Smoked Chicken and Millet Patties with Potato and Carrot
·Prepare the meat and vegetables
Place the chicken thighs in a large pot. Add the peeled whole potatoes, cleaned carrots, onions halved, and whole garlic cloves. Add one teaspoon of salt and a little freshly ground pepper.
Simmer gently
Simmer on low heat for about three hours. Let the broth just barely bubble. The potatoes and carrots will turn beautifully tender, as will the meat. A broth made from four thighs comes out wonderfully rich.
Cook the millet
Towards the end of cooking, prepare the millet according to the package instructions. I rinsed mine with hot water in a sieve, then added it to boiling salted water. I cooked it for about 15 minutes, until almost mushy.
Sauté the onion
Finely chop one onion and sauté it in a little lard. Fish out 2 large potatoes, 2 carrots, and the garlic (which will have slipped out of its skin during cooking) from the soup. Mash with a fork and put into a bowl.
Add the millet and season
Add the drained millet and the sautéed onion. Season with salt, pepper if you like, and the garlic pressed through a sieve.
Mix the patty batter
Add the eggs and wholegrain rye flour. Mix into a batter for the patties.
Tip: frying the patties
Fry the patties in a good-quality nonstick pan – no extra fat needed. I fried the onion in it with a bit of lard first, then, without washing the pan, went straight on to frying the patties with no added fat.
Turn carefully
Spoon mounds of the mixture into the pan and flatten them out with a spoon into patties about 1 cm thick. Fry over medium heat so they cook through nicely without burning. Turn them carefully so they don't fall apart. Once fried on both sides, the patties will hold together firmly.
Serving
Serve the smoked soup first, with the potatoes, carrots, and you can even stir in a bit of the cooked millet. For the second course, serve the patties with the smoked chicken.