Pictured: Chicken croquettes with Sweet-hot Mustard Sauce

from Cooking TLC: Truly Low Carb Cooking Volume I, ISBN 0971492913

These are a bit more trouble than your average crab cakes, but I think you’ll find the extra effort is justified. And they freeze beautifully for later use, so make a bunch and freeze them in small packages. Just heat them in the microwave and you’ve got a great low carb snack or entrée in seconds. This is my favorite way to deal with leftovers that I am sick of in their original form. I occasionally cook large pieces of meat just for this purpose. 3 cups cooked meat, fish or poultry, chopped

*You can substitute 1 tsp. dried parsley for both the celery leaves and the fresh parsley.

Mix the meat or fish with the salt, cayenne pepper to taste (start with ½ tsp. or 2.5 ml, and if you like spicy foods, double that), the grated onion, lemon juice, chopped celery leaves, and parsley.

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add the starch and cook over medium heat one minute, stirring constantly. Add cream all at once and whisk over heat until smooth and thick. Remove from heat and allow to cool for ten minutes.

Add the sauce to the meat mixture, along with 2 beaten eggs, and mix well before spreading out on a platter to cool thoroughly and become firm (you may refrigerate or freeze the mixture at this point to chill it, but don’t let it form ice crystals).  Beat the two remaining eggs in a small bowl. Place the pork rind crumbs in another bowl. Wet your hands to reduce the mixture sticking to them. I often spritz them with my Misto™ oil mister as well. Spoon out 1 heaping tablespoon of the mixture and form each croquette into an egg-sized oval shape with your hands. Dip each croquette in the beaten eggs, and then roll in crushed pork rinds, wheat bran, or Parmesan cheese. But I highly recommend the pork rinds instead. The cheese tends to burn before the insides are done, the bran adds carbs, and you would NEVER ever guess from the finished product that the pork rind crumbs are in fact, pork rinds, and not breadcrumbs.

Fry in deep hot fat for 1-2 minutes, a few at a time, depending on size. Drain briefly on paper towels and serve immediately.

Serve with dipping sauces. These freeze beautifully for later use.

Made with chicken, 16 servings, each: 218 cal, 18 g fat (6 g sat.), 1 g carb, 13 g protein

Copyright 2000, All Rights Reserved

Copyrighted =. while you are free to use these recipes for your own use, you may not forward them, post them on message boards, or otherwise distribute them, without the express written consent of the publisher and author, ME....and all I ask in return for the many free recipes that I provide is this: If you enjoy my recipes and want to share them, then simply post, forward and distribute my LINK instead of the actual recipes! Your friends can easily get their own copy, the same way you did, right? Thanks!! :^)