Chicken Bisteeya

I recall living in Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, and going to the Middle Eastern restaurants on Atlantic Avenue to have chicken bisteeya. It is a marvelous dish, and one I haven’t made at home before. Though it isn’t difficult, it is time consuming and working with filo dough can be challenging. If you’re not familiar with it, chicken bisteeya’s origins are as a Moroccan pigeon pie, made with sweetened almonds, and flavored with cinnamon and sugar. It is a buttery, flaky, sweet and savory pie, it is impressive to look at and a bit exotic, but not intimidating. (Most people use chicken, rather than pigeon.)

Bisteeya goes by many different names, and is a dish as rich in history as taste. Many recipes, as well as historians refer to a dough of warka similar to filo, but even thinner (I’m not sure how that is possible!) but many use filo, which is what I used. Paula Wolfert writes extensively about it in her book The Food of Morocco. I confess what I originally planned to make was a much simpler dish, a sort of Morrocan spiced boneless chicken thigh wrapped in filo, and I may yet do that, but like most things, I believe you need to master the original before you start improvising and creating variations.

My recipe is an adaptation of David Lebovitz, and his is an adaptation of Bethany Kehdy. If you are someone who doesn’t like to use a lot of butter, skip this recipe, it is a key ingredient.

The complexity of this dish is a departure from my usual style of cooking in that I generally prefer to make, and certainly share simple, easy to prepare recipes, that anyone cooking at almost any range of expertise could take on successfully. I will warn you, this dish will require patience, and a few hours of hands on work. The results will be worth the effort, and if you have someone you’d like to impress, this would be an excellent choice. The finished product is beautiful, fragrant, elegant and satisfying.

Chicken Bisteeya

Print recipe

Serves	4
Prep time	2 hours
Cook time	2 hours
Total time	4 hours
Meal type	Main Dish
Misc	Serve Hot
Region	Moroccan
By author	David Leibovitz

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs
1 Medium onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 piece ginger (peeled and minced)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sliced almonds
3 eggs
2 cups water
1 lemon (zested)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup chopped, Italian parsley
2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
8 Sheets filo dough
4 tablespoons butter (melted)

Note

When working with filo, you need to get everything ready to go before unwrapping the dough. You will need your work area set up, and once you start you need to work quickly. Don't rush, but keep going, once baked filo is very forgiving, and it will look fine, but while you are working with it it can dry out and fall apart very fast. Make sure to cover the dough with a damp towel each time you take a sheet.

Directions

Step 1
Pat chicken dry, and season with salt and pepper
Step 2
Heat 2 TBL of oil in a large pan with a tight fitting lid, and when oil is hot add onion and saute over medium heat, until translucent, remove onions from pan, set aside
Step 3
Add 1 TBL of oil to pan, allow to heat up, and place chicken in pan skin side down Let chicken brown on both side, about seven minutes on each side, remove from pan
Step 4
Return onions to pan and add in ginger, garlic, turmeric and approximately half the cinnamon, stir well, and put chicken back into pan, let mixture cook until fragrant, about two minutes, then add water to pan, cover and let simmer for thirty minutes
Step 5
Remove chicken from pan, and when cool enough, tear chicken into bite sized pieces, discarding the skin and bones While chicken cools, reduce cooking liquid in pan by half, on medium heat, about fifteen minutes
Step 6
Mix the eggs in a bowl, and when liquid is reduced, add the eggs slowly, stirring all the time, and continue cooking and stirring until the mixture resembles soft scramble eggs, remove from heat and add to torn chicken
Step 7
Put almonds into a bowl, mix well with sugar and remaining cinnamon, put about 1/4 cup of this aside to garnish the top of the pie, and add the rest into the chicken mixture Preheat oven to 375F
Assmebly
Step 8
Choose an approximately nine to ten inch baking dish to assemble the pie. I used a Pyrex pie pan. Take a damp dishtowel, and leave the filo dough covered as you work, or it will dry out an crumble. Taking the filo leaves one at a time, lay them on a counter, and brush with melted butter, then place in the baking dish, letting the edges overlap outside the dish, and getting the leaves into the corners.
assembly
Step 9
Continue this with 7 of the filo leaves. Add the chicken mixture to the baking dish.
Step 10
With the eighth sheet, brush with butter and place in the center of the pie, then fold the overhanging edges of the other leaved over the center piece. Brush top with butter, and garnish with the reserved almond-sugar mix
assembly
Step 11
Bake for thirty to forty minutes. Remove when pie is golden brown.If you have made the pie in a pie pan, or spring-form pan you can gently remove it on to a platter. Serve by cutting into wedges.