One of my favorite dishes from Morocco is Chicken Pastilla. It is a salt and sweet chicken pie.

 Ingredients:

– Phyllo Dough

– One pound of Chicken Drumsticks

– One Diced Onion

– 2 Small Graded Garlic Cloves

– One tbsp of Olive Oil

– Two tbsp of Butter

–  Half Chicken bullion Cube

– One tbsp of Ginger

– One Cinnamon Stick

– One teaspoon of black pepper

– One teaspoon of Saffron

– One tbsp of Chopped Cilantro

– One tbsp of Chopped Parsley

– 5 Eggs

– Fried Almond

– 2 tbsp of Honey

– Salt

– One teaspoon of Moroccan Yellow Spice (or 1/4 tsp of Ground all Spice)

 To Garnish:

One tbsp of Powdered Sugar

One teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon

How to Prepare:

Crush the fried almond and set aside.

Remove the skin of the chicken drumsticks.

On a medium- low heat, cook the chicken in a large deep pot with the onion, garlic, olive oil, butter, chicken bullion, ginger, cinnamon stick, black pepper, saffron, cilantro, parsley, ground all spice and a dash of salt until the chicken is well cooked, very tender and could fall off the bone. (Do not add water but stir occasionally to prevent the chicken or sauce from burning.)

Remove the chicken from the sauce and shred the meat with your hand. Set the sauce aside until it cools down.

Remove the cinnamon stick from the sauce and add to it 3 beaten eggs and 2 egg whites.  Mix well (Save the 2 egg yolks to assemble the phyllo dough).

Generously oil a 10″ round pan (or use a non-stick pan).

Place the phyllo dough in the pan as shown below brushing each dough with butter and the egg yolk which you saved before so it can get crunchy and stick together.

Place a phyllo piece in the middle to cover the bottom of the pan.

Brush the edges of the dough with egg yolk and the whole dough with melted butter.

Add the shredded chicken on top of the phyllo dough and spread evenly.

Add another phyllo dough on top of the chicken and brush the edges with egg yolk and the whole dough with melted butter.

Add the chicken sauce and spread evenly then add another phyllo dough repeating the previous step.

Add the crushed almond spreading evenly then pour the honey on top evenly.

Add a phyllo dough on top brushing with the yolk and melted butter.

Fold the excess dough on top to cover and enclose the pie, brushing all the edges with egg yolk and melted butter.  Flatten and smooth any bulky area.

Add another layer of dough and brush with egg yolk and melted butter.

Place in the pre-heated oven and bake at 300F/175C until the dough is golden and crunchy.

Once it gets cold, garnish with powdered sugar and ground cinnamon and serve.