I love when I open my mailbox and find my issue of Cooking Light inside waiting. I count it as extra calorie burn as I race to get back inside to read it. This month was their special issue with all time favorite recipes and there are tons that I dog-eared to try out.
They had a version of spicy chicken fritters that I really wanted to make but at this point I’m not wasting any of my fat grams on frying. I’m not crazy. My fat grams are reserved for peanut butter. Specifically Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter. End of story.
So I looked over the recipe and remade it based on what I had on hand already and what fit into my eating plan. Keep in mind when you pick recipes that they are just a starting point. I rarely if ever follow a recipe to the letter. If you don’t like an ingredient, change it. If you’re out of a spice, use something else.
The original recipe had ground chicken which is pretty high in fat, lots more mayo, onions, and a bunch of other ingredients. I don’t have time to spend shopping, chopping, or buying things that I’ll only use a little bit of. So I overhauled and ended up with great tasting fritters that were perfect for saving time, calories and fat.
Eat these babies on their own, use them to top a salad, or… get little rolls and make little sliders topped with Asian cole slaw. I would so make sliders with these. I loved that it made 6 servings so I get 6 meals out of one recipe. I froze a few for later in the month.
Thai Curry Turkey Fritters 
- 1 lb ground turkey breast
- 1 Tbsp olive oil mayonnaise
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tsp sambal oelek
- 1 1/2 Tbsp green curry paste
- 1 tsp minced ginger
Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. I usually squish by hand to make sure that everything gets combined. You don’t want to end up with clumps of curry in some fritters and no curry in others.
Roll the mixture into 12 equal sized balls and smash the balls slightly into patties. Heat a pan over medium low heat and spray it with non-stick spray. Place 6 patties into the preheated pan and cook on both sides, flipping halfway through, until cooked thoroughly.
Repeat with the other 6 patties. Remove from heat and serve with a drizzle of sriracha, wasabi mayonnaise or other topping that you like. Makes 6 servings of 2 patties at approximately 128 calories – 18.5g protein, 4.5g carbs and 3g fat.
Notes
- I used 97/3 ground turkey breast to keep the fat very low. There are several percentages available so read your labels. 85/15 is going to be higher in fat but moister. The lower in fat, the drier it can get based on your cooking method. My rule of thumb is if I’m using it in a dish that is mixed with spices or has other ingredients, I go with the very lean. If I’m eating it plain in a burger, I go higher in fat for more flavor.
- You want to keep the heat at medium low when cooking ground turkey or ground chicken patties. Unlike ground beef that you can often eat medium rare, you want to make sure that turkey and chicken are completely cooked for safety reasons. If you have the heat at medium or higher the outside of the patties will cook faster and burn before the inside is done. The result is an awful burnt underdone combo. Bleh.
- If you don’t have mayo, you can probably substitute greek yogurt. I haven’t personally tried it so let me know how it works for you.
The patties themselves were just mildly spicy which is nice since I’m not a huge fan of grab your tongue spicy. The original recipe in the magazine was over 200 calories for the 2 patties and had almost triple the fat. I think I did pretty good with the remake. 🙂
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