Chicken Croquettes with Tomato sauce

This recipe is an altered version of a croquette recipe. The sauce is tailored for the dish, as sage and tarragon go well together for a cicken dish, and the lemon in the croquettes is supposed to compliment this.

450g potatoes, diced
2tbsp milk
200g chicken, finely sliced
3 eggs
rind of 1 lemon, finely grated
120g breadcrumbs
2 spring onions, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable oil, for deep fat frying

1tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
400g can of chopped tomatoes
2tbsp tomato puree
1tbsp sage, chopped
1tbsp tarragon, chopped
salt and pepper to taste



Step 1
Boil the potatoes for 25 minutes, or until tender. Drain the potatoes and return to the pan on a low heat to ensure that all excess water evaporates. Mash the potatoes with the milk and two of the eggs. Season with the salt and pepper, and mix in the chicken, lemon rind, and spring onions. Chill for at least 1 hour n the fridge.

Step 2
Meanwhile prepare the sauce by heating the oil in a saucepan and adding the onions, frying for 5 minutes until softened. Add the tomates and the puree and stir and simmer the sauce for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, before serving add the sage and tarragon and warm through for a minute.

Step 3
Remove the potato mixture from the fridge and divide into roughly equal sized portions. Shape each portion into a sausage shape then, having beaten the last egg,dip the potato mixture into the egg then the breadcrumbs.

Step 4
Heat the vegetable oil in a saucepan, deep-fat fryer, or a deep bottomed frying pan, until a cube of bread dropped in it sinks, rises and sizzles in 10 seconds. Deep fry the croquettes for 5 minutes or until golden and crisp, serve immediately with the sauce.

This recipe is flexible in terms of sauce and ingredients for the croquette. I used chicken, but you could also use turkey, or ham, or vegetables. If using ham you could change the sauce to a cheesy one to better fit with the ingredients. This could be an excellent use of leftovers from christmas dinner, as you could have the potatoes mashed, add in the turkey, and you could then finely slice brussel sprouts to replace the spring onions, and serve with cranberry sauce instead of a tomato based sauce.

Basic Tomato Sauce

This is a great basic tomato sauce and it can be used on many things, like pizza or pasta, or added to to create a more exciting sauce. This is something that everyone should know how to cook as it's simple and easy to do.

2 medium onions, chopped
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
2 medium garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp tomato puree
2 tsp fresh basil, chopped
2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to season


Step 1
Heat the oil in a saucepan on a medium heat, and add the onion and garlic. Heat slowly over a medium-low heat till translucent. Add the tinned tomatoes and tomato puree, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Step 2
Add the herbs and seasoning to the sauce, and add to the dish.




How long this sauce is cooked for can vary depending on what dish it is to be used with, as a pasta sauce can be fairly 'wet', while a sauce used for topping a pizza would be better as a thick sauce.

Lemony Tomato Sauce and Bacon with Pasta

 This slight variation on the basic tomato sauce, it's delicious and has a slight tang to it.




 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 large (or 2 small) onion
salt and pepper to taste
1 clove of garlic
2tsp olive oil
2tsp fresh herbs, chopped
grated rind and juice of 1/4 of a lemon
3 pieces of streaky bacon
Pasta

Step 1
Finely chop the onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, and add the onion and garlic reducing the heat. Sweat on a low heat for about 5 minutes and stir with a wooden spoon until the onion goes translucent.

Step 2
Add the tomatoes to the pan add the rind and juice of the lemon, and increase the heat to bring to a simmer and reduce.Season with salt and pepper add some sugar slowly, tasting as you go making sure to keep the lemon flavour but sweetening to lessen the acidity. Take the sauce off the heat and add the herbs.

Step 3
Meanwhile boil some water for the pasta, and add the bacon to a frying pan over a low heat. Once cooked cut the bacon into strips, drain the pasta and place into a bowl first, top with the sauce and then ass the bacon strips.


With this recipe you don't need any oil for the bacon as the low heat will allow bacon to cook in its own fat. You can also add a litte sauce to a pan and add the drained pasta, then shake or mix to coat the pasta with the sauce, as it allows you to use less sauce and keep the flavour while having less.

Basic Tomato Sauce

This is a very basic tomato sauce recipe, and knowing how to make it is really useful as once you can do this then you can make little changes to suit the meal you're having it with.

400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 large (or 2 small) onion
salt and pepper to taste
1 clove of garlic
2tsp olive oil
2tsp fresh herbs, chopped

Step 1
Finely chop the onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, and add the onion and garlic reducing the heat. Sweat on a low heat for about 5 minutes and stir with a wooden spoon until the onion goes translucent.

Step 2
Add the tomatoes to the pan, and increase the heat to bring to a simmer and reduce. Add the salt and pepper towards the end, then take off the heat and add the herbs. Stir well, then serve over pasta.


Basil is the most common herb used for tomato sauces, but you may want to vary it depending on the recipe. You can also add tomao puree to the sauce to give a bit more flavour and colour.