Chicken & Chorizo Filo Pie

This is a great tasting, easy to make, crunchy filo pie full of Chicken, Chorizo, Mozzarella Cheese, Mushrooms and Sun-dried Tomatoes. A piece of this pie is excellent as a starter, or served with seasonal steamed vegetables (or boiled new potatoes) it is an excellent evening meal on a warm evening.

Chicken & Chorizo Filo Pie Recipe

Serves 4. You need a deep, 22 cm loose-bottomed cake tin.

Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 skinless chicken breasts (cut into bite-sized pieces)
• 100g chorizo (skinned, cut in half, and sliced thin)
• 2 large field mushrooms (halved and sliced)
• 1 small onion (diced fine)
• 100g spinach leaves
• 180g mozzarella cheese (diced small)
• 70g sundried tomatoes (buy them in a jar with oil)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 220g filo pastry
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/4 tsp of paprika
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Recipe Method:

For the pie filling: In a frying pan, on a high heat, add some olive oil and fry off the chicken pieces until turning brown, then add the chopped onion, sliced chorizo and sliced mushrooms. Fry until everything is golden brown and cooked through. Turn the heat off and allow to cool completely.

In a large saucepan add the spinach. Pour over the water and cook on a medium heat until the spinach is just starting to wilt. To drain, tip the spinach into a sieve and leave to cool. Once cool gently squeeze out any excess water (the dryer the better) and then with a sharp knife roughly chop it up.

In a mixing bowl add the chopped spinach, diced mozzarella cheese, paprika, freshly ground black pepper, and beaten eggs. Mix this together well. When cool add the chicken and everything else from the frying pan – mix the pie filling thoroughly.

Drain the oil from the jar over a bowl (to reserve half of it) and roughly chop the sun dried tomatoes – put these into the bowl with the pie filling mixture and mix them in well.

Add two tablespoons of olive oil to the reserved half of the oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes.

Take a deep, 22cm loose-bottomed cake tin and brush it all over inside with some of the reserved oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes.

Carefully unroll the filo pastry. Take a sheet of pastry and brush liberally with some of the sundried tomato oil. While you are working with each sheet cover the rest of the pastry with some damp sheets of kitchen paper to stop it drying out.

Drape the filo sheet (oil-side down) into the cake tin – over some of the base and up the sides of the tin- making sure you leave some of the pastry hanging over the side. Brush oil on another piece of filo pastry and place this in the tin, only a little further round, and just overlapping the first sheet. Keep placing the brushed filo pastry sheets in the tin, overlapping and hanging over the edge, until you have roughly three layers and the tin is completely covered, sides and base.

Preheat the oven to 180C

Spoon into the bottom of the lined tin the pie filling. Pull the overhanging sides of the pastry sheets into the middle, covering the pie filling – lay them flat to seal. Brush over the top with a little more oil.

Place the pie in the cake tin on a baking tray and place in the oven to bake for 30 minutes at 180C or until the pastry is crisp and golden brown. Take the pie out of the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Remove the Chicken & Chorizo Filo Pie from the cake tin, cut it into thick wedges and serve as a starter or for a main meal serve with a seasonal salad or boiled new potatoes with butter.