Description
Pastilla (Moroccan Chicken Pie aka. bastilla) fuses together sweet and savoury to create a rustic-looking dish that’s aromatic and full of flavour. Plus, how often do you get to dust your lunch with icing sugar?
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 4 chicken thighs
- 1 onion, finely sliced
- Fresh ginger, finely chopped (about a 1-2 inch piece depending on your tastes)
- 1 tsp ground Cinnamon, + a little more for dusting
- 1 tsp white sugar
- 200ml chicken stock
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 100g sliced almonds
- Melted butter, for washing on to phyllo sheets
- 10 phyllo layers
- Sea Salt, for seasoning
- Black pepper, for seasoning
- Icing sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Oven to 300 degrees F
Prepare the filling
- Roast the chicken, seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper for 35 mins
- Chop up into small pieces
- Cook onion and ginger in a little olive oil. Stir in cinnamon and sugar.
- Add cooked chicken, season, pour in chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook till the stock is reduced by half. Stir in beaten eggs to thicken the mixture, and then add almonds.
Fill the pastilla
- Grease cake tin. Line with 4 sheets of phyllo crossed over one another, brush melted butter on to each sheet before laying it down. Add half the chicken mixture. Then add 4 more sheets of phyllo, each layer brushed with melted butter. Add remaining chicken mixture. Top with 2 sheets of phyllo, again brushed with melted butter. Fold sides in to close the pie, brush with butter.
Bake and serve
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Remove from oven.
- Using a plate, carefully flip the pie back onto the baking sheet and then cook for 10-15 minutes upside down until golden. Remove from oven, turn back right-side up.
- Let cool. Dust with icing sugar, and a little cinnamon. Serve warm, or at room temperature.
Notes
- I recommend using store-bought phyllo…because phyllo from scratch is a bit fidgety.
- Make sure to stir in your eggs…don’t just plop them in, and leave them be. (You don’t want to end up with a wet, confused omelette wondering how it ended up in the middle of your pastilla.)
- When placing your phyllo, drape it over the baking dish, and gently push it down to the corners to avoid any tearing – it is a fickle, delicate, little pastry.
- If you’re someone that likes to experiment a bit, switching out the almonds for pistachios is a way to change the flavour profile without doing any extra work.
- When it comes to dusting, I tend to go with more icing sugar, and less cinnamon – feel free to do whatever suits your tastes!
- I typically use a 9 or 10 inch baking dish to make this recipe.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Category: Main Courses
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Moroccan
