Weekend Cookbook: Guest Post: Deconstructed Moroccan Chicken Pie with Sumac Yoghurt

Last Thursday night, my husband and I cooked up a recipe for Deconstructed Moroccan chicken pie with Sumac yoghurt. I jokingly put a photo up on facebook, because although it tasted fantastic it wasn't a beautiful dish. However, Lisa called my bluff and asked me to share the recipe on this blog. I was going to say no, but then I remembered that commandment in the bible "Thou shalt honour thy minister's wife's blog"

If you haven't cooked with Sumac before, it's a sour-tangy spice with a vibrant purple colour. I was introduced to it by a Saudi Arabian friend and workmate. She invited a bunch of workmates over to her place to eat a home-cooked banquet. After I gushed about the food she gifted me with a whole kilo of Sumac from her pantry! Obviously I'm still going through my kilo, so I am not sure how easy it is to find in supermarkets, but any oriental grocer or spice shop will carry it.

The original recipe makes this into a pie, but I decided to instead cook some pastry separately and serve it on the side. This way, the meal is ready earlier and I could control how much pastry I wanted to eat.

Deconstructed Moroccan chicken pie with Sumac yoghurt
(based on Moroccan chicken pie in Weightwatchers' Food you'll Love recipe book, available at supermarkets)

olive oil
500g chicken thigh fillets, cubed
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/3 cup dried apricots
400g can diced tomatoes
500g sweet potato, cubed
1 sheet puff pastry
1/2 cup low-fat natural/greek yoghurt
1 tsp sumac
fresh coriander

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Thaw sheet of puff pastry on the bench.

2. Heat oil in frying pan over high heat. Add chicken and cook in batches until browned. Remove chicken from pan. Add a dash of oil and cook onion, stirring frequently, until softened. Add the garlic, ginger, cumin and coriander and stir for 1 minute.

3. Add chicken back to the pan with apricots, tomatoes and sweet potato. Add just enough water to cover (about 200ml). Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, until potato is tender. 

4.While the chicken is simmering, cut the puff pastry into approx 2cm x 10cm strips. Place the strips on a cookie tray lined with baking paper, and twist the strips once over to create a curve in the middle. sprinkle with a little sumac, and place in the oven for 10 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and just starting to brown.

5. Sprinkle sumac over the yoghurt. Serve the 'pie' garnished with coriander leaves, with sumac yoghurt and pastry strips on the side.

This was a really tasty and easy pie, and we'll definitely be adding it to our high rotation list. You could also add a can of chickpeas, either to bulk out the meal or replace the chicken if you're vegetarian. If you have kids, it would be fun to use the strips to make their first initials.

Kath is a grew up in Hobart, Tasmania. She met a guy called Matt in high school, and married him in 2008. She loves live music, handmade crafts, and fresh coffee. She has an honours degree in medical research that doesn't get used much. Matt and Kath moved to Canberra in 2011 where she is slowly learning to follow the politics and the roundabouts 

What have you been cooking this week?

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