk chicken breast
• An egg
• A little mustard
• Spices
• Dried bread crumbs

That’s it!!

I mention these points in the recipe instructions below but some of them are pretty important so I’ll talk about them here too:

TIPS FOR MAKING CRISPY CHICKEN FRITTERS WITH CANNED CHICKEN:

• It's important to drain the chicken very well. I place mine in a colander to drain for several minutes then press down on the chicken with a heavy bowl.
• Roughly chop the chicken. I like the chicken to be uniform in size for consistent texture in the fritters (aim for about 1/4 inch pieces). Chopping the chicken also prevents any stray bits from poking out of the crispy coating.
• I use 1/2 teaspoon of salt but some brands of chicken and bread crumbs are saltier than others. If you’re sensitive to salt, start with a 1/4 teaspoon then add more to taste.
• Shape into smaller portions for homemade chicken “nuggets” or wider, flatter patties for crispy chicken sandwiches.
• Regular mustard can be used instead of Dijon. The mustard is there for a touch of acid to make the seasonings pop and to balance the richness from frying these.
• Though I haven’t done it myself, I imagine these would be great in an air fryer. Spray both sides with cooking spray (to make them crispy) then bake at 400 until golden brown.

Recipe for Crispy Chicken Fritters

And yes, I realize there are technically more than 5 ingredients but I'm counting all the seasonings as one because these are all handy pantry staples.

I really do hope you find these as easy and delicious as we do!

Enjoy!