Bleu Cheese Potato Croquettes

We bought a whole rotisserie chicken from the store the other night, and made some mashed potatoes to go with the chicken. There were a lot of leftover potatoes, so I decided to make potato croquettes with them. Typically, croquettes are deep-fried, but since I 1) Don't have a deep fryer and 2) Would never want one, I just pan-fried these instead.

The potatoes weren't quite as thick as they needed to be to form patties, so I added some panko bread crumbs as well as some oat bran just to thicken them.

I formed them into patties, and then put a hunk of bleu cheese in the middle, then sealed it up. Maybe I should've called them bleu cheese surprise croquettes.

I coated each croquette in more panko to make them crisp on the outside.

Then I pan-fried them until golden brown! (I know they kinda look like scallops in this picture, but they are definitely not.)

Alongside the croquettes, I made some interesting salads.
Cookie Monster's was a little different than mine. It had:
Spinach
Carrots
Cucumbers
Shredded chicken
Bacon Bits
And popcorn! It functioned like a crouton
(My salad had a lot more vegetables--the ones Cookie Monster doesn't like--and no bacon bits.)

 

I also served myself some leftover roasted butternut squash (none for Cookie Monster--he hates squash. I don't know why. It's delicious.) to go with the croquettes.

They turned out pretty well! Although they were a bit dry. I added too much oat bran to keep them in patty form--I think I would add less next time. Also, deep frying is not friendly to my pants, but it does keep a lot of the moisture in. I think some of the dryness was unavoidable with the pan-fry method.

It was an interesting dinner!