These crispy fried cakes are tender, juicy and so flavorful. If you love easy chicken recipes that are easy then you’ll want to try these chicken cakes soon! Whether you use canned chicken breast or leftover chicken these cakes will be the perfect go-to dinner.
Oh So Easy and Delicious!
My Crispy Chicken Cakes are a family favorite here in our house and I’m finally making time to post there here for you all!
These cakes are similar to tuna cakes but since we are not a fan of tuna cakes I make these out of some of my canned chicken breast. With the chicken and a few more simple ingredients, we have a winner!
What I love most about this recipe is that I usually have all the necessary ingredients to make these in the pantry and fridge and they are incredibly easy and quick to make.
They can be budget-friendly also, which is always a great thing.
Oh yeah, and they taste so amazing! I don’t want to leave out that, after all, the taste is the most important part!
Making The Crispy Chicken Cakes
Crispy and golden, my chicken cakes are a huge hit with my whole family. And I will admit that I’m a huge fan of them too, even warmed up the next day for lunch.
They are perfect for using up leftover chicken breast, or even that leftover turkey, but I often use canned chicken that I have in the pantry as you will see in this recipe care below.
I try to purchase chicken breast in bulk when I find it on sale and can it myself in my pressure canner, you’ll see a post on how I do this soon, so I always have it in my pantry.
But it is super easy to pick up the canned chicken breast at the grocery store the next time you make a run. You can find it in small 5-ounce cans or even bulk-size cans these days.
Canned chicken is great for this recipe because it is easy to store long-term in your pantry for times when it isn’t easy to go shopping.
Not only is it shelf-stable but it is such a huge time saver when you can just pop open a can or jar of fully cooked chicken to throw a quick meal together. This is such a blessing after a super busy day.
You’ll only need six ingredients to make these tasty fried cakes. The exact measurements are included in the recipe card below but I’ll give you a quick look at what you’ll need:
Chicken breasts: I use canned chicken breast in this recipe, but again leftover chicken or turkey breast from your fridge will work also. Either one will make these chicken cakes come together super fast.
Egg Whites: I use egg whites in this recipe because I had a carton on hand and it saves a bit on fat and calories if that is something you monitor in your eating plan.
Chives or Green Onions: I always have dried chives in my pantry thanks to my dehydrator but you can find these on the spice aisle easily at Walmart for .97 and they add some great flavor. Sub some finely chopped green onions from the produce section if that is easier.
Cheeses: You find two types of cheese in this recipe, Monterey Jack and grated Parmesan. They add yummy flavor, as well as help the outer crispiness when frying these Crispy Chicken Cakes!
Trim Healthy Mama Baking Blend: I use this low-carb baking blend as a binder along with the egg whites. In traditional cakes like this recipe, there is often a call for bread crumbs, but I’m keeping mine low-carb and gluten-free so I like to sub the low-carb baking blend. You can use almond meal in its place if you don’t have a baking blend mix on hand.
Seasoning: Choosing your spices can be a personal preference of course, but I like to use simple seasonings like salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. But I’ve also made these a couple of times and used a couple of tablespoons of a low-carb homemade ranch mix which was amazing too!
Once you have these simple ingredients on hand all you have to do is add all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix them well. After your chicken cake mixture is combined the next step is to portion the mixture out to form your cakes.
To make portioning out the chicken mixture easier, you can use a 4 oz ice cream scoop to make these chicken cakes, but if you want smaller ones for little kid servings or for an appetizer you could use a smaller scoop.
Next, you’ll just press the portioned-out chicken into round pattie-like cakes. I usually get about 7 chicken cakes out of this recipe.
After preparing your cakes you are ready to fry them up and get ready to see the delight on your family’s face when you serve these up!
If using leftover chicken make sure to chop it finely and remove any excess fat or any skin that may still be on the chicken.
When using canned chicken breast make sure to drain it very well and break up any large clumps.
The chicken cakes will take about 5-6 minutes of cooking on each side to ensure they are nicely browned and crispy. This will also make sure they are cooked all the way through.
Avoid flipping your chicken cakes too soon. You want to ensure they are nice and golden brown on each side before you flip them. Waiting will prevent your chicken cakes from falling apart in the flipping process.
For extra flavor, you could add your favorite ranch dressing mix and crumbled bacon. Yum!
To use whole eggs instead of the egg whites in this recipe, you can substitute two medium-sized whole eggs for the egg whites.
Use leftover turkey at Thanksgiving or Christmas to make these awesome turkey cakes! To make 6-8 cakes you would need about 3-4 cups of shredded/chopped turkey or chicken.
To freeze the chicken cakes mix up the batch per the recipe. Once you have the cakes made place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and place them in the freezer until frozen solid.
Next, take the frozen cakes and place them in a freezer bag, and label them with the recipe name, cooking instructions, and date. Let thaw mostly before cooking when ready to use.
These Crispy Chicken Cakes are wonderful served with a salad and some steamed veggies, but they are even better served as a sandwich wrapped in a romaine lettuce leaf or on a low-carb wrap.
I hope you all enjoy this easy recipe as much as I have enjoyed making it for my family. Let me know below in the comments if you give these a try.
Enjoy the Recipe!
Crispy Chicken Cakes || Low Carb and THM
Tasty chicken breast patties flavored with cheese and chives then fried to perfection. These Crispy Chicken Cakes are a simple dinner that can be prepared quickly on busy nights.
Ingredients
- 4 Tablespoons Olive Oil for cooking
- 6 small cans of chicken breast or 3-4 cups of shredded chicken
- 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
- 1/3 cup egg whites (if preferred 2 whole eggs)
- 1/3 cup Trim Healthy Mama Baking Blend (or Almond Flour)
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
- 2 Tablespoons chives, chopped or dried
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Open canned chicken and drain really well then break the chicken into small pieces so there are no large pieces
- Add the chicken and all the other ingredients into a large bowl, except the oil.
- Mix the ingredients well until all the ingredients are combined and will stick together when you pinch it between your fingers.
- Divide the mixture out into 6-8 equal portions depending on how large you want the cakes. Form each of the patties and set them aside.
- Add the oil to a pan and heat over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot place some of the cakes in the pan to cook.
- This will take 4 to5 minutes on each side. Flip when the chicken cakes are nice and golden brown on each side.
- Serve hot and enjoy.
Notes
See the Tips Section above the recipe for help making this recipe a success every time and for possible substitutions. Also please note your nutritional breakdown will vary if you use whole eggs or almond flour instead of THM Baking Blend. For those using leftover chicken or turkey you will need about 3-4 cups of meat.
Nutrition Information
Yield
7Serving Size
1Amount Per ServingCalories 155Total Fat 12gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 26mgSodium 166mgCarbohydrates 1gFiber 0gSugar 0gProtein 10g
I am not a nutritionist. If you have strict dietary needs I always recommend using an online nutrition calculator to calculate your totals using your exact brands you're using in this recipe as values may vary per brand.
I am a southern girl through and through that loves to laugh, cook, read and spend time with family. My passions outside of home schooling my son are ministering to those in need and creating art in the kitchen! Every day is an adventure in our little house and I wouldn’t trade it or the chance to share here with you for anything!
These were a winner! Doubled for my family of 6 & had a few leftover. I subbed extra parm for the almond flour & did 2 whole eggs & the egg whites.
Will definitely make again!
I love hearing that Sarah! So happy you and your family enjoy them!
Hi Keri: Just wondering if you’ve made these and then frozen some of them? I could see these being perfect for saucy dinners, like piccata, marsale, parmesan…any of those sauces. How convenient would THAT be? These would be all ready to thaw, reheat and sauce!
I have frozen them, in raw form and cooked fully first. They work great!
Has anyone tried these without the baking blend or flour?
Hopefully, others will chime in too, but I’ve also made them with almond flour because they usually do need a little binder so if you have a favorite other than the baking blend or flour you could add that.
Can you use just regular all-purpose flour?
Yes, absolutely.
Would using a burger press for the patties make sense? Seems like this would be an easy enough recipe to make and probably pretty good, especially as a base for something like chicken parmesan or the like. Will need to try this out at some point to see how that works, but need to figure out the size/weight of cans to get so I can add that to my list. I think I have everything else.
I bet it would work. I have a burger press, I should try it next time. I would definitely spray it well or use the little parchment paper pieces that come with some of the burger presses. I hope you enjoy them if you give them a try.
Guilt-free fried food–yay! I had to improvise quite a bit. For a quick lunch, I used 1 large can of chicken and 1 sm can of chunk white tuna, scaling down all the other ingredients, except I had no MJ cheese. Didn’t matter. Fried up SO super crispy. jServed them up on a bountiful salad and healthy dressing. Hubs was so thankful for something other than a sandwich! Next time I’ll do the “real” recipe.
That’s awesome Bev, I’m so glad you and your husband enjoyed them!
Can you bake these . I don’t fry anything.
If so what temperature and how long. Do you think it will be
I’m sure you could, I just don’t know if they would brown up as much as they do when fried. If they don’t get as brown as you like after they are baked you might broil them for a couple of minutes on each side to brown them some. would start at 375 for about 15 to 20 minutes. They can be done in the air fryer as well if you have one.
Ari fry them 🙂
Wow, these sound (and look) great. We don’t use chives or green onions so I’m wondering if they are mostly to add color or if regular onions can be substituted? Thank you for sharing this recipe! And I also would like to thank the people who commented with the instructions for time and temp using the air fryer! Can’t wait to try them!
Hi Joann, I’m so glad you are going to give it a try. Yes, you can use regular onions if you would like. I would just chop them really fine so they have time to cook through as the cakes cook. I hope you enjoy them!
I am fairly new to THM. Would this be considered a S? or just protein source?
Yes, this would be a great example of an S. So it will be your protein source, but keep your sides that you eat with it in the S category. The oil if you fry them, and the cheese makes these an S. If you leave out the cheese, use a few egg whites, and can do them either in the air fryer or the oven you can make them fit into an E using lean chicken breast meat. Welcome to THM!
Maybe a low fat feta would work. I use feta for a baked chicken, asparagus,tomato recipe I have. I like it.
I bet feta would be nice!
What are you talking about saying an s. Or e
Those references are for readers that follow a very specific diet. It is called Trim Healthy Mama and they do some meals that are higher fat and low carb or Keto (they call these “S Meals”) and they also do some meals that are higher in natural carbs and lower in fat (that are called “E Meals”) so that pertains to those readers only. This recipe can be made higher fat/low carb or they can modify it to be lower in fat if they would like. Hope that helps. I have a variety of followers that follow many different eating plans so I to be mindful of that and label my recipes for as many of those as I can. 🙂
These were very good. I did not add any salt and found it did not need it. My chicken was rotisserie chicken from Costco so I think it was already seasoned. I cooked them in a combo of 2 Tbsp butter and 2 Tbsp olive oil. Will definitely make these again. Thanks for sharing.
Hello Sharon, I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed them. What a great way to use that rotisserie chicken. Happy Holidays!
One of the easiest recipe blogs I’ve seen. I love that it is all written out to read before watching your video. I look forward to printing this out and trying it. I may try them in a piece of the FP Wonderful White Blender Bread from the THM starter book. That sounds like a real treat, and I hear e bread is quite bland and good to use with high flavor foods. This sounds like it would foot the Bill nicely. Thank you, Keri!
Thank you, Kim. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoy them like we do.
What a great concept; since we don’t do low carb or gluten free, I will use this recipe as a guide, not as an exact blueprint of a recipe. I never thought to can chicken breast meat as I don’t normally care for white meat; when you can yours, do put water in the jar, like for tuna? I recall in our (ball blue book?) recipe we add 2 T of water to our half pint jars. I think I might try using store bought but reduced chicken broth in lieu of water. That should give it enough flavor to be palateable. I like the idea of them also being used the next day, that sounds like a great snack on a hawai’in sweet roll. During the year I make Thai fish cakes and this sounds similar in a sense, minus of course the diced raw green beans and curry paste, but similar enough that my thoughts are flying to possibilities. Thank you for the inspiration. This will also give me an idea what to do with breast meat when we buy rotisserie chicken, that is always the last thing we use.
You may have received an answer already, but don’t add liquid to the jars when raw packing chicken; it will make its own juices. Leave 1 1/4″ headspace. You can add broth if hot packing, fill to 1″ headspace. HTH
They sound very tasty. Have you “oven fried” these?
I haven’t but I bet they would work great oven fried or in the air fryer.
What would you suggest to serve with these?
Hi Anna, my family loves them served with a big green leafy salad but some steamed broccoli or green beans would pair nicely too. They also work great on low carb wraps as sandwiches with raw veggies and ranch dip.
Just made them for a late Lunch/snack – cooked up in avocado oil YUMMMM
These came out amazing. I only used two large cans of chicken and wish I had made more! They were flavored perfectly with only adding a little salt and pepper to the mix. Husband and kids loved them. I also made a dipping sauce called Comeback sauce. Really good together.
I loved hearing you guys enjoyed them Jennifer! I’ll have to check out that sauce recipes, we love a good dipping sauce!
How many ounces are in what you are calling a small can? Different stores carry different sizes and so what you can small may not be in a particular store.
It is the typical size small can that you normally see tuna or chicken in. I believe the ones at my store are 5 ounces. I tried putting the ounces on the recipes and people complained about that so I just stated small can. Just remember that the cans contain water so not all of the 5 ounces is chicken. Hope that helps.:)
Keri, your recipe sounds and looks so good. My family loves salmon patties, so I’m thinking I may try your recipe with salmon. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Thanks Michelle, I hope you guys enjoy!
Can’t wait to try these!! Keep the recipes coming!
Thanks for stopping by :)!
This sounds so yummy! I am definitely going to try it this weekend. Thanks for sharing. Do you have more low carb eats?
I do, just check out the recipe index here on the blog, I have a ton of low carb and gluten free recipes! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the recipes.
Would you use bisquick or flour to substitute for the baking blend?
Debbie, if I had to say I think I would use flour just because I’m more familiar with it. 🙂
For a meatball recipe that I found that is low carbs you substitute breadcrumbs for pork rinds do you think that you could substitute the baking blend for pork rinds?
They might work Teri, however I’ve not tried it so not positive. If you don’t have the baking blend another option is just plain almond flour.
I am doing Whole30 at the moment. Is there something I could substitute for the cheese? Or is the cheese more for flavor than for binding? Thanks!
The cheese does help bind them but I don’t think it would make them fall apart if you left it out. I would mix it up and then try a small patty first and see if it holds together. If it seems like it might now hold possible try adding another egg.
We made them but used 12. 5 ounce can . Is your recipe correct with 6 5 ounce cans?
Yes, as far as the recipe I wrote and use at my house it is correct. I make large size cakes that will fit on a bun or sandwich and to do that size I used 6 of the 5 once cans or 2 pint size jars of my home canned chicken. But feel free to use whatever amount you like. 🙂
Also for reference here is a link to the cans I use from the store if that helps. https://www.walmart.com/ip/BUMBLE-BEE-Premium-White-Chicken-in-Water-5-Ounce-Can-High-Protein-Food-and-Snacks/20435397
Hi. Could these be air fried?
I’ve not tried an air fryer yet on these, but I’m sure you could. However, I honestly am not sure as to what temperature or how long you would cook them. If you try them in the air fryer I would love to hear how they turn out for you!
I did make these using the air fryer. Cooked them at 370 for 6 minutes, flipped and cooked for 4 more minutes. Delicious!
Oh that is great news! Thanks so much for letting me know how they turned out Eileen!
Thanks. I was wondering the same thing (I’m in WW).
I made them appetizer size, sprayed lightly with oil and air fryed them at 380 degrees for 6 minutes, flipped them, sprayed again and cooked for another 4 minutes. Turned out great!
I would also love to know how they turn out in the air fryer! Let us know how you did it!
If I use leftover chicken how much do I use. The amount in ounces would be good. Do I just shred the chicken with two forks?
Depending how large you would want your patties I would do at least 4 or 5 cups of chopped or shredded chicken. In the past when I have used left over chicken I would just shred it with forks then chop it a little for good measure. You just don’t want big chunks because it is harder to patty out.
Just made these, delicious! Had to improvise a bit when I discovered I didn’t have Parmesan, but they came out great.
So glad you enjoyed them!
How many cups of chicken is equal to the 5 cans? Since it only makes 6-7 cakes it does not seem like much?
Depending how large you would want your patties I would do at least 4 or 5 cups of chopped or shredded chicken.
Did you or can you provide your baking blend ingredients?
Hi, I use a premade low carb and gluten free baking mix that is made by a brand called Trim Healthy Mama. Here is a link to that product if you would like to take a look at it. https://store.trimhealthymama.com/product/gluten-free-baking-blend-16oz-bag/?ref=86
5 cans is that correct? I used 12 ounce can? Can you clarify
Tim, I use 5 cans of this particular chicken. Each can is 5 ounes (if you follow the link you can see it says 5 ounces on the can). I make 7 large size patties that are large enough to fit on a bun or wrap so if you want to make smaller patties then please feel free to use any amount of chicken that works for your needs. https://www.walmart.com/ip/BUMBLE-BEE-Premium-White-Chicken-in-Water-5-Ounce-Can-High-Protein-Food-and-Snacks/20435397
I’d love the link to your healthy mama blend
HI, here is the link to the low carb baking blend I use. https://store.trimhealthymama.com/product/gluten-free-baking-blend-16oz-bag/?ref=86
What can I use instead of the baking blend or almond flour? Will regular flour work?
Yes, it would work. If you didn’t mind the extra carbs it will work just fine.
Will this work for ground turkey/chicken?
I’ve never made it with ground meats but I don’t see why the concept would work. it might be just more dense but flavors should still be nice. I would love to know how they turn out if you try it!
Can these be made in an air fryer?
I bet they could be! I haven’t tried them yet so not sure what temperature or for how long though. My air fryer went out a while back and I’ve yet to replace it I’d love to hear how it goes if you try it Raven!
I’m honestly not sure Raven. I haven’t tried it but I don’t see why they would work. I’m not sure as to how long or what temperature you would use but I would love to hear how they turn out if you try them that way!
They are great. Sautéed Garlic and Onions, and fried the cakes in Avocado Oil since its high heat. Also great Re-heated!