These Chicken Fritters are made with ground chicken, zucchini, and cheese - perfectly tender, and super flavorful. It is an easy freezer-friendly meal for a weekday dinner night or quick school lunch. No mayo, no bread crumbs needed!
Fritters can be served many ways with side dishes like mashed potatoes, rice, or simply with your favorite dipping sauce - we love avocado crema, garlic aioli, healthy yogurt dip or just ketchup + Greek yogurt sauce.
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What Are Chicken Fritters?
These healthy zucchini chicken fritters are essentially chicken patties that are prepared by combining ground, fresh, or canned chicken with ingredients such as flour, eggs, and seasonings.
The mixture is then formed into small patties or balls and cooked in a skillet or oven until they achieve a delightful golden-brown hue.
You can enjoy chicken fritters as an appetizer, side dish, or main dish. They are commonly served with dipping sauces like barbecue sauce, garlic aioli, honey mustard, or ranch dressing.
Ingredients
These chicken fritters feature tender, juicy chicken, a delightful touch of cheesiness, and just the right amount of seasoning, ensuring an explosion of flavor in every bite.
Here's what you'll need:
- Chicken - lean ground chicken meat or use ground turkey instead.
- Zucchini - there are different varieties of zucchini are available, depending on your location or what's in stock. Please feel free to use any type of summer squash you're accustomed to. If you have leftover squash, store it in the fridge so it lasts longer.
- Green onion or chives - onions help to infuse chicken patties with a wealth of delightful flavor, harmonizing all the tastes beautifully.
- Flour - I’ve used just a few spoonfuls of oat flour in my chicken fritter recipe to provide structure and impart a delightful crispy texture. Feel free to use gluten-free flour blends, almond flour or all purpose flour instead.
- Eggs - eggs and zucchini serve the essential purpose of binding the ingredients together, ensuring that the fritters maintain their shape during cooking.
- Oil - Go for the finest quality olive oil. If olive oil is unavailable, you can also consider vegetable oil or avocado oil as suitable alternatives. When shopping for olive oil, keep an eye out for a few important factors.
Instructions
Wash and grate the zucchini into a bowl.
Then wrap it into a thin kitchen towel and twist the towel to wring out moisture as much as possible. Add to a large bowl.
Stir in ground chicken, egg, oat flour, cheese, chives, add zucchini, and season with salt and black pepper. Mix well until all the ingredients are combined.
Shape the mixture into medium-sized balls using your hands (make your hands wet before shaping the balls).
About 1 heaping tablespoon-size balls or 1 tablespoon for thinner fritters.
In a medium skillet heat up olive oil and cook chicken fritters for 3-4 minutes on both sides.
Mix the dipping sauce ingredients and enjoy!
Can I Use Ground Chicken or Cooked Chicken?
Of course! I really enjoy the tender texture of ground chicken, but you can use diced chicken breast instead if you like.
The cooking time may vary and increase, check the patties for doneness with a kitchen thermometer (165 F). Pre-cooked chicken works well as well. Use whatever you have for a quick lunch or snack.
Tips
- I prefer using two spoons to transfer the chicken mixture from the mixing bowl to the skillet. However, you can also opt for a small ice cream scoop or a cookie scoop to ensure they're uniformly sized.
- If you want more seasoning options try garlic or onion powder or a blend of store-bought chicken seasoning.
- If the patties are thicker, they will need a bit more time to cook. The most important thing here is not to overcook the patties as they will become dry.
- If you're unsure or want to be cautious, consider breaking open one fritter to check if it's cooked through before removing them all from the pan.
- If the fritters are browning excessively on the outside before cooking through on the inside, it means your pan is too hot, and you should lower the heat. Using a good nonstick skillet is also important.
- Avoid overcrowding the pan, and if necessary, cook the cheesy chicken fritters in two separate batches.
- To reheat frozen leftover chicken fritters, you can use a skillet, toaster oven, or an air fryer, but it's essential to monitor them closely as they can easily become overcooked.
- I prefer to leave the zucchini unpeeled, but only when I have access to the best, freshest zucchini available. The skin of younger zucchinis is delightful in flavor and lacks the bitterness and toughness often found in larger, older zucchinis.
- If using skinless boneless chicken breast or thighs - Time-Saving Tip! If you have a food processor, utilize it to chop the chicken. This method will significantly reduce the time and effort required, and cleanup will be a breeze.
Serving Suggestions
How to Serve Chicken Fritters?
- Enjoy them promptly (if you like them warm) alongside your preferred dishes. They pair wonderfully with creamy mashed potatoes.
- We also love marinated cucumber tomato salad, cucumber cabbage salad, avocado salad, or roasted potatoes.
- Drizzling freshly squeezed lemon juice over these fritters creates a truly delightful flavor combination.
- If you want a more wholesome and bigger meal, serve these fritters as a part of various side dishes or together with main courses such as chicken soup and creamy carrot ginger turmeric soup.
With Dipping sauces
- Barbecue sauce
- Buffalo sauce - for some added heat!
- garlic Aioli
- Green Goddess dip
- homemade honey mustard sauce
- avocado crema
- salsa
- sour cream
- Ranch dressing
Freezing and Storing Instructions
- To Store. Once the fritters are cooked, allow them to cool completely and then store them in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
- To Reheat. For best results, reheat in the oven. Alternatively, you can use an air fryer at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes, a microwave, or a nonstick skillet with minimal oil.
- To Make Ahead. Preparing the zucchini fritter mixture in advance is easy. You can grate the zucchini 1-2 days ahead and store it in the fridge. The batter, when mixed with all the ingredients, will chill nicely in the fridge for 2-3 days, resulting in slightly crispier fritters when cooked.
- To Freeze. To freeze, place the cooked fritters in a glass container with a lid, adding layers of parchment paper between them. They will stay good for up to 2 months in the freezer. You can also freeze uncooked patties.
Variations
These delectable Chicken Fritters are already impeccable, but if you want to tailor the flavors to your individual taste, here are some suggestions to consider:
- Extra cheese: Feel free to double the cheese! Experiment with cheddar or mozzarella cheese. Parmesan is another excellent choice!
- Fresh herbs: Fresh dill, chives, cilantro, and parsley are excellent choices, and you can pick your favorite among them.
- Air Fryer Variation: Place these chicken fritters in your air fryer for 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly spray with olive oil.
- This recipe is an excellent way to sneak in some vegetables! Think grated carrots, finely chopped bell peppers, corn and finely chopped spinach.
- Sweet Potato Fritters
More Ground Chicken Recipes
FAQs
Absolutely, both the cooked chicken fritters and the uncooked chicken batter can be frozen.
A food processor is an excellent choice. I suggest initially cutting the chicken into several pieces, as this will result in more consistent pieces when processed. Avoid overloading the food processor to prevent it from stalling. Instead, work in batches for the best results.
Once the fritters are cooked, let them cool completely, transfer them to a glass container with a lid (add layers of parchment paper in between the fritters) and pop them into the freezer. They'll be good for up to 2 months.
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Recipe
20-Minute Tender Chicken Fritters With Zucchini
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 pound zucchini, grated
- 3 tablespoons oat flour, or all purpose, see notes
- ½ cup cheese, grated
- 1 large egg
- 4 tablespoons chives , or green onions, chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- black pepper to taste
- olive oil, for cooking
To Serve
- 1 part ketchup
- 1 part Greek yogurt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Wash and grate the zucchini into a bowl. Then wrap it into a thin kitchen towel and twist the towel to wring out moisture as much as possible. Transfer to large bowl.
- Stir in ground chicken, egg, oat flour, cheese, chives, add zucchini, and season with salt and black pepper. Mix well until all the ingredients are combined.
- Shape the mixture into medium-sized balls using your hands (make your hands wet before shaping the balls). About 1 heaping tablespoon-size balls or 1 tablespoon for thinner fritters.
- In a medium skillet heat up olive oil and cook chicken fritters for 3-4 minutes on both sides.
- Mix the dipping sauce ingredients and enjoy!
VIDEO
NOTES
- Nutrition calculated without the dipping sauce.
- For more flavor add chopped onion, garlic, spinach to your ground chicken mix.
- Squeeze a little bit of lemon or lime juice on top of hot chicken zucchini fritters before serving.
- I prefer using two spoons to transfer the chicken mixture from the mixing bowl to the skillet. However, you can also opt for a small ice cream scoop or a cookie scoop to ensure they're uniformly sized.
- If the patties are thicker, they will need a bit more time to cook. The most important thing here is not to overcook the patties as they will become dry.
- If you're unsure or want to be cautious, consider breaking open one fritter to check if it's cooked through before removing them all from the pan.
ADD YOUR OWN PRIVATE NOTES
NUTRITION
Note: Nutrition information is estimated and varies based on products used.
Full Nutrition Disclaimer can be found here.
YtheWait
This is the perfect recipe with chicken for my kids as they love it.
Julia
thank you Simona! totally agree, it's healthy and something that kids will love!
Susan
What is the Nutrition Facts for these fritters? I just made them, and they are delicious.
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
thanks! I just added the Nutrition in the recipe card
Julia
Tender mouth-melting chicken and zucchini fritters to satisfy even the pickiest eaters!
Linda
Made this tonight and it works great for single people. I found a dressing of cilantro and avocado by Bolthouse that goes great with it. Very good.
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
Linda, Thank you so muchh!
Seattle-sunshine
Easy with a very tasty sauce but the patties are pretty bland so hoping someone has come up with a great seasoning combo. I tried onion, chives, oregano with marginal results. Also i will try baking next batch and using dark meat to boost flavor.
Sesttle-sunshine
I gave it 4 stars before but app changed it to 3 repeatedly
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
Thank you so much!
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
Hi! Do you have Vegeta seasoning? It's honestly the best if you like a lot of seasoning and strong flavor 🙂 Thank you!
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
so soft and incredibly easy chicken zucchini patties that kids love!