Facebook chicken flats with sweet potato coins and a hot salsa

Facebook rocks! Once again it has pulled an ace out its sleeve when it comes to recipes. Over the years I have tried a fair few recipes floating around on Facebook and they rarely fail, although some are nicer than others. I wouldn't say these chicken flats are at the top of the leader board, but way above the middle.

I'm a huge fan of a nugget, ball or burger and these are kind of a mixture of them all. They were meant to be chicken meatballs, but due to the sloppy nature of the mixture, they didn't stay ball shaped. In fact, they were never ball shaped, not even before cooking. To tell you the truth, I'm amazed they stayed together at all. I suppose that's all down to the miracle of eggs as a binding agent, the eggs I very nearly forgot to add. So instead of balls, they had the shape of burgers, but the size of nuggets. It would be unfair to pick either of those three names, so I'm simply calling them flats. No, not the kind of flat you live in, but the shape, as in not particularly three dimensional.

The reason the mixture was so sloppy was that it contained chicken fillets and courgette, which are both sloppy by nature when blitzed. To make matters worse, there were no bread crumbs to soak up the liquid. Without the egg, these flats would have been a disaster and that very nearly happened.

For those wanting a non-wheat, non-dairy, low fat meat and vegetable combo, this could be your thing. You can season as much or as little as you want. I kept mine fairly plain for the initial test run, but I can imagine adding more flavours next time. Yes, there will definitely be a next time and I will probably make them into legitimate burgers, probably with sweet potato and cheese waffles as a bun substitute. 

If you decide to make the flats, be prepared to get sticky fingers, unless you are clever enough to use a couple of spoons for the dolloping. It did cross my mind, but far too late. I actually tried to roll the mixture, only to realise immediately that it was a pointless mission.

My flats were served with roasted sweet potato coins and a hot tomato salsa and I have to say that it was a surprisingly nice meal, one that I would happily have again.

For the chicken & courgette flats, I used:

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 large courgette, diced

5 chicken fillets, diced

1 onion, chopped

salt & pepper

oregano

parsley

1. Get the onion, garlic cloves and courgette out.

2. Chop them.

3. Cut the chicken into cubes.

4. In a food processor (preferably bigger than mine) blitz the chicken and courgette.

5. Add the chicken, garlic and seasoning.

6. Keep blitzing it until you have a smooth mixture. You may have to take some out and do it in batches, if you have a small processor. 

I ended up with a couple of pieces of courgette that simply refused to give in to the cutting blades and they were eventually spared, although deported to the food waste bin. A few pieces of chicken weren't completely minced, but that was fine. There were no big lumps.

7. Before getting your fingers sticky, because they will be kept messy for quite a while, you probably want to prepare your trimming. If making sweet potato coins, now is the time to cut them into 1 cm thick slices.

8. Heat up a little oil on a baking tray and season well with salt and pepper. Turn the coins in the oil and set aside until you want to cook them. They will take approximately 20 minutes.

9. Transfer the chicken mixture to a large bowl and add eggs. Mix well. 

I added two, because I had a lot of mixture. As you can see, I actually started to cook the flats before remembering the eggs and flipped a whole panful back into the mixing bowl. The eggs went in and I mixed with a spoon as if my life depended on it. I just about got away with it. Phew!

10. Time to start cooking. This is when you may want to use two spoons. Dollop the mixture into a frying pan and cook for approximately 5 minutes.

11. When they have started to brown, flip them over and cook again. They do not need to cook through.

12. While they flats are frying, you may want to start the salsa, if you fancy this for serving. Empty a tin of chopped tomatoes into a sauce pan.

13. Chop your choice of vegetables for the salsa. Pepper and leek work well.

14. Add the vegetables alongside seasoning. Oregano, basil, parsley and chilli paste is a nice combo.

15. Stir well and leave to simmer on a medium heat.

16. When it looks gooey, do a taste test and adjust the seasoning if needed. You can leave it to reduce and thicken on a low heat or take it off and warm it up later.

17. When the chicken flats have been browned on both sides, place them on a tray covered with greaseproof paper and bake in the oven at 200 degrees for approximately 10 minutes. This is a good time to put your sweet potato coins into the oven too. 

To be perfectly honest, I didn't time it, so 10 minutes is a guess. I cleaned up the kitchen while I waited. I could say 'cook until the kitchen is clean' but I don't know how much of a mess you have made and if you followed that advice, you may end up with pieces of charcoal.

18. Flip them over and cook for another 10 minutes. Flip the coins as well while you are at it.

19. When the coins are soft in the middle and goldenish on the outside, they are done.

20. The chicken flats need to be white all the way through, apart from the green bits of course.

21. Serve and enjoy a perfectly healthy meal.