Easy to make, Chicken & Broccoli Fritters made with only 7 ingredients! Almond flour and nutritional yeast are used instead of breadcrumbs and cheese making for a crispy & cheesy low carb, dairy free fritter!
These are not your average broccoli fritters! The addition of chicken makes for a more filling, and protein packed fritter that’s not too unlike a mini chicken burger with an entire head of broccoli hidden inside.
How to Make these Chicken & Broccoli Fritters
Altogether these broccoli fritters are pretty easy to make with even a little wiggle room for substitutions if you like. Our ingredients?
- steamed broccoli
- thinly sliced chicken
- almond flour (or gluten free breadcrumbs)
- nutritional yeast
- two eggs
- garlic powder & salt
To start off – prep your chicken and broccoli. Take one large broccoli head and cut off the stalk and stems and steam until fork tender.
While the broccoli is steaming, go ahead and prep slice the chicken breast. Since the chicken is getting mixed into the fritters you’re going to want to make sure you thinly slice the chicken so it cooks faster/evenly.
Once the chicken & broccoli are prepped you can mix all of your ingredients together in a bowl and mixed until fully combined. Once combined scoop out the mixture 1/4 cup at a time and form into small patties.
Warm some oil in a shallow, non stick or well oiled pan and gently fry for a few minutes on each side until done. If you want to double check that the chicken is fully cooked, use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the fritters are 165°F.
Tips/Things to Keep in Mind
- For really a crispy texture, make sure your oil is hot before frying your patties. If the oil isn’t fully up to temp your broccoli fritters will be more soft/soggy than crispy on the outside.
- Instead of letting them cool on a paper towel lined plate, cool your fritters on a wire rack. Paper towels will absorb the oil and put that excess moisture right back in the fritters.
- You can use parmesan instead of nutritional yeast if you don’t need these to be dairy free.
- You can use breadcrumbs instead of almond flour if you don’t need these to be low carb. If you can’t use almond flour/nuts but still want these to be paleo/whole30 friendly you can use 1/2 cup arrowroot starch instead of the almond flour.
- I haven’t tried it yet but I suspect that you can also use cauliflower instead of broccoli if you feel like experimenting.
Serve these fritters as is or with a dipping sauce. I recommend serving these along side this chipotle mayo or ranch dressing for a little extra flavour.
Chicken Broccoli Fritters
Easy to make, Chicken & Broccoli Fritters made with only 7 ingredients! Almond flour and nutritional yeast are used instead of breadcrumbs and cheese making for a crispy & cheesy low carb, dairy free fritter!
Ingredients
- 1 head broccoli, stalk removed and florets broken up
- 500 g thinly sliced chicken breasts (1.2 lbs)
- 3/4 cup almond flour or almond meal (72 g)
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- Avocado Oil for frying (or another frying oil of your choice)
Instructions
- Steam broccoli until tender and then roughly chop into small pieces. Add the broccoli to a large mixing bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix until fully combined.
- Add oil to a large skillet. Use enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Heat to a medium heat.
- Form the fritters by scooping out 1/4 cup at a time and gently forming into small patties, about 3 inch wide.
- When the oil is hot, add the fritters to the oil and gently fry for about 3 minutes or until the bottom is golden-brown. Flip over and fry the other side about 2-3 minutes until golden and cooked.
- Transfer fritters to a wire rack to cool and continue frying until done.
- Serve warm as is or with a dipping sauce like this chipotle mayo.
Notes
- Keep these stored in the fridge up to 5 days.
- Once cooked and cooled you can freeze these for up to 2 months. Let the frozen fritters defrost in the fridge over night. To reheat, warm in the oven at 375°F for about 15-20 minutes or until the internal temp is 165°F
- You can use cheddar, parmesan, or mozzarella in place of the nutritional yeast if you don't need these to be dairy free.
- You can use (gluten free) bread crumbs instead of almond flour if you don't need these to be low carb.
Angela says
Do you use all of the head of broccoli or just the florets? Thank you!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Angela! With a little prep, you can use the entire head!
I recommend you cut off the bottom 1-2 inches of the thick stalk as it’s usually quite tough and woody. You also need to slice the stalk up into smaller pieces before steaming to help it soften in time with the florets.
Hope that helps!
Lindy Nicol says
Hello. Is the chicken raw or cooked?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Lindy! The chicken should be raw when you mix everything together to form the patties. Since it should be thinly sliced, it will cook fully as you frying the fritters on the stove. If it helps you to visualise it, there should be a collage of steps in the post above that shows what things look like at different stages of the cooking process.
Hope that helps! 🙂
Angela Mielke says
Why use sliced chicken instead of ground? I would think ground would hold together better as patties.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Angela! For some reason, I can almost never find unseasoned ground chicken available in store (in the UK) so I have to basically grind my chicken myself. That being said you can use ground chicken here if you like as it’s the same idea!
Jeffrey says
What would your recommendation be for cooking these in an air fryer?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Jeffrey! I’m not too sure – it’s been a few years since I last used an airy fryer and that one wasn’t nearly as advanced as the ones that are more prevalent now. I just looked up how long to cook burgers and it seems that you can generally cook them in about 12 minutes (after flipping about halfway). These fritters are much smaller than burgers so you could try cooking about 6-8 minutes to begin with. Hope that helps!