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Rice and Chicken Croquettes
One cup of cold chicken, chopped fine and seasoned with salt and pepper, one cup of cold boiled rice. Heat both together in a double boiler, adding a little milk, if the mixture seems dry. When hot, stir in one egg beaten light, and when it is thoroughly mixed, remove 'from the fire. When the mixture is cold, form into croquettes, roll in egg, then in fine bread or cracker crumbs and again in egg, and fry in hot lard.
A leftovers dish that depends almost entirely on getting the mixture cold and stiff enough to hold its shape. Everything else is straightforward.
- Chill it properlyThe hinge of the recipe is the cooling step. Spread the cooked mixture on a plate or shallow pan and refrigerate at least two hours, ideally overnight; a warm or soft mixture will burst apart in the fat.
- Rice mattersUse short or medium grain rice cooked soft and slightly sticky. Long grain or leftover pilaf-style rice with separate grains will not bind, and the croquettes will crumble when breaded.
- The egg in the mixtureOne egg stirred into hot rice and chicken sets as it cooks, which is what holds the croquette together. Stir constantly for a minute or so after adding it so it thickens rather than scrambles.
- Double coatingEgg, crumbs, egg again, then fry is the sequence as written, but a second pass through the crumbs after the second egg gives a far more reliable seal. Let the coated croquettes rest in the refrigerator 20 minutes before frying.
- Frying fat and temperatureLard is still sold and fries well; neutral oil works identically. Bring it to 365-375F and fry in batches so the temperature does not crash. Two to three minutes, until deep gold, is enough since the filling is already cooked.
- SeasoningA cup of chicken and a cup of rice needs more salt than a modern cook expects, plus a little grated onion, nutmeg or lemon zest if you want the dish to taste of anything. Recipes of this kind often presume poultry that had already been seasoned in the cooking.
- YieldTwo cups of mixture makes about eight small croquettes, enough for two or three as a light main course with a sauce. Cream sauce, tomato sauce or plain gravy are common accompaniments in books of the period.
Croquettes were the standard American answer to the Sunday roast on Wednesday, and cookbooks of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries carry dozens of versions: chicken, veal, salmon, sweetbread, hominy, plain rice. The name comes from the French croquer, to crunch, and the form arrived in English-language cookery through the same French professional tradition that gave American households the croquette's close relative, the rissole. What distinguishes this particular version is its economy: rice stretches a cup of scraps into a modest dish, and the binding is done by a single egg rather than the thick panada of butter, flour and cream that a richer household recipe would call for. Recipes like this one, built on what was already cooked and cold in the larder, were the practical backbone of the book.