Chicken, Almond and Cinnamon Pie
Description
It goes perfectly with tea and coffee. Actually, chicken, almond and cinnamon pie is a classic Moroccan dish called bastilla—but to avoid confusion I chose a name that rings clearer to Russian ears. The pie turns out very unusual: spicy (thank you ginger and cinnamon), mildly sweet (thank you confectioners’ sugar), and meaty (hello, chicken). The ingredients look like they shouldn’t work together—but don’t worry about that—just make it and see for yourself how magnificent the dish turns out despite the seeming clash of flavours :) The bake is ready. Serve it at the table.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Cut the chicken fillet into small cubes (1–1.5 cm per side); fry for 2–3 minutes in olive oil in a deep thick-bottom frying pan.
- 2
Step 2
Transfer the chicken to a plate. Into the same pan, add finely chopped onion, garlic, finely chopped chilli pepper and grated ginger. Sauté until the onion turns translucent.
- 3
Step 3
Put the chicken back into the skillet and pour chicken broth over everything. Add saffron and simmer until the broth has evaporated.
- 4
Step 4
While the chicken stews in the broth (about 15 minutes), make the dough. Mix ground almonds, powdered sugar, and cinnamon.
- 5
Step 5
Now for the main part. Take a sheet of puff pastry, sprinkle it with the almond mixture, place another sheet on top, and roll it out. Then on top—a little more almond mixture, a sheet of pastry, roll again. Repeat until you run out of sheets and almond mixture. Place the resulting pastry in an oiled baking pan.
- 6
Step 6
Add one egg to the prepared chicken and mix. Spoon the pie filling onto the pastry.
- 7
Step 7
Shape the pie (along the edges you should still have dough not covered by the filling). Brush the top with butter and decorate with whole almonds.
- 8
Step 8
Bake for 25 minutes at 180 degrees. Then remove from the oven, cool slightly, and serve. Enjoy!