Lazy meatballs. Lazy cutlets - notes of a culinary maniac

I regularly make lazy cutlets that my grandchildren like even more than my tender and noble-tasting cutlets with fried onions:

But the most important thing in this version of cutlets: 1) the addition of a fair amount of zucchini, which, when frying, are somehow cunningly absorbed into the minced meat and are completely unrecognizable in ready-made cutlets, which allows them to be fed even to comrades who do not like green vegetables and 2) mass heat treatment (actually lazy component of the recipe).

I usually make a portion of cutlets with a horse, because three actively growing and playing sports teenagers crush them in quite a fair amount. For example, this time I made cutlets from 3 kg of meat. It is best to combine meat, for example, pork with beef, or beef with chicken, but beef alone also turns out well. For 3 kg of meat, I used about 600 g of raw onions. I prefer to grate the onion on a coarse grater (Microplane Coarse Blade) - this gives, from my point of view, the optimal consistency and a lot of juice. In addition, washing the grater is much faster than a meat grinder or food processor.
I certainly peel the zucchini, in this form they dissolve better in cutlets and do not give out their color. For 3 kg of meat, I use about 700 g of zucchini. The last serious component of my cutlets in terms of volume is ground crackers. I used 2 cups of them.
Freshly ground black pepper (about a teaspoon), salt to taste and a couple of garlic cloves crushed in a garlic press were used as flavoring additives.
The process is as follows - first, the onion is grated, mixed with minced meat, garlic, pepper and salt are added, all this is thoroughly mixed. It is best to do this in a large deep bowl and knead the minced meat like dough. I determine the correct salinity of minced meat by licking a tiny piece of minced meat with my tongue. At this stage, the minced meat should be slightly saltier than the finished cutlets.
Add grated on the same grater as the onion, zucchini and crackers to the minced meat mixed with onions and mix thoroughly again. In general, the better the minced meat is mixed, the smoother and more tender the cutlets are. In addition, cutlets from well-mixed minced meat do not boil soft during frying, which, however, is not relevant in this case, because we will not fry our cutlets.
From the prepared minced meat, form cutlets and roll them in breadcrumbs. I usually do this in groups - first I put on a whole plate of cutlets, and then I roll them all in breadcrumbs. It is good to form cutlets with hands moistened with water or with latex gloves, as I do. In this case, they do not stick to the hands and are more dense and smooth. The size of cutlets is according to personal preferences, for example, we prefer large cutlets.
Lay the cutlets rolled in breadcrumbs in dense rows on a baking sheet lined with foil and place in preheated to 360 gr. F (182 gr. C) oven. Leave them there for 30 minutes, take them out, carefully turn them over with two forks and put them in the oven for another 30 minutes. After that, the cutlets are basically ready, but if you want to make them more ruddy, you can turn them over again and put them in the oven for another 15 minutes.
You can eat it right away or chill and refrigerate. You can also freeze them, but we usually don’t get to that, cutlets fly away without freezing. Serve them well with mashed potatoes and pickles. I also like them cold on a lightly mayonnaise sandwich.
This is what my main ingredients for cutlets looked like:

Grated onion:

Minced meat mixed with onions, garlic, salt and pepper, to which skinned and grated zucchini and crackers are added:

Fully mixed minced meat, ready for cutting into cutlets:

Formed cutlets:

All cutlets are formed, rolled in breadcrumbs and tightly laid on a baking sheet:

Cutlets after the first half hour of baking:

They, after turning over, are ready to go back to the oven.

Today I suggest you cook juicy and tasty meatballs. Which? Choose to your taste! I can offer you a step-by-step recipe for minced turkey, pork, chicken and pollock cutlets, with the addition of cabbage and potatoes, and even cutlets without bread. You can make it in a pan, or you can cook it in the oven. I decided to collect the most popular recipes in one place in order to spread out and organize the information a little, it’s convenient when everything is at hand.

Simple secrets of delicious and juicy meatballs.

But first, let's define what principles of cooking cutlets allow them to turn out juicy and tasty, regardless of the type of minced meat and accompanying spices. Perhaps these rules will seem banal and “old as the world” to experienced housewives, but not everyone is born “in a chef’s hat and apron” - young and beginners sometimes need to say simple things.

And not the fact that for them they seem so obvious!

- Of course, you can make cutlets without bread .. But the question is - will this dish be called cutlets? Still, bread, which we pre-soak in water or milk, and then add to minced meat for cutlets, is an indispensable ingredient in almost any recipe for delicious homemade cutlets. And the point here is not to save on minced meat, as some people think! Bread allows you to make minced meat softer, juicier, tastier. But we are not talking about ready-made minced meat bought in a store (you will never guess what has already been added there!), but about pure minced meat, which you have just turned with your own hands from a natural piece of meat;
- Water (milk, cream, mineral water) must be present in minced meat for cutlets. It is the moisture that makes the meatballs juicy and soft. The more fat component in this liquid, the tastier and more tender (but the more high-calorie our cutlets will be!). Water must be cooled to ice. The rule, again, is only suitable for freshly prepared natural minced meat, without additives from cunning manufacturers of "semi-finished products".
- Not everyone knows that in addition to adding cold milk, ice water or even mineral water to minced meat, such minced meat must be beaten off. This is done very simply - as with dough, you scoop up the minced meat in a handful and throw it back into the bowl, so do it 15-20 times. The liquid is absorbed into the minced meat and the cutlets are very juicy. It would be nice to give the minced meat time to stand - about half an hour, or more;
- It is for juiciness that cabbage, potatoes, onions are added to minced meat for cutlets. Moreover, you need to cut them very finely (do not turn through a meat grinder or in a blender, it is important to cut them finely and finely). Although there are certainly recipes where it is proposed to scroll these additives through a meat grinder or pass through a blender - it seems to me that here we are talking more about saving cooking time than about improving the taste of the dish;

And of course, the quality of the meat from which minced meat is made is very important for the quality of the final product. From old, dry, frozen or, God forbid, rancid meat, you can’t make delicious cutlets with any additives and “magic” ingredients ... Although the cooks of some school canteens would now argue with me ...

For these wonderful, juicy and tasty cutlets, we need minced turkey (turkey meat), as well as the following simple ingredients.

turkey fillet (or any minced meat) - 1kg
loaf (bread) - 150g
milk - 150g
egg - 1 pc.
onion - 2 pcs
salt, pepper - to taste
sunflower oil for frying
garlic - optional

1 If you make minced meat yourself, cut the turkey fillet into pieces and pass through a meat grinder. Some, to speed up the process, immediately turn the peeled onion, but if you finely chop the onion and add it to the prepared minced meat, the cutlets will turn out juicier. 2 Soak the bread in warm milk or water. Many people advise cutting off the crusts, but if you turn the meat through a meat grinder, then bread can be added there too - into the meat grinder, and the crusts will not interfere with us. If you add bread immediately to the finished minced meat, it is easier to knead it when there are no crusts. 3 When the turkey meat, onion and bread are already mixed in the minced meat, add one egg there, salt and pepper. Mix everything and beat the minced meat in the same way as they beat the dough, about a minute is enough - so our cutlets will not fall apart and spread in the pan, but will be strong, elastic and appetizing. 4 Place a frying pan on the stove, add a little vegetable oil and heat well. With wet hands, form a ball of minced meat with your hands, flatten it slightly on both sides, give it the desired shape - round or pie shape, and send it to a hot frying pan. You can roll the cutlets in breadcrumbs, flour or egg white, but you can do without it - the cutlets will already have a good shape, a beautiful golden roast and a delicious crispy crust. 1 Fry the cutlets on one side until golden brown, turn over and close the lid. Under the lid, the cutlets will steam and reach readiness. As soon as covered with a lid, reduce the heat to a minimum and watch for readiness. Usually, such cutlets are cooked on fire for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cutlets.

All! Delicious and juicy homemade turkey cutlets are ready! Bon appetit!

Very tender minced chicken cutlets - let's discover the secret of amazing juiciness.

In principle, you can easily take the previous recipe, replace the minced turkey with chicken in it and cook delicious chicken cutlets. But we will go the other way! Let's add delicious foods to our list of ingredients and improve the taste even more drastically!

See what products we need, prepare, and let's go cook, get acquainted with the new secrets of juicy minced meat for cutlets.

Compound:

Minced chicken - 500 g
White bread - 3 slices
Onion - 1 pc.
Garlic - 2 cloves
Egg - 1 pc.
Cream 35% - 4 tablespoons
Milk - 100 ml
Butter - 70 g
Salt, black pepper to taste
For breading - dry breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs or flour

1 You can take the minced meat ready-made (of good quality, without unnecessary additives), or you can cook it yourself from any parts of the chicken, even from the breast - our cutlets will not be dry anyway - we know the secret 🙂 2 We will cut the crusts of the bread, cut it into cubes and soak in warm milk. Cut the onion and garlic as finely as possible and add to the minced chicken. 3 Add the egg, soaked bread, squeezed milk, salt, pepper. Let's mix everything. Add cold cream and carefully, best of all - with handles, knead the minced chicken until smooth. 4 Now let's take our main "secret" ingredient, which will provide our minced chicken with special juiciness and splendor - frozen butter. We rub it on a coarse grater into minced meat, mix quickly (until it melts!) And quickly proceed to frying. By the way, these cutlets must be fried on low heat, then the oil inside will be distributed over the minced meat as needed, evenly, and will not leak out. 5 We put the pan with oil on heat, and while it is heating, we form cutlets of the shape we need. To make them as beautiful as in the photo, roll them in breadcrumbs or dry bread crumbs. But you can just in flour. 6 We fry our chicken cutlets on both sides and, what is important for this recipe, do not close the lid!

Delicious and tender chicken cutlets are ready. Serve them with any salad, greens, vegetables or any other kind of side dish - they will not become less tasty :-))

Minced pork cutlets with cabbage - "Lazy cabbage rolls".

Pork tastes great with cabbage, so for the so-called "lazy cabbage rolls", and in fact - minced meat cutlets with cabbage, we will choose it. Pork, as a rule, is quite fatty in composition, therefore, we “dilute” it with lean cabbage and in total we get the very thing 🙂 In proportion, we take minced pork and cabbage in equal parts.

I suggest you make this recipe not only “lazy”, but also fast - we will grind all our additives with a blender to a mushy state.

To roll the cutlets, we will take cornmeal - then we will get a beautiful yellow tint of our cutlets, look how they look in the photo. If there is no such flour, but there is corn grits, grind it in a coffee grinder or blender to get the necessary product.

We take the following products:

minced pork - 300g
cabbage - 300g
onion - 1 head
egg - 1 pc
seasonings and salt - to taste
cornmeal - for breading vegetable oil - for frying

Cooking process:

1 Prepare everything in the usual way. The only difference in this recipe is that we chop the onion and cabbage in a blender. Squeeze out excess juice from cabbage after chopping. Crack the egg into the onion before chopping. 2 Salt, pepper the minced meat, knead thoroughly. We form cutlets, roll in cornmeal and spread on a hot, with oil, frying pan. Lay out carefully, because. minced meat turns out to be tender not only in taste, but also in texture - until the cutlets are fried, they do not hold their shape very confidently. 3 It is better not to close the lid. When browned on both sides - consider that it is ready. Pork cutlets with cabbage according to this recipe are very soft and tasty!

Minced meat patties with potatoes - video recipe.

Do you think that bread, cabbage, housewife potatoes are added to minced meat to save money? So you haven’t tried real minced meat patties with potatoes - it’s oh-oh-very tasty!

Compound:

minced meat - 1 kg.
raw potatoes - 4 pcs. (average)
onions - 1-2 pcs.
egg - 1 pc
seasonings and salt - to taste
cold water - 2-3 tbsp.

But the essence of cooking does not change! This recipe differs from the previous one only in that raw cabbage must be replaced with raw potatoes, grated on a fine grater. I won’t even describe the rest - do everything in the same way, I’ll just indicate the possible proportions of the products.

But, if suddenly something hasn’t worked out yet, watch this short video, which shows step by step the process of cooking these particular cutlets - with potatoes and minced meat.

Mixed minced meat cutlets in the oven - a step-by-step recipe with detailed photos.

I can’t get past such a recipe as minced meat patties baked in the oven. For those who do not really like fatty foods (and it must be admitted that cutlets fried in a pan are a rather high-calorie dish with a lot of fat and a “bad” cholesterol crust) – cutlets in the oven will be a great substitute. They are still very tasty and juicy, look very appetizing, and even save the hostess not only oil, but also time. After all, you don’t need to stand by the stove - just load everything into the oven, set the temperature and note the time.

Compound:

minced meat - 1 kg. (chicken - 700 g and pork + beef - 300 g),
white bread (crumb) - 1 slice,
onion - 150 g.,
potatoes - 150 g.,
garlic - 1 tooth,
egg - 1 pc.,
salt, pepper - to taste,
kefir (sour cream, cream) - 1 tbsp,
vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.
water - 0.5 + 0.5 cups.

The process of cooking cutlets in the oven:

1 Piece of white bread (it is better to cut off the crusts) pour about half a glass of cold water. While the bread is soaking, take the garlic and onion, peeled, and scroll briefly in a blender. Soaked bread, without squeezing from the water, add to the onion and mix everything again with a blender.

2 Minced meat in this recipe is taken in the following proportions - chicken - almost 2/3 of the volume, and pork and beef - equally, 1/3 of the total volume. But you can use more pork if you want to get more fat, in general, choose the proportions to your taste. 3 Finely grate the potatoes and add to the minced meat. I squeeze the potatoes a little to remove excess starch, but you don't have to.

4 Add the onion mixture here, break the egg. Add salt and black pepper to taste. For juiciness, add a little kefir (you can add milk, sour cream). We mix the minced meat thoroughly and beat it off so that our cutlets do not fall apart and are as juicy and lush as possible. This is a very important stage in the preparation of minced meat for any cutlets.

5 Cover the baking sheet with parchment paper and brush with a little sunflower oil. We form cutlets and put them on a sheet. At the same time, you can additionally beat off the minced meat, transferring the cutlet from one palm to another. You can roll cutlets in breading or in flour.
6 Send to a hot oven (190-200 degrees) for 20 minutes. For juiciness, add half a glass of hot water directly to the leaf and put it back in the oven until a golden crust appears. Do not flip the patties during baking.

Here we have such beautiful and moderately diet cutlets. This is a very simple and quick way to cook delicious and juicy meatballs - be sure to try this cooking option.

Pollack fish cutlets without bread - Not only tasty, but also healthy!

Continuing the theme of a healthier diet, I want to offer you a wonderful recipe for fish cakes - pollock minced meatballs. Pollock is an excellent choice for fish cakes: it is not an expensive type of fish, but it has few bones, you do not need to clean the scales, and as for the beneficial properties (contents of vitamins A, B1, B2, B9, minerals and trace elements) - it is in no way inferior fish of expensive varieties.

The only complaint about pollock is that minced meat can turn out a little dry.For those who do not have enough fat content, you can scroll an additional piece of lard into the minced meat or add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the minced meat. For fish cakes, it is generally typical to take low-fat varieties of white fish, but at the same time - to raise the fat content with separate additives.

By the way, another original and “tasty” way to add fat to dry fish (and not only fish) minced meat. Right in the pan, put a piece of frozen butter into the already prepared cutlets, press it so that it is inside the minced meat. During cooking, the butter will melt and give a great creamy taste to the dish!

But, if we talk about the benefits of such a product as fish cakes (and this is a dietary dish by all standards!), Then nothing needs to be added, no additional fats are required. This recipe also provides for a small amount of oil in the pan and the absence of bread and flour in the cutlets.

If there is no special dish with a non-stick coating, on which you can fry almost without oil, you can cook such cutlets in the oven, you can steam it, this is how you like it.

I still like the cutlets to look more browned, a small, lightly fried crust will not hurt, the main thing is to cook on a very moderate heat and with a small amount of oil.

Compound:

minced pollock - 1.3 kg.
onion - 3 pcs.medium size
potatoes - 3 pcs.
garlic - 3 cloves
egg - 3 pcs.
salt, pepper, spices - to taste

Step by step recipe for pollock cutlets:

1 Scroll pollock fillets and peeled potatoes through a meat grinder. It is better not to scroll the onion, as all its juice will go into the liquid, which we squeeze out during the cooking process. All onion juice will go nowhere! It is better to finely cut the onion with a knife - this way it will be preserved in our fish cakes with both juiciness and taste. 2 Mix minced pollock, potatoes, chopped onions, eggs, garlic and seasonings. Please note that we cook these cutlets without bread! We mix everything thoroughly. 3 Minced meat comes out very raw. To prevent the cutlets from falling apart too much, squeeze out the excess liquid into a separate bowl when forming the cutlets. Here, the juiciness of cutlets will be given to us by pieces of potatoes and pieces of onion. But, in order to reduce the excessive separation of moisture, it is necessary, as in previous recipes, to stir the minced meat for a long time and thoroughly before frying, also beating it, throwing it into a bowl. So we will improve the bonding of minced meat with the egg and create a greater “stickiness”, the cutlets will not fall apart much. 4 We do not bread cutlets so as not to add flour to our diet recipe. But you can roll the cutlets in breadcrumbs or flour if you wish.

5 Fry in a small amount of oil, without a lid, over low heat until golden brown, turning during cooking. Fish cutlets cook very quickly. But you can still further steam them after roasting under the lid, adding a little water.

Let me remind you that in this recipe, in order to benefit and increase the “dietary” nature of our dish, we completely excluded bread. But according to tradition, in the classic recipe for fish cakes, bread is necessarily added, and, in fish cakes, bread, as a rule, is soaked in milk, and not in water. Still, fish cakes require more gentle handling 🙂

What kind of meatballs do you cook? What type of minced meat and additives to it do you prefer? Share your lucky finds and favorite recipes for minced meat patties in the comments!

Tepsi Kebabi is a very tasty and juicy dish served in Turkey with two side dishes: potatoes and rice. In translation, the name means "lazy cutlet". Very beautiful serving and unusual taste of this dish, you will surely like it.

Ingredients

To prepare lazy cutlets "Tepsi Kebabi" we need:
For minced meat:
500 g minced meat;
100 g of water;
1 onion;
parsley;
mint;
salt pepper.
For the vegetable layer:
2 tomatoes;
2 bulbs.
For filling:
100 g of water;
1 st. l. tomato paste;
salt;
parsley for decoration.

Cooking steps

Mix minced meat with finely chopped parsley and mint, add chopped onion in a meat grinder, salt, pepper and add water. Mix the minced meat well and put it on the bottom of the form, in which we will bake our Tepsi Kebabi in the future. Send minced meat directly with the form to the refrigerator for an hour.

Put the tomatoes and onions in order on the rested minced meat. Put the casserole in the oven and bake lazy cutlets at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

Keep in the oven until golden brown, until all the liquid has evaporated. After baking, decorate our lazy cutlets "Tepsi Kebabi" with parsley.

This meatball recipe is quick and easy. Cutlets are formed from ordinary minced meat mixed with fried mushrooms and onions. If you spend a little more time, you can cook similar meatballs stuffed with mushrooms and butter.

Ingredients:

1 kg ;
0.5 kg fresh;
2 small onions;
1 egg;
2 slices of a loaf;
a small bunch of parsley;
1 st. breadcrumbs;
2 tbsp flour;
vegetable oil for frying;
salt, pepper to taste.

Recipe for meatballs with mushrooms

1. Cooking minced meat. First of all, soak the banana slices in water.

2. Cut the meat into pieces to make it easier to pass through a meat grinder. Peel 2 onions and cut each into several pieces. Set aside half of the onion, we will fry the mushrooms with it. We pass the meat and onions through a meat grinder. The swollen loaf is thoroughly squeezed out of the water and passed through a meat grinder along with half the parsley. Crack 1 egg into a bowl. All a little salt and pepper.

3. Finely chop the mushrooms and onions and fry in a small amount of vegetable oil until half cooked.

4. Remove the mushrooms with onions from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes. Pour into a bowl with minced meat. We mix everything. Add 2 tbsp. flour and mix again. Thanks to flour, mushroom cutlets should grab better.

5. We roll cutlets from minced meat with mushrooms and roll in breadcrumbs.

6. Pour a little vegetable oil into the pan. Fry mushroom cutlets over medium heat until golden brown (5-7 minutes on each side). Delicious lazy cutlets with mushrooms ready! Bon appetit!