These baked sriracha chicken spinach fritters are a great appetizer, party food, football snack or even side dish.
After two weeks of eating carbs upon carbs upon carbs, sausages galore, desserts everyday (sometimes twice) and food that had been salted about five times more than necessary, I’ve never been more happy to eat frozen spinach in my life.
Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary are all gorgeous and amazing but (good) food definitely isn’t their thing.
Besides vegetables, I actually came home to a 95% completed new tile back-splash in my kitchen. We had bought the tiles before I left but Ulysses was as enthused about installing it as he was when I forced him to watch Love Actually with me the other week after discovering it on Netflix.
Read: not at all.
So I was totally shocked to walk into the house yesterday and see it almost done as an anniversary present.
The 5% that wasn’t done was scraping grout off about a two square foot space and caulking. That took 5 hours. FIVE. I was ready to give up at about hour two. I have no idea how he had the patience to do the entire thing. So while I complained like a baby, he finished the last 3 hours and I made fritters on top of chipped grout pieces everywhere and my kitchen gadgets scattered in about three different rooms.
That was fun.
After grabbing some new garlic sriracha mayo from the store and falling in love with its spicy flavor and creamy texture, I knew it needed a dipping companion to go with it.
That’s when these chicken spinach popped into my head.
The outside is baked to a crisp but the inside is packed with chicken, spinach and spicy mayo flavor. As much as it pains me to say this, these are seriously the perfect football food. If you’re into watching that crap, these buffalo chicken broccoli cheddar bites are fun too.
Although, I did watch Draft Day on the plane ride home and have to say I even semi-enjoyed it. These are the type of tragedies that happen when there’s no internet available on a 8+ hour flight.
Looking for more dip-worthy food like these chicken spinach fritters? Try these sweet potato goat cheese puffs or these sweet potato corn and cheddar fritters as well.
Baked Sriracha Chicken Spinach Fritters
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken
- 1 cup thawed frozen spinach, water squeezed out (measure after water has been squeezed out as volume will reduce considerably)
- 3 tablespoons sriracha mayo, or combine regular mayo and sriracha
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons yellow cornmeal, plus more for rolling
- 1/3 cup water
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a baking sheet with baking spray.
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
- Mix together until well incorporated.
- Pour cornmeal (about 1/2 a cup) into a shallow bowl.
- Roll the mixture into balls about the size of a golf ball.
- Roll the ball in the cornmeal mixture to coat and place on the baking sheet.
- Repeat with remaining mixture.
- Spray the tops of the balls with baking spray.
- Bake for 12 minutes, turning the balls over half way through.
- Switch oven to high-broil and broil for about 5 minutes more until tops start to turn golden.
- Remove from oven and serve warm with additional sriracha mayo.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
How do these bind into balls without egg or breadcrumbs? ? I used fresh spinach to reduce water content and still needed to add cornmeal to mixture but they barely stayed together. Please advise!
Hi Gina,
Thanks for this recipe. Do you happen to have the nutritional info of the finished product?
Thanks.
Thank you!
Can these be frozen, either before or after baking? If so, for how long? Thank you.
Honestly, I haven’t tried and don’t know. If I were to try, I would roll them into balls but not roll in the cornmeal. Freeze in that state, thaw and roll in cornmeal before baking.
These pics are amazing. i will share them on my blog.
If I make my own Sriracha mayo, what proportions should I use when I mix them?
Honestly, it’s up to you and how spicy you like it. I’d do about 2 tablespoons mayo and slowly add the sriracha until your preference.
I love GREEN food! I’m bummed I missed out on the Mayo giveaway :/