Hairy Bikers Moroccan Chicken Pie Recipe

Hairy Bikers Moroccan chicken pie is their pastilla, filled with saffron-spiced chicken, soft scrambled egg, dates and ground almonds in buttery filo. And their Chicken & Egg recipe serves 4 in about 2 hours 20 minutes, including cooling, at around 1,000 calories each by my sums.

“Pastilla, or bastilla, is a Moroccan pie, which looks dead impressive but is surprisingly easy to make,” they write. Yet it’s finished with a dusting of icing sugar and cinnamon, unlike most savoury pies, so it tastes sweet and savoury at once.

To my mind, cooking the eggs gently in the reduced liquid matters most, because they should stay like loose scrambled eggs. Since that soft egg binds the chicken, dates and nuts together, the filling holds its shape when you slice the pie.

Hairy Bikers Moroccan Chicken Pie Recipe

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Baking Cuisine:British Moroccan Courses:Dinner

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 20 minutesCook time:1 hour 30 minutesRest time: 30 minutesTotal time:2 hours 20 minutesServings:4 servingsCalories:1000 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

Boneless thighs are browned, then braised with onion, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric and saffron until tender enough to chop finely. Then dates, nuts, orange blossom water and parsley go in before the filling is folded into layers of buttered filo.

Ingredients

For the filling

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 to 6 boneless chicken thighs, skin on (about 750g)
• 10g butter
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp turmeric
• pinch of saffron
• 500ml chicken stock or water
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 75g ground almonds or pistachios
• 75g dried dates, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp orange blossom water
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 4 tbsp finely chopped parsley
• sea salt and black pepper

To assemble

• 6 large sheets of filo pastry
• 60g butter, melted
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• pinch of cinnamon

Instructions

1. Brown the chicken: Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken skin-side down until crisp and brown. Then turn the thighs over, cook for a couple more minutes and lift them out.
2. Soften the onions: Melt the butter in the same pan and fry the onions gently until soft. Then add the garlic, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric and saffron and fry for a couple more minutes.
3. Simmer the chicken: Put the chicken back in the pan, pour in the stock and season. Then cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the chicken is tender, and lift it out again.
4. Chop and reduce: Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, chop it finely, keeping the skin or not as you like. Then put the pan back on the heat and reduce the liquid by half, about 10 minutes.
5. Make the filling: Add the eggs to the liquid and cook over a low heat until it looks like loose scrambled eggs. Then stir in the nuts, followed by the dates, orange blossom water, zest, parsley and chicken, and check the seasoning. Take the pan off the heat and leave it to cool for about 30 minutes.
6. Line the dish: Heat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Brush a sheet of filo with butter and drape it over a round 28cm ovenproof dish, easing it in and leaving the excess hanging over. Then add 3 more buttered sheets the same way, the second at right angles to the first and the next two on the diagonal.
7. Fill and cover: Spread the filling over the pastry, then fold the overhanging filo back over it, last sheet first, so it just about covers the filling. Cut the last 2 sheets roughly to fit, brush them with butter and lay them on top, tucking the edges down the sides.
8. Bake and dust: Bake for about 30 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden brown. Then let it cool a little before dusting with the icing sugar and cinnamon.

FAQs

Is pastilla the same as bastilla?

Yes, they’re two spellings of the same Moroccan pie, and their version on BBC Food is called chicken bastilla. And the recipe is in their Chicken & Egg book, which says they cooked it in Fez for TV.

For another Moroccan dish in that book, their chicken tagine with preserved lemons braises chicken with saffron and ginger, then adds green olives.

Almonds or pistachios?

Either works, since they used pistachios in Fez “but the locals prefer almonds”, and they add that “the choice is yours”. So I’d start with ground almonds, which are easier to buy.

But if you pick pistachios, my tip is to blitz them finely in a food processor. And if you like dried fruit with meat, their lamb tagine with apricots uses apricots or prunes with pomegranate molasses.

Is the BBC Food version different?

A little, since the BBC version uses 3 large eggs instead of 4 and 30g of melted butter for the filo instead of 60g. And it says there’s “no need to soak the saffron”, so it goes in dry with the other spices.

It also suggests a ceramic quiche or flan dish or a metal tart tin for the 28cm dish, while the rest closely matches the book. But I’ve kept the book’s 4 eggs and 60g of butter here.

Should I keep the chicken skin?

That’s your call, since the recipe says “it’s up to you whether you keep the skin or not”. So I’d brown the thighs skin-on as written, then drop the skin when chopping, because after 30 minutes’ simmering it has lost its crispness.

That only saves around 100 to 150 calories a portion by my sums, since its fat has already melted into the sauce. Or for a much lighter filo pie, their chicken and ham tangle pie comes in at 429 calories.

Can I make it ahead?

Yes, though this is my approach since the book doesn’t say: cool the filling within 2 hours and chill it for up to a day. Then assemble it with fresh filo just before baking, adding about 10 minutes, my guess, until the centre is steaming hot.

Since that bake reheats a made-ahead filling, I’d eat any leftovers cold rather than reheat them again, as the FSA advises reheating only once. And I’d finish them within 2 days of first cooking the filling.