These Chicken Zucchini Fritters are made with ground chicken, zucchini, and cheese - perfectly tender, and super flavorful. It is a freezer-friendly meal for a weekday dinner night or quick school lunch.
No mayo, no bread crumbs needed!
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Chicken Zucchini Fritters
Fritters are my go to for quick lunches or healthy kid-friendly breakfast ideas. From my cabbage pancakes, corn fritters or sweet potato patties, they are all winners.
Try my mashed potatoes, rice, or simply with your favorite dipping sauce - we love avocado crema, aioli, healthy yogurt dip or just ketchup + Greek yogurt sauce.
What Are Chicken Zucchini Fritters?
These healthy zucchini chicken fritters are essentially chicken patties that are prepared by combining ground, fresh, or canned chicken with ingredients such as flour, eggs, and seasonings.
The mixture is then formed into small patties or balls and cooked in a skillet or oven until they achieve a delightful golden-brown hue.
You can enjoy chicken fritters as an appetizer, side dish, or main dish. They are commonly served with dipping sauces like barbecue sauce, garlic aioli, honey mustard, or ranch dressing.
Ingredients For Chicken Zucchini Fritters
- Chicken - lean ground chicken meat or use ground turkey instead.
- Zucchini - Different varieties of zucchini are available, depending on your location or what's in stock. Please feel free to use any type of summer squash you're accustomed to. If you have leftover squash, store it in the fridge so it lasts longer.
- Green onion or chives - onions help infuse chicken patties with a wealth of delightful flavor, harmonizing all the tastes beautifully.
- Flour - I've used just a few spoonfuls of oat flour in my chicken fritter recipe to provide structure and impart a delightful crispy texture. Feel free to use DIY gluten-free flour blend, almond flour or all purpose flour instead.
- Eggs - eggs and zucchini bind the ingredients together, ensuring that the fritters maintain their shape during cooking.
- Oil - Go for the finest quality olive oil. If olive oil is unavailable, you can also consider vegetable oil or avocado oil as suitable alternatives. When shopping for olive oil, watch for a few important factors.
📋 You can find the full ingredient list in the Recipe Card below the article.
How To Make Chicken Zucchini Fritters Step By Step Photos
- Wash and grate the zucchini into a bowl. Then wrap it into a thin kitchen towel and twist it to wring out moisture as much as possible. Add to a large bowl.
- Stir in ground chicken, egg, oat flour, cheese, and chives. Add zucchini, and season with salt and black pepper. Mix well until all the ingredients are combined.
- Shape the mixture into medium-sized balls using your hands (make your hands wet before shaping the balls).
- About 1 heaping tablespoon-size ball or 1 tablespoon for thinner fritters. In a medium skillet, heat olive oil and cook the chicken fritters for 3-4 minutes on both sides. Mix the dipping sauce ingredients and enjoy!
Can I Use Ground Chicken or Cooked Chicken?
Of course! I really enjoy the tender texture of ground chicken, but you can use diced chicken breast instead if you like.
The cooking time may vary and increase, check the patties for doneness with a kitchen thermometer (165 F).
Pre-cooked chicken works well as well. Use whatever you have for a quick lunch or snack.
Tips For Making Chicken Zucchini Fritters
- I use two spoons to transfer the chicken mixture from the bowl to the skillet. You can also use a small ice cream or cookie scoop to make sure they're all the same size.
- For more zucchini seasoning options, try garlic or onion powder, or a store-bought chicken seasoning blend.
- Thicker zucchini patties need more cooking time. But don't overcook them, or they'll become dry.
- To be sure they're cooked, break open one cooked fritter before taking them all out of the pan.
- If fritters brown too much outside before cooking inside, your pan is too hot; lower the heat and use a good nonstick skillet.
- Don't crowd the pan; cook cheesy chicken fritters in two batches if needed.
- To reheat frozen leftover chicken fritters, use a skillet, toaster oven, or air fryer. Watch closely to avoid overcooking.
- I like to keep zucchini unpeeled, especially when it's fresh and young. Younger zucchinis have better flavor and less bitterness and toughness.
- If you're using skinless chicken breast or thighs, use a food processor to chop them-it saves time, effort, and cleanup.
How to Serve Chicken Fritters?
- Enjoy them and your preferred dishes promptly (if you like them warm). They pair wonderfully with creamy mashed potatoes.
- We also love marinated cucumber tomato salad, cucumber cabbage salad, avocado salad, or roasted potatoes.
- Drizzling freshly squeezed lemon juice over these fritters creates a truly delightful flavor combination.
- If you want a more wholesome and substantial meal, serve these fritters as a side dish or together with main courses such as chicken soup and creamy carrot ginger turmeric soup.
With Dipping Sauces
- Tahini sauce
- Tzatziki
- Buffalo sauce - for some added heat!
- Green Goddess dip
- Honey mustard sauce
- Avocado crema
- Hummus
- Salsa
- Sour cream
- Ranch dressing
Freezing and Storing Leftover Fritters
- To Store. Once the fritters are cooked, allow them to cool completely and store them in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
- To Reheat. For best results, reheat in the oven. Alternatively, you can use an air fryer at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes, a microwave, or a nonstick skillet with minimal oil.
- To Make Ahead. Preparing the zucchini fritter mixture in advance is easy. You can grate the zucchini 1-2 days ahead and store it in the fridge. When mixed with all the ingredients, the batter will chill nicely in the fridge for 2-3 days, resulting in slightly crispier fritters when cooked.
- To Freeze. To freeze, place the cooked fritters in a glass container with a lid, adding layers of parchment paper between them. They will stay good for up to 2 months in the freezer. You can also freeze uncooked patties.
Chicken Zucchini Fritters Variations
These easy Chicken Fritters are already delicious.
Want to add more seasonings? These are my recommendations:
- Extra cheese: Feel free to double the cheese! Experiment with cheddar or mozzarella cheese. Parmesan is another excellent choice!
- Fresh herbs: Fresh dill, chives, cilantro, and parsley are excellent choices, and you can pick your favorite.
- Air Fryer Variation: Place these chicken fritters in your air fryer for 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly spray with olive oil.
- This recipe is an excellent way to sneak in some vegetables! Think grated carrots, finely chopped bell peppers, corn, and finely chopped spinach.
- Sweet Potato Fritters
How Long is Cooked Ground Chicken Good For
You can keep cooked ground chicken in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. If you want to store it longer, you can freeze it for up to 3-4 months.
Make sure to use an airtight container or a strong freezer bag to keep it fresh.
More Ground Chicken Recipes
Zucchini Recipes
Zucchini and cabbage are some of our favorite foods to cook for dinner.
This type of healthy summer squash is excellent for adding to casseroles, taco zucchini boats, making patties, baking into muffins, or making healthy chips.
🥒 READ ALSO: 55 Best Zucchini Recipes
Did You Like This Recipe?
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Recipe Card
20-Minute Tender Chicken Zucchini Fritters
Ingredients
Method
- Wash and grate the zucchini into a bowl. Then wrap it into a thin kitchen towel and twist the towel to wring out moisture as much as possible. Transfer to large bowl.1 pound zucchini
- Stir in ground chicken, egg, oat flour, cheese, chives, add zucchini, and season with salt and black pepper. Mix well until all the ingredients are combined.1 pound ground chicken, 1 pound zucchini, 3 tablespoons oat flour, ½ cup cheese, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, black pepper to taste, 4 tablespoons chives
- Shape the mixture into medium-sized balls using your hands (make your hands wet before shaping the balls). About 1 heaping tablespoon-size balls or 1 tablespoon for thinner fritters.
- In a medium skillet heat up olive oil and cook chicken fritters for 3-4 minutes on both sides.olive oil
- Mix the dipping sauce ingredients and enjoy!1 part ketchup, 1 part Greek yogurt
Nutrition
Video
Notes
- Nutrition calculated without the dipping sauce.
- For more flavor add chopped onion, garlic, spinach to your ground chicken mix.
- Squeeze a little bit of lemon or lime juice on top of hot chicken zucchini fritters before serving.
- Flour - I like to use oat flour or my DIY gluten free flour blend.
- I prefer using two spoons to transfer the chicken mixture from the mixing bowl to the skillet. However, you can also opt for a small ice cream scoop or a cookie scoop to ensure they're uniformly sized.
- If the patties are thicker, they will need a bit more time to cook. The most important thing here is not to overcook the patties as they will become dry.
- If you're unsure or want to be cautious, consider breaking open one fritter to check if it's cooked through before removing them all from the pan.
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Note: Nutrition information is estimated and varies based on the products used.
Full Nutrition Disclaimer can be found here.
Chicken Zucchini Fritters: FAQs
Yes, zucchini is good for you. It's low in calories and high in vitamins and minerals like vitamin C and potassium.
Once the fritters are cooked, let them cool completely, transfer them to a glass container with a lid (add layers of parchment paper in between the fritters) and pop them into the freezer.
They'll be good for up to 2 months.
Yes, you can eat raw zucchini. It's crunchy and can be added to salads or eaten as a snack.
A pound of raw chicken breast has about 120 grams of protein. The amount can change a bit depending on the cut of chicken and if it's cooked or raw.
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Julia | The Yummy Bowl
so soft and incredibly easy chicken zucchini patties that kids love!
Peta
Are the nutritional facts for 1 serve of fritters? So just 1 fritter, or for all 7 please?
Julia
1 fritter
Seattle-sunshine
Easy with a very tasty sauce but the patties are pretty bland so hoping someone has come up with a great seasoning combo. I tried onion, chives, oregano with marginal results. Also i will try baking next batch and using dark meat to boost flavor.
Sesttle-sunshine
I gave it 4 stars before but app changed it to 3 repeatedly
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
Thank you so much!
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
Hi! Do you have Vegeta seasoning? It's honestly the best if you like a lot of seasoning and strong flavor 🙂 Thank you!
Linda
Made this tonight and it works great for single people. I found a dressing of cilantro and avocado by Bolthouse that goes great with it. Very good.
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
Linda, Thank you so muchh!
Julia
Tender mouth-melting chicken and zucchini fritters to satisfy even the pickiest eaters!
YtheWait
This is the perfect recipe with chicken for my kids as they love it.
Julia
thank you Simona! totally agree, it's healthy and something that kids will love!
Susan
What is the Nutrition Facts for these fritters? I just made them, and they are delicious.
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
thanks! I just added the Nutrition in the recipe card