What’s inside: Frikandel

A frikandel (or frikandellen if you are eating 2 or more) is one of the most popular and typical Dutch fast-food dishes, closely followed by the kroket (what’s that? Check back next month).

It is a sort of minced-meat hot dog, first eaten in 1959 in either the Netherlands or Belgium; no one is really sure. It is typically deep fried and eaten on its own, on a bread roll (called a ‘broodje frikandel’) or with mayonnaise, curry ketchup and diced onions (called a ‘frikandel speciaal’).

What’s inside

The meat of the frikandel is usually a mixture of chicken, pork and/or beef. Suprisingly, some manufacturers also use horse meat. Other ingredients are usually potatoes or flour to bulk up the mixture, and a mix of spices and herbs.

They are fairly easy to make from scratch, but also very cheap to buy frozen. However, they never taste quite as nice as when they come fresh from your local snackbar.

Where to buy

You can buy frozen frikandellen from most supermarkets. They can be prepared at home in a deep fat fryer and some brands can also be cooked using an oven, grill, air fryer or frying pan.

If you don’t fancy cooking yourself, then head to your local snackbar and order up a few with a side of patat, or stop by one of the famous Dutch snack wall vending machines.

What’s inside: Frikandel

What’s inside

Where to buy

Also in the series – Dutch snack bar top 10 dishes:

Credit & Attributions