How many times have I made them and how many times have I not photographed the Spinach Patties in my 13 years as a food blogger? Do you have a number more or less in mind? You can of course write it in the comments, and I’ll let you know if you were even close to reality. To make up for this huge mistake I also recorded the video recipe of the homemade chicken spinach patties. Now I can’t say anymore: but did I publish that recipe? There will be videos and photos on social profiles to prove it!!!
So if you’ve ever wondered: how do you make spinach patties? the spinach patties in the pan or in the oven? what meat is used for the spinach patty mix? Here’s in all this text I’ve tried to answer all your questions to help you prepare the perfect homemade spinach patty! Crispy outside and soft inside just like we like it!!!
I decided indeed late, maybe I’ve been saying now, now, and then always postponing for years. I’ve always told myself: but they just go out to buy Aia’s Spinach Patties what do they care if you publish your homemade spinach patty?!? Two weeks ago, I saw the video of a colleague, Davide from the blog Spadella la Padella who had published his recipe. So I thought: but look, there are still people interested in recipes like this which are easy, quick, and delicious! I bought frozen spinach, it’s quicker, and we all have them in the freezer. Then I got some chicken chunks from the butcher, breadcrumbs, and flour which, like eggs, are never missing at home, I put on my nice apron, and off I went. Video and Recipe of Chicken Spinach Patties in the Pan here they are!
Many of you who already follow me know very well that I am on a diet, slow metabolism issues with the passing years. So lately, I’m proposing alternatives to classic meat burgers made of beef or pork. In some cases, I even eliminated meat entirely and created vegetable burgers, from chard alone to mixed vegetables to cook in the oven. From potato and scamorza cheese burgers to tuna burgers always to be cooked in the oven which is very convenient.
Then I also leave you the alternative to the spinach patty, a chicken burger with zucchini and carrots grated and enriched with scamorza cheese. All these recipes can be found on the blog of Le Ricette di Bea of course, or by clicking the blue links below which will take you directly to the preparation you are interested in.
Furthermore, before finally getting to the recipe for homemade spinach patties, I remind you that I await you every morning in the group and on the Facebook fan page of Le Ricette di Bea with the Recipe of the Day and many other curiosities and contents live from my kitchen!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 249.15 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 31.59 (g) of which sugars 1.91 (g)
- Proteins 19.46 (g)
- Fat 5.70 (g) of which saturated 2.33 (g)of which unsaturated 2.96 (g)
- Fibers 4.51 (g)
- Sodium 359.48 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 84 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for 6 Homemade Chicken Spinach Patties
The doses indicated below and all the preparations to make this recipe are calculated to prepare 6 medium-large chicken spinach patties, which can weigh from 2.8 to 3.2 oz per patty.
As for the spinach, you can choose the fresh spinach to clean, boil, and then drain. Or frozen spinach, also to be boiled and well drained. Keep in mind that when I decided to prepare this recipe, I cooked the spinach in the morning as soon as I woke up, letting them drain their water in the sink by placing them in a nice big colander.
- 8.8 oz spinach (in my case, frozen and then boiled early in the morning)
- 8.8 oz chicken breast (cut into pieces by the butcher)
- 2 tablespoons cheese (grated, either Grana or Reggiano, your choice)
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 egg white (the one we kept aside from the ingredient list for the spinach patty mix)
- 1 egg
- as needed breadcrumbs
- as needed flour
If the indicated egg amounts are insufficient, you can proceed with one whole egg at a time to create the double breading. The spinach patty mix is very soft, and the breadcrumbs and flour quickly absorb the eggs in large quantities, so keep a second whole egg nearby.
Tools for Homemade Spinach Patties in the Pan
Small premise: if you have a mixer with a nice big bowl, you can avoid dirtying a bowl (which is indicated in the list of necessary tools to prepare these good and crispy chicken spinach patties), if instead, you have a small chopper or mixer, you will then have to transfer the ingredients into a bowl.
My Kenwood Multipro still does its dirty work after so many years together and has that nice spacious bowl that I love. I don’t think the model I have is still in circulation, it’s practically 15 years old, but you can purchase this model which is the updated version by clicking here.
Another small premise: the list below does not take into account the pot we will need to boil the spinach and the colander we will use to let them drain in the kitchen sink.
A gem not to miss, the hamburger maker with films, too convenient, easy to use, and above all, to clean. You can also purchase this similar and more recent product by clicking here.
Obviously, if you have seen the video recipe it is evident the ease of use of both and the little manual skill it takes to make these homemade spinach patties. Easier than this!!!
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Mixer
- 3 Small bowls
- 1 Knife
- 2 Tablespoons
- 1 Kitchen spatula
- 1 Pan
- 1 Mold
- 6 Food film
- 2 Plates
Recipe Steps for Spinach Patties with Double Coating
Finally, the text where you can read the recipe, oh I know it took a while between tools and ingredients, but better be clear first than later. So let’s start with the spinach, as mentioned, they must already be nice and cold and drained otherwise we will need too much flour and too much bread which will significantly dry out our homemade spinach patties.
If you have a mixer, continue reading here, otherwise for those who will knead by hand, move on to point 2.
So let’s take the mixer or chopper and pour into the bowl: the well-drained spinach, the chicken pieces cut (in my case, the butcher had already done it, but you can safely do it yourself by buying classic chicken breast). Then we add a heaped tablespoon of flour, one of breadcrumbs, and the cheese you have chosen. Break the egg and add only the yolk to the bowl, keeping the egg white aside for the breading we will make later. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, I had previously added just a pinch of salt to the spinach during their cooking in the pan. So I didn’t exaggerate too much with the saltiness.
Then we start the machine and let it knead everything, you will see that the ingredients will stop on one side of the bowl as soon as everything is well chopped. This will be the signal that we can proceed with the second phase of the recipe.
Step 2 – For those who do not have a large chopper
Take a bowl and pour the well-drained spinach into it, pass the chicken chunks through a meat grinder or mixer to make the meat workable as if it were ground meat, then place it in the bowl. Obviously, if you don’t have suitable tools, it’s faster to ask your trusted butcher to grind chicken breast for you, turning it into ground meat that you will surely work better.
Now it’s time for the tablespoons of flour, breadcrumbs, and cheese, so sprinkle with salt and pepper. Break the egg and keep the egg white aside in a small bowl while the yolk is added to the bowl with the other ingredients.
Work everything with your hands to mix the ingredients, applying good pressure so that they crumble further and bind together. Now we are ready to shape our homemade spinach patties.
From here, we will all work the dough together in exactly the same way to create the perfect spinach patty!
Take two small plates and pour flour into one and breadcrumbs into the other. Then take a small bowl and break the whole egg into it for the breading and add the egg white that we set aside earlier. These ingredients will be used for the breading of the spinach patties.
Then arrange at least two flat plates in front of us, which will be used to place the spinach patties as we prepare them before their relative cooking in the pan.
Now instead take the hamburger machine, place the appropriate film inside, scoop up with a spoon the nice green mixture. About 2.8 oz per patty to be sure, maybe you can weigh the first one to get an idea of the size for the following ones. Place the sticky green ball in the mold, light pressure, and the first chicken spinach patty is ready. Continue like this with all the other mixture available to us.
Don’t have a hamburger machine? Great, make hamburgers the old-fashioned way! Take some food film and place a cut out on a wooden surface or on a cutting board. This is a trick from my Mom Roberta, she always did this with fish burgers and I copied it from her. Placed the film, take many balls of green mixture and place them well apart from each other. Now take another piece of food film, cover the mixture, and with your hands over each ball apply light pressure. If you had created nice balls of ingredients, you will now find yourself with similar discs to hamburgers. Obviously, the pressure you need to apply is not too much, otherwise you’ll make slices, but in this case, you’ll have before you all the ready spinach patties and of similar thickness to each other.
Let’s bread!!! Actually, double breading!!!
Take one spinach patty at a time, dip it first in the beaten egg, then in the flour, then again in the egg, and finally in the breadcrumbs. Obviously carefully on both sides. Then place the spinach patty on a plate and continue this way with all the others. As previously mentioned, an additional egg may be necessary for the breading while the indicated amounts of flour and breadcrumbs should be sufficient. Maybe don’t put them away in the pantry until you have completed the breading.
Now what do you say, finally let’s move on to cooking? It’s easier to show you this recipe than to write it down, I’m breaking a real sweat. For this reason, I recommend, and especially I made the video recipe, there are things that are better explained by watching them being done than by reading them.
Take a pan with a non-stick bottom and place it on the burner with medium-high flame. As you might have noticed from the ingredient list, the use of oil or butter is not provided for this recipe. In fact, we will cook the spinach patties directly in the pan with a hot bottom without adding other fats. This thermal shock will already create a nice crispy golden crust on our spinach patties, leaving the inside soft.
The cooking is about 5 minutes per side, turning them carefully with a kitchen spatula from time to time. This will help us not to blacken the surface of each spinach patty and to check the uniform cooking well. All that’s left to do is serve our beautiful and crispy chicken spinach patties to our family or guests. The kids go literally crazy for them, delicious and fragrant, you’ve never made them like this.
I wish you a good appetite and remind you that I await you every day here in my kitchen with many easy, quick, and delicious recipes like this!!!
If you haven’t gotten bored yet reading my recipes and you’ve imagined yourself with mayonnaise and ketchup sitting on the couch biting into these delicious spinach and chicken cutlets think about the fries you haven’t prepared, or the Greek sauce that would be perfect. Did you look closely at the photo? The sauce is already online among my recipes while for the potatoes, you can choose the pre-cooked ones or you can prepare the rosemary potatoes to cook in the oven.
Storage and Recipe Variations
Spinach Patty with Chicken in the Pan
Storing homemade spinach patties is very simple, once all cooked, we will let them cool at room temperature. We will then take freezer bags if we want to freeze them, pre-cooked like those we buy at the supermarket, to then thaw them when we want and heat them in the pan or oven in an easy and quick way. I recommend spacing one spinach patty from the other with a square of parchment paper, this will prevent them from sticking together during freezing. However, remember to defrost them in time when you want to enjoy them.
Much simpler is the storage in the refrigerator, we will always have to let the spinach patties cool and then close them in a container with a lid and put them in the fridge. However, consider no more than two days, better to freeze them otherwise.
Much simpler is the storage in the refrigerator, we will always have to let the spinach patties cool and then close them in a container with a lid and put them in the fridge. However, consider no more than two days, better to freeze them otherwise.
Variations: a pinch of nutmeg? If you like it, I would gladly add it. And then varying the meat from chicken to turkey could be another alternative, maybe because you already have it in the fridge.
Then we can obviously choose fresh spinach as already indicated. And finally, vary the cooking itself, from the pan to the oven so as to turn them only once. I recommend oven with static mode at 356 degrees for a maximum of ten minutes.
