
Bastila
A Bastila is a savory Moroccan pie with a chicken filling that is cooked within crêpes. The preparation is a little involved in that both the filling and the crêpes need to be made first. But it’s not a difficult pie to make, and so worth it!
What makes this pie’s flavor unique is that traditional Moroccan mixture of almonds, cinnamon and sugar. If you’ve ever been to a Moroccan restaurant you are familiar with this seasoning mixture, as it seems to be in every dish!
I wish I could tell you a lovely story about how I came about this recipe, but I can’t. I know I tore the recipe out of a soft-backed cookbook of international recipes. At one point in my cooking life I felt it beneath me to keep anything but beautiful, hard-back cookbooks. I’ll never toss a cookbook again. But at least I was smart enough to save the recipes I loved!
Bastila
1 – 3 pound chicken
4 ounces butter
2 onions, finely chopped
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 teaspoon saffron threads
6 eggs
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup whole almonds
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Butter, approximately 4 ounces, at room temperature
18 crêpes, at room temperature
Powdered sugar
Ground cinnamon
Begin by poaching the chicken with onions, carrots, celery, bay leaves, parsley, peppercorns, and a little salt. You can do this the day before.
About 2 1/2 to 3 hours is sufficient to get moist, succulent chicken. Let the chicken cool, then remove the bones and skin and place the chicken in a bowl and set aside. I shredded the chicken more than cut it up into pieces.
Add the butter to a large Dutch oven and heat it over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté them for about 5-6 minutes. Then add the parsley, ginger, and all of the spices.
Break the eggs and place them in a medium-sized bowl, along with the egg yolks. Whisk them well.
After the onion and spice mixture has cooked a minute longer, pour the eggs into the onions. Make sure the heat is low. Gently stir the eggs into the onion mixture until they are completely cooked.
Add the chicken to the onion-egg mixture and stir well. Add a little broth if the chicken mixture seems dry. Also taste for salt.
Using a dry blender, blend the almonds, sugar, and cinnamon together. If you have a few pieces of almond, that’s okay. Set aside.
To prepare the Bastila, use a large skillet, preferably with rounded sides. Generously butter the skillet.
Begin by layering approximately 8 crêpes around the side of the skillet, followed by 4 more covering the center bottom.
Add the ground almond mixture to the bottom of the skillet and spread it around. Then add the chicken filling. It shouldn’t be over the top of the skillet, preferably.
Then fold the side crêpes over the filling. Use the remaining 6 crêpes to cover the top of the pie, buttering them first on the bottom side. Spread a little soft butter on the top of the pie as well.
To cook, begin at medium-high heat. You will see the butter bubbling.
After about 8 minutes, I lowered the heat to ensure that the crêpes sealed themselves, and to heat the inside of the pie.
Have a cookie sheet and large spatula on hand for the next step.
When you feel that the pie bottom has browned sufficiently, place the cookie sheet over the skillet, and using oven mitts flip the skillet over so that the pie is on the cookie sheet.
Then gently coax the pie back in to the skillet, and cook the bottom side in a similar fashion.
The cooked Bastila makes a beautiful presentation.
When I made this pie before, I prepared and served it in an iron skillet. But you have to be able to cut into your skillet. If you cannot, simply slide the pie out gently onto a serving platter.
The final step is to mix powdered sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle it on the top of the warm Bastila.
In this photo you can see the crêpes wrapping around the spiced chicken filling that is topped with the ground almond mixture. Heavenly!
Thank you, snow woman!
Hoo ha, I have had a bastila with pastry before but love the idea of the crepes. Looks magnificent, a wonderful dinner party centrepiece.
And it can be made ahead and gently re-heated, so you’re exactly right!!!
Thank you! It’s quite unique!
This looks very interesting. My recipe for Bastilla uses layers of fill pastry. I have never seen it made with crepes. I bet it’s delicious. The filling I make is very similar though.
I guess it could be made with pie crust, phyllo dough, puff pastry, you name it! The crepes are fun!
This sounds and looks wonderful! I’ll have to copy this for my French people. Thank you!
You are so welcome!
I would think so! The chicken supplies very little flavor.
Wow, what a dish. Good thing you saved the recipe!
I know! It’s really unique and delicious!
I love bastila. It’s one of my favorite Moroccan foods. And, I too, have rid myself of cookbooks that I’m now kicking myself for doing! But that’s the biz of downsizing…I did take copies of some important recipes from some of the books (you know, you are holding on to a cookbook because you only use one or two recipes from it), so I did save that! Still organizing/unpacking from our move from Maine to New Hampshire…so haven’t cooked anything exciting. Thanks for letting me live vicariously! Cheers!
Hahaha! You get to live in really beautiful states!
Wow this sounds so good. I have never tried this before! Love the step by step pictures. Wonderful post!
Thank you so much!
Looks so delicious
Another recipe that has been on my files to make forever! I’ve never had it, but read about it and saw it in cooking shows – seems absolutely amazing, worthy of a very festive occasion
great post, Mimi!
Really? That’s interesting cause I don’t think I’ve even seen it around! But it’s good!
Mouthwatering!
This is one of my all-time favorites, though I’m more used to the version made with crunchy Filo dough. I also like to add golden raisins and chopped green olives, though I know they’re not part of the traditional recipe. :)
Oh those additions sound fabulous!!!
I have not eaten in a Moroccan restaurant but I know I would like the spice mix. Looks and sounds delicious!
Thank you!
This is plain awesome. I have this habit of marking and rating the recipes too ;) makes life easier.
Yes! I just remembered I had a star rating when I was younger. Now I just write notes to myself!
yum! The pie looks awesome! I have never tried this before! Thanks for the step by step pictures.
You are so welcome!
Beautiful recipe Chef Mimi! Quite elegant!
Thank you!
Such wonderful flavours, I wonder if I could make a veg version?!
Oh very definitely. The chicken is the blandest part of this pie!
Ha ha! With all of those spices I can’t imagine you notice it :)
Very impressive! Your crepes look so good! I bet this dish tastes amazing with the moist chicken and all the spices.
The filling is moist and delicious. The whole pie is quite unique!
Very good.
Thank you!
Stunning indeed! I love this with pigeon meat
Thank you!
I love a good b’stila, especially when there are no bones! (In Morocco, they just chop the poor bird up, bones and all!) I have never had one made with crêpes before – only with phyllo dough! I imagine it is so much more tender with crêpes! So excited to try this!
I’ve seen b’stila, the word, but had to go with how it was written on my recipe. yikes, bones? I’d love to go to Morocco, but now I may not eat bastila there!!!
That it is!
I was in Morocco last year and I had a great tasting Bastille, I don’t remember any bones. Your recipe looks delicious.
oh good! I really wouldn’t want to actually eat bones. marrow? yes!
Wow, this pie sounds so very flavorful!! And autumn is the perfect season for pies, so will be sure to try this soon! Thank you!!
And I really love savory pies!
This looks fantastic!!! I will definitely give it a go seeing that living in China has left me ovenless for the next few months! Thank you for sharing!!😍
no oven? wow. a little challenging!
Absolutely stunning – what patience!
Thank you!
I love this but I am scared to death of crepes. I remember in the 70s the big fad was crepes and crepe makers. :) We didn’t have a crepe :”maker” and mom had some disastrous results! I definitely should get over my fears, right????
well definitely. and no crepe makers for me. the good old fashioned way works great. and if I can make them, anyone can!
I was thinking the other day that now we are trying to avoid gluten at home I can’t use filo pastry! There’s definitely no way of making it without flour. And then your amazing pie pops up. Im going to make some gluten free pancakes when I get home, they can’t taste too bad, and as we are just in game season in the UK, what better than a pigeon/pheasant/partridge Bastilla.
Sounds lovely. Here, they sell a gluten free all around mixture that substitutes well for flour. It’s sold at Williams Sonoma. It’s called C 4 C, and was perfected by Thomas Keller.
Thanks Mimi, I’ll try and get some when I’m in Vegas next week.
That looks awesome!
Thank you!
Yeah like chicken pot pie on crack. or meth. it’s good.
I have never heard of this dish! It looks and sounds wonderful! And so versatile – both as an appetizer or a flavorful lunch! I’ll sure give it a try!
Don’t be too harsh on yourself! Maybe you kept the only recipe that was worth saving! 😜
Ha! Sometimes there are only one or two worth saving aren’t there?!!
I’ve only had it this way with the crepes, but this filling would be good in any kind of crust!
I love this, looks like a much tastier version of a pot pie. It does seem like it takes a bit of work but more than worth it!
It is so worth it. Such unique flavors!
That looks and sounds delicious Mimi. Funny how you mention coming upon recipes. I’ve got some old folders with recipes that I’ve copied from others or torn out of magazines. One of these days I really have to go through them to sort – and I need to discard the ones that I look at and say “why in the world did I save this one?”
exactly. maybe we were really hungry when we cut those out!!!
Looks like a beautiful recipe Mimi and love the step by step photos too :)
Thank you so much!
Thank you! It’s just a pretty presentation!
Thank you! It’s quite unique!
Oh, these would so impressive a s individual servings! Probably not easy made with the crepes. Thanks!
I haven’t had it both ways, so I’ll have to try it with phyllo and see!