Moroccan Pastilla

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil

  • 4–6 boneless chicken thighs

  • 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

  • 4 eggs, beaten

  • 75g ground pistachios

  • 75g dried dates, finely chopped

  • 1 tbsp orange blossom water

  • 4 tbsp finely chopped parsley

  • sea salt and ground black pepper

To assemble

  • 6 large slices of filo pastry

  • 60g butter, melted

  • 1 tbsp icing sugar

  • cinnamon

  • crushed pistachios

Method

  1. Add the chicken to a frying pan, season and fry it skin-side down, until golden. turn over then cook until cooked.

  2. Melt the butter, add the onions and fry until soft. Add the garlic and spices and fry for a couple more minutes.

  3. Put the chicken back in the pan and pour in the stock. Simmer until chicken in tender, turning half way through.

  4. Remove the chicken and finely chop. Put the liquid back over the heat and reduce it by half.

  5. Add the eggs and cook until slightly thickened. Add the nuts, dates, orange blossom water and chicken. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool.

  6. Preheat the oven to 180°C. To assemble the pie, you need a large ovenproof pie dish.

  7. Take a sheet of filo pastry and brush it with melted butter and put in the bottom of the dish. now put pastry sheets going around the sides of the dish in a square. then two final sheets in the bottom of the dish.

  8. Full the dish with the filling, then fold any pastry over the top of the filling. Take the remaining 2 pieces of filo and cut them to fit the dish, brush with butter and bake the pie 30 minutes until Golden. Dust with iceing sugar, cinnamon and grated/crushed pistachios.