Pastrami and Cheese Croquettes

Typically when we make corned beef or pastrami we serve it with peas, mash and mustard sauce or in a Reuben sandwich.

Don’t get me wrong – both are delicious, but there is only so much sauerkraut I can handle in a week.

To steer away from the usual and see what else could be done with our leftovers I came up with the idea to make pastrami and cheese croquettes – and they did not disappoint.

The salty spicy pastrami is a great substitute for traditional ham that I would usually use, and you really can’t beat the crispy shell encasing a delicious fluffy potato filling.

Related – for another appetizer, try our buffalo chicken dip

Preparing the fillings

First things first! Chop up just under 2 pounds of potatoes into medium sized chunks.

Put them in a pot and cover them with cold water and a teaspoon of salt. Starting with cold water helps the potatoes cook evenly so you don’t have the outer layers getting water clogged and falling off while the center is still hard.

The potatoes are done when you can easily slide a fork into a few of them.

Once you can do this, drain and spread out on some paper towels or napkins to dry and steam. You want to make sure all the water has evaporated off.

After the potatoes are fluffy and dry you can return them to the pot and mash until virtually all the lumps are gone.

Now here you can either use the pot to mix or pour the mash into a mixing bowl, really depends how much you like doing dishes.

In with the potato, add the cheese, pastrami, chives, cream, and seasoning. I added about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a 1/4 of pepper, but you do you!

A quick note on the cheese, I cut it into small cubes because I like biting into the croquette and getting the cheese bursts. If you grate it, the whole thing is cheese flavored (not that this is a bad thing) and you don’t get the hit from the pastrami or the molten pockets of gooey cheese. But by all means grate away! Either way they will taste great….

Mix all the goodness together until just combined, you want to avoid over working the potato. Sometimes the texture can become super gluey.

Making the croquettes

When everything has come together, shape into small logs roughly the same size. I got 15 from mine, and they were approx. 3 inches long. How delicious does all that speckled pastrami look!

To get that crispy coating on the outside (lets face it, the best part), you will need to bread the croquettes. Dipping first in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. You know the drill.

I used panko breadcrumbs for pretty much everything I need to coat in a crumb. I just find that it makes everything that much crispier and therefore more delicious.

Flour, egg, breadcrumb. Flour, egg, breadcrumb… until you’ve coated all the little pillowy nuggets!

Fill a deep pot, no more than a quarter high, with canola oil for deep frying. You really just want enough so the croquettes are fully submerged so they have a nice even crispiness.

Go ahead and heat the oil to 350°F . When its come up to temp slowly drop 2-3 croquettes into the oil.

You ideally don’t want to be frying any more than this at a time otherwise the temp of the oil will drop to low, which will just make the croquettes absorb more oil and potentially go soggy.

I use my trusty Thermapen from ThermoWorks to measure the temperature of the oil.

Fry the croquettes for about 2 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. When you remove them place them on some paper towels to drain off any excess oil, and don’t forget to sprinkle with a little salt!

How good do these look…. I just want to jump back in the kitchen and make them all over again.

Now you could serve these with just about any sauce you want.

They were really tasty with a tangy mustard based BBQ sauce. Or, since they have that pastrami goodness, you could use a Russian dressing to dip.

Not only are these croquettes a great way to use some of that extra pastrami you made, but they are super simple to whip up – and not to mention delicious.

Lunch, dinner or even as an appetizer, you can’t go wrong.