Pastilla is a flaky pie filled with shredded chicken flavoured with staple Moroccan spices such as cinnamon, cumin and turmeric. The addition of dried apricots gives this pie a sweet-savoury flavour profile
| Created by | Spinneys |
| Prep time | 20 minutes |
| Cook time | 40 minutes |
| Serves | 6 |
| Cuisine | Middle Eastern |
| Special Occasion | Ramadan |
| Diet | Other |
| Preparation | Moderate |
| Calories | 428 |
| Fat | 14.9g |
| Saturates | 2.6g |
| Protein | 30.8g |
| Carbs | 43.9g |
| Sugars | 7.8g |
| Given the cook-at-home nature of Spinneys and natural variations in ingredients, nutritional information is approximated. See details | |
Ingredients
Cooking Instructions
Download PDFFinely slice the onions. Crush the garlic cloves.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large casserole. Sauté the onion and garlic for approx. 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the spices (2tbsp cinnamon, cumin, coriander, turmeric and fennel seeds) and stir for approx. 30 seconds until aromatic. Pour in the chicken stock and season. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer for approx. 15 minutes. Add the honey and almonds to the mixture and simmer until thickened. Turn off the heat.
Using two forks, finely shred the chicken. Zest and juice the lemon. Finely chop the parsley. Add the shredded chicken to the casserole. Stir in the lemon zest and juice, apricots and parsley. Leave to cool. It can be chilled for up to two days.
Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6, with a baking tray on the middle shelf.
Unwrap the pastry, keeping any you’re not working with under a damp tea towel so it doesn’t dry out.
Melt the ghee. Grease a 22-23cm springform or loose-bottomed round tin with some of the melted ghee. Line the tin with a sheet of pastry and brush with the ghee. Place another sheet of pastry in the tin and brush it with more ghee. Repeat this process until you’ve lined the tin with 6 filo sheets. Patch up any holes or thin patches with another sheet of pastry brushed with ghee.
Spoon in the chilled chicken mixture and pat down evenly. Place another 4 sheets of filo pastry on top, brushing each layer with melted ghee, tucking them down to enclose the filling. Brush the top with a little more ghee.
Bake on the heated baking tray for approx. 20-30 minutes, or until crisp and golden brown. Leave to cool for approx. 30 minutes.
When ready to serve, mix the icing sugar and cinnamon together, then dust over the pastilla.
