A delicious, easy use for leftover mashed potatoes - homemade Parmesan Potato Croquettes!
We, as a society, LOVE. FRIED. POTATOES! These potato croquettes, using leftover mashed potatoes, won't disappoint.
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Ingredients
These fried potatoes are so easy to make and ready in just 30 minutes!
- Leftover mashed potatoes - No leftovers? We've made them just for this recipe, it's that good!
- Cheese - Use real parmesan and shred your own if possible. Pre-shredded cheese sometimes has preservatives to keep it from clumping together. This can prevent the cheese from melting like fresh grated!
- Kitchen staples - Eggs, flour, panko bread crumbs.
- Oil for frying - We like vegetable oil or canola oil for deep frying.
Potato Croquettes - What Are They?
While a potato croquette may seem like a fancy tater tot, they are actually different. Potato croquettes start with mashed potatoes and are then deep fried. Tater tots start with raw shredded potatoes and are then deep fried. Both croquettes and tater tots can have additional ingredients like cheese, bacon, ham, or veggies added to them. Because they start with different forms of potatoes, the texture of the two dishes is different.
How to Serve Potato Croquettes?
Fried croquettes are definitely better when served warm. Keep warm in a 170 degrees Fahrenheit oven until all croquettes are fried and ready to serve. We recommend serving them in a chafing dish, lined with a cloth napkin, or on a tray sitting on a warming plate. Serve any dips in a small dish on the side with a spoon.
While we like eating these like candy (judgement free zone here!) they are also great with a dipping sauce. Marinara sauce, sour cream, ranch dressing, or hot sauce are all good with these.
How to Make Parmesan Potato Croquettes
These seem like they can be time consuming, but they aren't! This potato croquettes recipe has just a few basic steps.
- Mix the ingredients.
- Form into round crouqette balls.
- Dip in egg wash and then panko crumbs.
- Fry until golden brown.
- EAT!
Equipment We Used
A wire rack (or towel lined baking sheet) allows the fried potatoes to drain after frying. If they don't drain, they may become soggy, greasy croquettes.
We recommend using a cookie scoop to form the croquettes. We like the #40 (4 teaspoon) or #70 (3 teaspoon) size scoop. Play with different sizes and know the frying time may need to be adjusted up or down depending on the size of croquettes.
Make these the size that works for you! We like a 3-4 teaspoon size. They should be
- small enough to eat easily.
- big enough to completely encase the cheese.
- not so big that the inside won’t get hot enough to melt the cheese when deep fried.
Our Favorite Riffs
Mashed potato croquettes are great with some diced bacon, diced ham, or crumbled, crispy prosciutto added to the potato mixture. Substitute shredded cheddar cheese for the parmesan. Add some small diced veggies (that will hold up to deep frying) like bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, or asparagus for even more deliciousness!
Time Saver Tips
This recipe calls for mashed potatoes and is a GREAT way to use leftover mashed potatoes! Mashed potatoes freeze great, freeze any leftovers until you have 1 ½ pounds. Remove frozen mashed potatoes from the freezer, thaw, and proceed with the recipe.
Make Ahead Tips
These are a great make ahead item. There are many steps along the way where you can pause.
- Before coating in egg wash and panko. Form the croquette and refrigerate up to 5 days or freeze up to a month.
- After coating in egg wash and panko. Bread the croquette and refrigerate up to 1 day before cooking. We don't recommend freezing breaded, uncooked croquettes.
- After frying the croquettes
- keep warm in a 170 degrees Fahrenheit oven up to 2 hours before/during serving.
- refrigerate up to 2 days. Heat in a 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven for 5-10 minutes or until the inside is warm.
- freeze up to a month in an airtight container. Place frozen croquettes directly into a 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven and bake until warmed through - about 15-20 minutes.
Saving Leftovers
The FDA recommends discarding any perishable food that has been out at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
If you are within the FDA guidelines, these will last in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until warm in the center, 5-10 minutes.
Some Leftover Mashed Potato Recipes We Love
Croquette FAQ's
You will need to make some. You can’t make these with raw, shredded potatoes (that is a tater tot). See Mashed Potatoes 101 from Life As A Strawberry for all the info on making the best mashed potatoes.
NO! We tested these (multiple times) by deep frying, using the air fryer, and baking in the oven. While all three methods worked, we definitely found the deep fried method gave the best overall result. Both the air fryer and oven resulted in a less evenly fried outside, but they work and were still delicious!
To fry in the air fryer. Place the croquette balls about an inch apart on the air fryer rack (per your units directions). Place in the air fryer for about 3 minutes. Turn the croquettes and continue air frying until they are golden brown all over. (Ours took between 7-8 minutes and we turned them twice.)
To bake in the oven. Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat it to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the oven is hot and your croquettes are breaded, spray the top of each croquette with cooking spray (we like our Misto oil sprayer for this). Remove the sheet pan from the oven (be careful - it’s hot!). Place the croquettes, sprayed side down, on the sheet pan and spray the tops. Place the sheet pan in the oven for about 8-10 minutes. Turn the croquettes over and cook another 8-10 minutes or until golden brown and hot inside.
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📖 Recipe
Parmesan Potato Croquettes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 24-28 pieces 1x
Description
Made with leftover mashed potatoes, these potato croquettes with parmesan cheese will quickly become your newest craving!
Ingredients
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1 ½ pound mashed potatoes
- 1 cup (3 ounces) parmesan cheese, shredded
- 2 Tablespoons parsley, chopped
- 4 teaspoons flour
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups panko breadcrumbs
- Oil for frying (vegetable oil or canola oil works great)
- Dip for serving - marinara sauce ranch dressing, sour cream (OPTIONAL)
Instructions
NOTE: This works better if the potatoes are room temperature or slightly warm - not hot. Leave on the counter for about 20 minutes (or heat for a few seconds in the microwave) before mixing with other ingredients.
- Add the egg yolks, mashed potatoes, parmesan cheese, parsley, and flour to a mixing bowl. Mix, by hand, until well combined. NOTE: if you use a mixer, run for just a few seconds so you don’t over mix and make the potatoes gummy.
- Use a cookie scoop to form the potato mixture into balls (a little smaller than golf ball sized is about right).
- Roll them lightly between your hands until they are nice and round.
- Add the 2 eggs to a bowl and whisk them until they are scrambled together for an egg wash.
- In a separate dish place the panko breadcrumbs.
- Roll each formed croquette ball in the egg wash then in the panko breadcrumbs. Place on a baking sheet pan. Once they are all coated you can immediately cook them or place them in the refrigerator for a few hours until ready to cook.
TO DEEP FRY:
- To a deep pot, add 2-3 inches of oil and heat over medium heat. If you have a deep fryer that would be great here, just make sure you control the temperature of the oil.
- Once the oil is hot (between 290-310 degrees Fahrenheit) add croquettes. The number you can fry at once depends on the size of your pan. Add just enough croquettes so there is a single layer and they have enough room for you to move them around easily. Carefully roll them around in the oil as they fry to cook all sides. Keep an eye on the temperature of the oil, too hot and the cheese inside won’t melt, too cool and they will get greasy.
- Once the parmesan potato croquettes are golden brown, remove from the oil to a sheet pan with a wire rack to drain. Let the oil heat again and continue until all are fried.
- You can place the fried croquettes in a warm oven, 170 degrees Fahrenheit, to keep them warm while you finish frying all of them.
- Serve warm with dip; marinara sauce, sour cream, ranch dressing.
Notes
Other Options to Deep Fried. We made these by deep frying, using the air fryer, and baking in the oven. While all three methods worked, we definitely found the deep fried method gave the best overall result. Frying took about 5 minutes per batch. Both the air fryer and oven resulted in a less evenly fried outside, but they work and tasted great! See FAQ's above for notes on using the air fryer or baking in the oven.
Freezing Croquettes. Croquettes freeze great either before they are breaded and fried or after they are fried. For both, store in an airtight container in the freezer. If not breaded, let croquettes thaw in the refrigerator then proceed with the coating and frying steps. If breaded and fried, thaw in refrigerator and reheat in a 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven until warmed through - about 5-10 minutes. You can also place them directly from the freezer into a 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven and heat until warmed through 15-20 minutes.
Are these just homemade tater tots? No, they are actually different. Tater tots are made with shredded potatoes while potato croquettes are made with mashed potatoes. You can add additional ingredients; cheese, bacon, ham, veggies, to both tater tots and croquettes, but the base ingredient (potatoes) is in a different form which makes the texture different.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Assembly Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Frying
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 piece
- Calories: 111
- Sugar: 0.9 g
- Sodium: 169.3 mg
- Fat: 7.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 8.2 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 40.7 mg
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