This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
Imagine if you will that a katleta (meat patty) married a zucchini fritter and they had babies = Chicken Zucchini Fritters. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of this sooner. They are healthier than regular kotlety; being half meat and half veggie and they are super juicy and flavorful.
One of my readers, Nataliya, wrote in with this recipe. I was convinced I needed to make them when she mentioned that her kids loved these patties. I get so much inspiration and ideas from you all, so thank you! Low and behold, my son loved these too, and so did the Mr. and so did I, oh and my sister and brother and law too. I’ll stop now. 🙂 Thank you Nataliya for this great recipe!
Ingredients for Chicken Zucchini Patties:
2 medium zucchini (about 1 1/4 lbs), grated (I used a green zucchini and a yellow squash)
2 tsp salt, divided
1 lb ground turkey or chicken
1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 cup green onions or chives, finely sliced
1 large egg
2 cloves garlic, pressed,
8 oz ricotta cheese (or 1/2 of the 15oz tub)
Olive oil to saute
How to Make Chicken Zucchini Fritters:
1. Place zucchini in a colander. P.S. my OXO colander/bowl set 
2. Add 1 lb fresh ground turkey or chicken, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/4 cup finely sliced green onion, 1 egg, 2 pressed garlic cloves and 8 oz ricotta cheese.
3. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat and add 3-4 Tbsp extra light olive oil. Place a heaping tablespoon of the mixture into your hand and form a round patty about 1/3-inch thick. Cook over medium heat uncovered for 3 minutes, then flip, cover and cook for another 3-4 minutes more or until cooked through. Add more oil to the pan as needed for subsequent batches.
Enjoy!
Chicken Zucchini Fritters Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 medium zucchini, about 1 1/4 lbs, grated (I used a green zucchini and a yellow squash)
- 2 tsp salt, divided
- 1 lb ground turkey or chicken
- 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 1/4 cup green onions or chives, finely sliced
- 1 large egg
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed,
- 8 oz ricotta cheese, or 1/2 of the 15oz tub
- Olive oil to saute
Instructions
- How to Make Chicken Zucchini Fritters:
- Place zucchini in a colander or bowl. Sprinkle grated zucchini with 1 tsp salt and let stand for 10 minutes, then squeeze out as much juice as you can from your zucchini, squeezing it out by the fistful to get out the most juice out. You'll be amazed how much juice actually comes out of these babies. Transfer drained zucchini to a large bowl. Discard drained juice.
- Add 1 lb fresh ground turkey or chicken, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/4 cup finely sliced green onion, 1 egg, 2 pressed garlic cloves and 8 oz ricotta cheese.
- Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat and add 3-4 Tbsp extra light olive oil. Place a heaping tablespoon of the mixture into your hand and form a round patty about 1/3-inch thick. Cook over medium heat uncovered for 3 minutes, then flip, cover and cook for another 3-4 minutes more or until cooked through. Add more oil to the pan as needed for subsequent batches.
These were delicious! I really though they’d come out more like a potato pancake for some reason, but ended up more like a burger. Ate them plain, with a dip and served them on buns to my kids. Everyone liked them and no one complained about the zucchini (for once)! Thanks for this!
I’m so glad to hear everyone enjoyed them!! It is a great way to sneak in more veggies 🙂
Can you cook them on the BBQ grill? Wasn’t sure if they might fall apart
HI Diana, I think they would fall apart and stick to the grates.
Do you have a suggestion to replace the ricotta for a dairy-free option? Thanks
You could omit it altogether and the recipe will still work. 🙂 I’ve had readers report good results using sautéed mushrooms as well.
My son and I loved these fritters. He had 4!! I am wondering if I could substitute something else for the ricotta? Or what would happen if I just left it out?
Hi Amy, I’ve had several readers write in with a variety of substitutions they have used with good results including: cream cheese, cottage cheese, mushrooms, or just omitting it altogether. I hope that helps! 🙂
Yes I’ve made them without the cheese altogether and it still turned out great!!
you wondered about a use for the zucchini juice. How about adding it to soup?
I LOVE that idea!!
Can we freeze these? If so, at what stage in the process?
Hi Nia, I haven’t tried freezing these but here is what one of our readers wrote “These are so very delicious! I have made them with ground chicken, turkey and beef. I also make them ahead and freeze them between parchment paper. One tip that might help others is to put the zucchini in a double piece of cheesecloth and ring it out. Mine were sloppy until I did that and now they hold together so well. I also used cottage cheese purred when I didn’t have ricotta-equally good. My kids prefer these to burgers now!” I hope that helps.
Hi natasha so i made these on friday and let me tell you they were so yummy. My husband loved them he was saying oh how juicy they were(i dont think he realized they were with zuccini because i only had yellow zuccini so i just used that and u couldnt really see it in there) but anyways i didnt have onion so i just ommited that and instead of ricotta cheese i used cream cheese because i didnt have ricotta cheese at home. Well it was very yummy still. Thank you for this recipe. Today im baking one of your breads😊.
Victoriya, thank you for such a nice review 😀. It’s good to know that they worked nice even with all the changes you made.
Yes and your no knead easy bread turned out wonderfull too its pretty much all gone will be making again tomorrow. Thanks
Could the raw mixture be frozen?
I have not tried freezing the mixture, so I can’t say for sure but I do think it’s worth an experiment. If you try it, let me know how you liked it.
Do you know the nutritional facts on this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Kathleen, I don’t typically include calorie counts because of the time constraint that I have. I really need to hire some help to do that for me! 🙂 When I need a quick answer though; I have used caloriecount.com (their recipe analyzer is free).
I plugged this into MyFitnessPal, and included the 4 tbsp of olive oil for frying and got this result:
Amount Per Serving
calories 97
Total Fat 8 g
Saturated Fat 2 g
Monounsaturated Fat 3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 36 mg
Sodium 75 mg
Potassium 137 mg
Total Carbohydrate 1 g
Dietary Fiber 0 g
Sugars 1 g
Protein 6 g
Vitamin A 3 %
Vitamin C 0 %
Calcium 3 %
Iron 2 %
Can you put these on a George Forman? Look really good..
I think that could work! Just spray or brush a little oil on the grates first to prevent sticking. You might test 1 or 2 to begin to make sure they don’t come apart on the George Forman.
This sounds amazing, however can you bake this instead of frying?
Hi Cara, I haven’t tried baking them but one of my readers did and this is what she reported: “I tried to bake them and didn’t really like the result, they were not as good as when cooked on a skillet.”
Thank you for responding! I had a feeling that was going to be the answer!!
Hi. I was so looking forward to these… however unfortunately I have to say I was quite disappointed 🙁 There were so many good reviews, but to me, they were very bland and tasteless. Admittedly, I did not use garlic (we have a family member who does not like it at all) however I did everything else as per recipe. I don’t think garlic would have made them significantly better. Luckily I did a taste-test for the first pattie, and ended up adding ground coriander seed, cumin, a good squirt of tomato sauce (“ketchup”), some breadcrumbs, and a small can of sweet corn – they still were ‘average’ but much better than they started out. I’m glad so many of you enjoyed them, but they weren’t right for our family.
Hi Catherine, we are a garlic loving family and I do think it adds great flavor to the fritters, but I don’t think they would be bland and tasteless without it. Did you make sure to add the salt and pepper? Also did you possibly add too much zucchini?
Thanks for your reply – as far as I know, I added the correct amount of salt, pepper and zucchini. Perhaps my zucchini were overly watery/bland themselves?? Perhaps this just isn’t a recipe for us. Hoping other recipes turn out better as your blog looks really interesting.
Thanks Catherine! I hope you find more recipes that your family will love. 🙂
Hi, will the fritters still turn out fine if I omit the ricotta cheese from them? Or would yoghurt work as a substitute?
They will still work if you omit the ricotta cheese. I haven’t tried to substituting with yogurt, but be careful if you do since yogurt is more loose than ricotta, you don’t want the overall mixture to be too loose.
This has become one of my favorite recipes. I don’t care for ricotta cheese so substitute it with cottage cheese and it turns out fine.
Made these today with chicken, I had no onions so I used dill. They were amazing!! Loved them with some spaghetti. Thanks so much!
That sounds like a delicious meal! You’re making me hungry!
I tried to make these tonight, but they would not stick together at all, and burnt very easily in the pan. The mixture just seemed very soggy to me. I added probably about a 1/2 cup breadcrumbs to the second half of my mixture and fried those in more oil (canola oil) and it seemed to work better. But the first half of the batch just didn’t turn out well. I also served with a plain greek yogurt and garlic sauce which was good. Good flavor in total!
Did you make sure to squeeze the excess liquid from the zucchini after salting it – it sounds like that was probably the main culprit? You do need to keep the skillet well oiled and also did you use a good non-stick pan?
I did squeeze out liquid and kept a decent amount of oil in the pan. It wasn’t the best non stick skillet, and the oil tended to run off to the sides. The batches with the breadcrumbs turned out a lot better. I think in the future I will keep the breadcrumbs in the mixture and maybe add a second egg.
How many cups of zucchini is it? I am planning on using one from a friend’s garden and it is HUGE.
I didn’t measure it that way, but maybe 2 cups after it’s squeezed.
I have a suggestion as to what to do w/the liquid squeezed from the zuc & squash = freeze it & add to the makings of homemade soup. Haven’t tried this yet but I will & will save the juice. Thx for the recipe!
That’s a great idea! It seemed so sad to see it go down the drain! Thanks Tommie 🙂 I bet it would be great in a cream zucchini soup.
Can you substitute ricotta for cottage cheese?
I have not tried that substitution but I think it could work well with a small curd cottage cheese.
Hello,
I cooked these fritters for dinner and they were a hit. Only problem is my husband doesn’t like cheese, so I subbed the ricotta for greek yogurt. They didn’t stick together very well, was that an appropriate substitution? Or any other suggestions?
That was probably the reason that it didn’t stick together, but I’m so glad you liked the recipe 🙂 You might just omit the ricotta next time. The Greek Yogurt may have made it too loose.
Hi; thank you SO MUCH for this recipe! I made these tonight (using ground turkey) and they were a huge hit with the family – even with my 12-year old daughter! Hubby said this is “definitely a keeper… put it in the recipe database!”
Thanks!
I’m so happy you all loved it! Thank you so much for the awesome review! 🙂
Hi Natasa. This turned out amaizing….u r soooper… U gave me soooo many amaizing ideas….
Well u asked what u can do with the juice from the zukiny… I use it to make vegetable soup with it. It turned out preaty tasty. It had a hint of zukiny…
That is a great idea and so healthy! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂