Chicken Cakes

Wow, doesn’t that sound unappealing? Chicken cakes. Ew.
But here’s the thing. They are Awesome. Yep, Awesome with a capital A. Does Spicy Chicken Cakes with Horseradish Aioli make it sound better? Sure it does. And go ahead, click on that link. Check out the picture. They look tasty.
I was browsing some old issues of Cooking Light, looking for something different to do with chicken. I came across this recipe and thought, that’s just crazy enough to work!
I even had most of the ingredients despite not having actually grocery shopped in over a week. My chives are already thriving in the garden so I grabbed a handful and got started. I like chopping chives with scissors.

I didn’t have any whole wheat bread, but I did have rye.

I took a lovely picture of the 1 cup of bread crumbs.

I remember when I took the picture I had something specific to say about that 1 cup of crumbs, but now I have no idea what. Hmmm. This was just last night. Oh well. It’s a nice picture. Good light, right?

Next, it was time to grind up the chicken. And that? Was pretty gross.

But wait! It gets more gross.

You mix up the mangled poutry flesh with the chives, special fancy one cup of breadcrumbs, chives, a little mayo, seasonings (recipe calls for Cajun seasoning – I used Old Bay and a little cayenne) and two egg whites.

And that becomes a scary, gelatinous mass.
No, don’t stop reading! Really, they are good! I swear!
I divided the mixture while it was still in the bowl into eight even-ish portions with a fork and mashed it into eight little patties.

They were gooey and sticky and it was more difficult than you would think to lift them off of my cutting sheet and into the pan.

I used two spatulas to finagle them in. The good news was that after cooking for 7 minutes on one side, they were actually pretty easy to flip to the other side.

They held together much better during the cooking process than my crab cakes have.
Next, it was time for the “aioli.” Actually, it was just some mayo with stuff added to it, but if Cooking Light wants to get fancy and call it aioli, I will too. I mixed it with bottled minced garlic and prepared horseradish as directed, but then I decided it could use a little color so I added a little cayenne to that too and gave it a pinkish blush.

Awww, it’s pretty! But, not only was it pretty, it was totally delicious. I ate three cakes, and my husband gobbled up five. The aioli was also pretty good with the asparagus I cooked to go with it, sticking with the serving suggestion in the magazine. It was great meal and my husband whined for more. They sort of reminded me of crab cakes, but it was much more foolproof. No worrying about low quality crab meat, no funky smell afterward. They were tender and moist and had way more flavor than a plain old baked chicken breast. So, chicken cakes – sounds bad, tastes good. Try some!