Epic Albanian Chicken Pie

My husband's co-worker's father, Bill Dilios, taught me how to make his favorite dish from Albania: kotopita. It's like chicken pot pie, but with filo crust and an epic story inside... look to the right for the story and the recipe.

The Story

Epic Albanian Food

A mother never made it to America, but her chicken pie did.

By Lindsay Sterling

Portland resident Bill Dilios taught me how to make his favorite dish from Albania, kotopita. It's like chicken pot pie, but with filo crust and an epic story inside. It starts after World War II in a village called Politsani. Bill grew up there in the rocky foothills of a major mountain range separating Albania and Greece. His life as a boy was saturated with fear. A brutal communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, had come to power. And because Bill's father was in the U.S., secret police blacklisted his family. Teachers, doctors, and priests were being thrown into jail, and letters from his father would arrive with money stolen out of them and words covered in black. Bill was constantly pilfering carrots, apples, and walnuts where he could. Government rations were paltry: a quart of oil, a pound sugar, and five pounds of meat per month for four people. Bill watched his mother made filo dough from flour and water, kotopita on special occasions, and yogurt and cheese from their cow's milk. They were lucky if they ate meat once a month.

Now, he's like Jackson Pollock with a butter brush, letting drips fall onto the white sheets like drops of rain. No brushing or fussing. This is not exactly my experience working with filo. Later as we're eating, he explains something to me: "Once you have your freedom, life is easy." I promise myself I'll remember. Life is easy here. It is.

One day Bill's older brother came home beaten black and blue with a broken jaw. By 1957 the family knew they had to escape the country or they would be sent to prison, work camps or killed. They'd tried twice. The first time Bill's mother couldn't make it over the steep high-altitude mountain pass. The second time Bill stayed back, unable to leave his mother behind. This third time, in April, just the brothers went. They packed a gun, shoes studded with nails to help grip the mountain ice, white outfits to camouflage against he snow, and a cooked chicken their grandmother had given them. They got over the mountain pass, hiked all night, and by midmorning were wet with sleet, dizzy with fatigue and unable to see. They nearly stumbled into an Albanian border guard asleep with his machine gun under a tree. Before long, they made it to a beautiful sunny valley. They demanded of a shepherd, pointing their gun at him: "Albania or Greece?" The shepherd said, "Greece." They were free.

Soon Bill and his brother were on a plane to Boston. Bill met his father for the first time at the airport. He picked them up in a maroon Buick and took them back to Portland. They worked at his Greek restaurant, Christy's on Cumberland Ave where Maria's is today. Bill worked there for 17 years, met his wife there, a Mainer, and had three kids who are now all full grown. Today he helps to prepare family recipes at his son's new restaurant, Olympic Pizza and Grille in the Little Dolphin Plaza in Scarborough. Sadly, after he left Albania in 1957, his mother was sent to a work camp and he never saw her again. When I make this pie, I'm going to thank my lucky stars for my liberties in this country, and have a moment of silence for one woman I never knew, but now, whose pie I do.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2009

To see videos of Bill's brother in 2007 in Politsani, showing where Germans, Italians, Albanian rebells fought, hearing village singing, and reliving his escape route, please visit: http://www.politsani.com/video.asp.

See how to do it

Albanian Chicken Pie

Bill used store bought filo. His mother made it from scratch from flour and water. He hopes to do that sometime soon. Me too.

The Recipe - 2009

Albanian Chicken Pie

As taught to Lindsay Sterling in Portland, ME, by Bill Dilios, from Politsani, Albania, November 2009

Serves 10-14

The day before serving:

1. Roast a chicken and make stock. Transfer filo from freezer to fridge.

1 chicken

2 stalks celery, cut into large chunks

1/2 yellow onion, large chunks

2 quarts water, cut into large chunks

2 boxes filo dough (he used Athens brand)

Preheat oven to 350. Wash chicken, put in a deep roasting pan breast up with water, celery, onion and water. Season with salt and pepper and put in oven. Every fifteen minutes or so turn chicken over (cool basting technique). Once chicken is browned and the meat is opaque to the bone (about an hour), let cool. Strain broth, skim off fat, discard veggie pieces and let broth cool. Take all the chicken meat off the bones, cut into 1/2 inch chunks. Refrigerate meat and stock separately. Transfer filo from freezer to fridge.

The next day:

2. Transfer filo from fridge to counter one hour before cooking.

3. Make the pie filling (2 hours before you want to eat).

2 Tbsp olive oil

5 cups onion, large dice

1 1/2 cup rice

chicken stock you made yesterday

the bite-size chicken meat you made yesterday

1 boullion cube (Knoll brand preferred) or salt (optional)

5 eggs

Warm stock in a saucepan on stove. Drizzle olive oil generously on bottom of large pot, saute onion for five to ten minutes until limp. Add rice and saute a couple minutes more without browning. Add enough stock (about a quart) so rice and onion are just floating in liquid, add salt and pepper or boullion cube to taste, and cook on medium high, lid off, stirring every once in a while for about 30 minutes, until mixture thickens and rice is al dente. Add chicken and eggs. Stir well and let cool.

4. Assemble the pie.

Chicken and rice filling you just made

2 sticks butter

1/2 cup olive oil

the 2 boxes filo dough waiting for you on the counter

Preheat oven to 385.

Bill made one pie in a giant deep dish pizza pan. It made about 20 small squares - 2 per person. While I keep my eye out for a huge pie pan like that, I'll be using what I've got at home: two 9 x 13 rectangular casserole dishes. For my family of four, I might also freeze half the filling and stock and make one pie one night, and a second pie next week. Round cake pans would work, a cast iron skillet. Anything with a verticle 2" side.

Melt butter in bowl and add oil. Brush bottom and sides of pan with butter mixture. Layer whole filo sheets over bottom of pan (no folding, cutting or fussing -- overlapping is fine). Now be like Jackson Pollock with the butter brush, dripping butter on the filo. No full coverage or brushing necessary. Just drips, like it's starting to rain. Make another layer of filo, this time (and from here on out) draping sheets 2-3 inches over the pan edges. Drizzle butter. Layer filo. Drizzle butter. Continue until you're almost through half a pound (one box) of filo. Now spread half of the chicken filling to the edges of the pan, drizzle that with butter, then do two more layers of filo-butter before spreading the second half of the chicken mixture. Drizzle butter on top of that. Layer filo-butter until your second box runs out (or your pan is full). Fold all the draped edges on top of the pie, brush the dry folded edges down. Cook for about 40 minutes until the entire pie is golden brown. Let it cool for 10-20 minutes. Then turn pan over onto a cutting board so the pie comes out, bottom side up. Cut into squares or wedges, depending on what look you want.

Please contact me about how this recipe works for you! lindsay@lindsaysterling.com

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2009

The Recipe - revised 2012

Greek Chicken Pie

Kotapita

As re-taught to Lindsay Sterling February 2012 in Freeport, ME, by Bill Dilios, from a Greek village, Politsani, just inside the boarder of Albania.

Serves 10 for dinner, 20 as an appetizer or side

Cooking Time: 2 hours

* The day before serving, transfer filo freezer to fridge. 

* An hour before cooking, transfer filo from fridge to counter.
* If you forget to transfer filo to fridge, just stick it on the counter until it thaws completely

1 box phyllo dough

2 Tbsp olive oil

4 large yellow or sweet onions, medium dice

1 stick butter, cut into 1/2" chunks + 1 stick butter

4 chicken breasts, cut into 1/2" cubs

1 1/2 cups long grain white rice

3 cups chicken stock

1 boullion cube (Knoll brand preferred) or salt (optional)

3 eggs

1. Make the filling. Saute onions with 2 Tbsp oil and 1 stick butter, cut into chunks, until onions are soft, 5-10 minutes. Add chicken pieces. When chicken is half-cooked add rice and saute for 2 minutes without browning anything. Add chicken stock so that the rice is just floating in liquid, about 3 cups. Add crushed bouillon cube if desired and incorporate. Saute, stirring frequently, until the liquid disappears and you have a thick mass of chicken and rice with no runny liquid. Remove from stove and let cool. Mix in three eggs.

2. Assemble the pie. Preheat oven to 395. Melt a stick of butter in cereal bowl and get a pastry brush out. Bill made one pie in a giant deep dish pizza pan. It made about 20 small squares - 2 per person. Since I don't think anyone has a pan this big, I'm going to suggest you use two casserole dishes or three pie plates. (For smaller pies, I suggest cutting the recipe in half for a single 9x7 baking dish, or dividing the recipe by three and using a pie plate.) Brush the bottom and sides of the baking dish with olive oil. Layer whole filo sheets over bottom of baking dish, overlapping the edges of the pan by roughly 2 inches. (No folding, cutting or fussing -- overlapping is fine). Now be like Jackson Pollock with the butter brush dripping melted butter on the filo. No full coverage or brushing necessary. Just drips, like it's starting to rain. Make another layer of filo overlapping the edges again. Drizzle butter. Layer filo. Drizzle butter. When you have about five layers of phyllo, make a layer of chicken filling about 1/2" inch deep. Cover with two more layers of phyllo/butter drips. Add another layer of filling about 1/2" deep. Do five or six more layers of phyllo. Fold all the draped edges on top of the pie, brush with butter onto the dry edges folding them down.

4. Bake for about 40 minutes, turning the temp down to 385 after ten minutes, until the entire pie is golden brown. Let it cool for 10-20 minutes. Then place a large cutting board (one that is bigger than the pie itself) over the top of the pan, and holding them together, flip them over so that the pan ends up on top of the cutting board upside down. Lift the pan off the pie. (Optional: put another large cutting board on top of the pie and flip the pie, sandwiched between the two cutting boards, over once more. This puts the most beautiful side of the pie facing upwards as you see when you lift the top cutting board off.) Cut pie into squares (a serrated bread knife works well), or wedges, depending on what look you want.

Note: left overs are great for 3 days reheated in the oven or toaster oven.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2012