Loaded Baked Potato Croquettes (Fried Potato Balls)
[rattings]
Servings: 6 (about 3 balls per person)
Ingredients
- 2 Russet Potatoes
- ½ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Pepper
- ¼ cup + 2 TBSPs Sour Cream
- ½ cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- 2 cloves Garlic - minced
- 1 TBSP Fresh Chives - minced
- 1 TBSP Green Onions (white section) - thinly sliced
- 2-3 Slices Crispy Cooked Bacon - chopped into bits (optional)
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 1 cup Flour
- 1 Egg
- 2 TBSP Water
- 1 cup Bread Crumbs
- 3 cups Vegetable Oil
Instructions
- Bake your potatoes in the microwave - using a fork poke holes in your potatoes and place in an microwavable bowl. Use the "potato" setting on your microwave. If you do not have a potato setting, start at 6 minutes and then poke your potatoes with a fork, it should be soft and fluffy on the inside.
- Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, but still hot, cut them open and scrape out the cooked potatoes into a bowl.
- Add in the salt and pepper and fork mash until the potato chucks are mashed and they start to resemble mash potatoes.
- While the potatoes are warm add in your sour cream, cheddar cheese, garlic, chives, green onions, and bacon. Stir until the potatoes are creamy and the ingredients are evenly distributed throughout. Give it a quick taste test. If the flavors are a little dull, add in a pinch of salt to wake up the ingredients.
- Add in your egg yolks. Combine until evenly distributed.
- Using a spoon or cookie ball scoop, you can scoop out your potato balls.= (about 1 inch balls). Set them aside on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Place in the freezer for 15 minutes, the refrigerator for 30 minutes. This is a great stopping point, if you're making these ahead of time, just keep them in the refrigerator until you're ready to fry and serve.
- Set up your dredging station: You will need three bowls, in the first bowl add your flour. In the second bowl, whisk together your egg and 2 TBSPs of water. In the third bowl, add your bread crumbs.
- Take your potato balls out of the freezer or refrigerator. Roll them between you r hands to perfect the "ball" and smooth it out from where it sat on the cookie sheet.
- Roll the potato ball in the flour to cover the entire surface and shake off the excess.
- Roll flour covered potato ball into the egg mixture, let the excess drip off.
- Roll that potato ball into the bread crumbs making sure the cover the entire surface, shake off the excess.
- Once you have all of the potato balls dredged. In a deep pan, heat up your vegetable oil to 350F. I used 3 cups, you may use more or less, you need just enough to have about an inch or so deep so it will vary based on the size of your pan.
- When the temperature reaches 350F, you can add a few of your potato balls. You don't want to over crowd the pan and the temperature will drop slightly once you add them in.
- You will cooking them for about 2-3 minutes and then turn them upside down to finish cooking and browning - about 5 minutes total.
- Remove, place on a wire cooling rack and sprinkle with salt.
