Chicken, Spinach and Pine Nut Spanakopita
I’m not really much of a pastry cook, but fancied doing a pie for a change. It was really still quite warm so instead of something heavy with shortcrust or flaky pastry I decided to try a Greek classic pie made with filo.
To make the filling for the pie I started by poaching a whole chicken for about 90 mins with two sliced onions, butter and seasoning.
When the chicken was cooked I took the bird and the onions from the liquid to cool and reserved the cooking liquid. When the chicken was cool enough to handle I stripped all the meat from the carcass and put it into a bowl with the onions.
At this stage you should also boil the cooking liquid hard and reduce it by at least half to make a delicious stock and allow to cool. To assemble all of the filling I added three beaten eggs to the chicken, onions, pine nuts, spinach and then poured in enough stock to make a wet mixture, then mixed well.
To build the pie you need to build up three or four layers of filo pastry (shop bought in my case) at different angles in a round pan brushing each with a little olive oil as you go. Then spoon in the filling and cover with three more sheets before folding the edges in over the top and brushing with more olive oil.
Set the oven to 210c and bake for around 15 minutes, then remove from the oven, reduce the heat to 180c, cut the pie into 6-8 wedges, then bake for a further 45 minutes. Allow to rest for 10-20 minutes, then serve, still warm.
I served the pie with a fresh Greek salad which it went very well with, as there was some pie left over I can reliably report that the pie is just as delicious cold!
One comment on “Chicken, Spinach and Pine Nut Spanakopita ”
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Foodies 100
Rowanwood Kitchen 
Still can’t believe I didn’t get to try this! Paul, you are a culinary marvel! *
* most of the time…!
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