Greek Chicken & Cheese Phyllo Pie: Kotopita (updates)

Print this recipe here: https://www.dimitrasdishes.com/kotopita-greek-style-chicken-in-phyllo-pie/

Ingredients
​For the chicken:

3 lbs (1 and 1/2 kg) boneless skinless chicken thighs
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
ground black pepper, to taste
For the filling:

1/4 cup olive oil
​1 large onion, diced
2-4 garlic cloves, grated
​1 (16-ounce/450g) jar roasted red peppers, drained and diced
1 teaspoon dried thyme or oregano
​salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
​1 cup crumbled feta cheese or more
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 cup grated gouda or mozzarella cheese
For the béchamel sauce:

4 cups whole milk
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup all purpose flour
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
​2 eggs
For the crust:

1 pound (#4) phyllo dough, thawed and at room temperature
1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted
a few tablespoons of sesame seeds (optional)
Instructions
​Preheat the oven to 400 °F, 200 °Celsius.
​Place the chicken on a baking tray and drizzle the olive oil on top. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes.
Allow to cool completely and either chop it up or shred it and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
In a medium saucepan add the olive oil and onion and cook over medium heat until soft and golden. Add the garlic and warm through until fragrant.
Add the onion and garlic mixture to the mixing bowl with the chicken.
Make the Béchamel: Combine the olive oil and flour into the same saucepan. Cook over medium heat while whisking until it becomes slightly toasted. ​Add the milk, salt. pepper, and nutmeg. Whisk well to combine. Take care to not add too much salt. There will be lots of cheese in the filling which is already salty. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue whisking until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add the eggs to a bowl and whisk them together. Pour some of the hot béchamel over the eggs while whisking to temper them and then add the egg mixture into the saucepan. Whisk together until smooth. Pour the béchamel over the chicken mixture.
Add the cheeses, the roasted red peppers, herbs, and spices, and mix well.
Taste to see if any more salt and pepper is needed.
​I always add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. It’s up to you to do the same or to just leave it out.
Set the filling aside.
Reduce the oven to 350 °F, 170 °C.
Remove the phyllo from its packaging. Reserve 10 sheets for the top crust.
Brush a half-sheet (17.9″L x 12.9″W x 1″H) baking pan with butter.
Layer 2 sheets to cover the bottom of the pan and drizzle butter between the layers. Layer the rest of the phyllo going around the pan (most of each sheet shoul rest inside of the pan and some of it hanging outside the pan. Drizzle each phyllo layer with butter. (see video).
Spread the chicken filling into the center of the phyllo and cover the filling with teh phyllo extending outside of the pan. Drizzle butter over the layers.
Form the decorative topping: Take each layer of the reserved phyllo sheets and gather it to form an accordion shape. Place on top of the pie and tuck the edges in.
Drizzle the remaining butter over the top layers.
Bake on the center rack for 55-65 minutes until golden and crisp.
Allow the pie to rest for 15-20 minutes and serve. Kali Orexi!

Music Used:
Greek Sun Time (With Intro)
ITEM ID: 66582698
By: tonyanthony

Its All Greek
ITEM ID: 84456733
By: LowNotes

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Hi everyone Yas to another episode of Deitra dishes today I’m doing an updated version of my kotopita recipe it’s basically a chicken pot pie that’s wrapped in flaky buttery felo it’s so delicious it’s even better than the original let’s get started okay so we’re going to begin with the chicken and in

This pan over here I have three lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs you can definitely use a whole chicken for this and just have it cut up and just roast the whole chicken like this or if you have already roasted chicken from the night before that will work in this

Recipe but the 3 lbs of boness skinless chicken thighs is about 7 to eight pieces of chicken thighs I’m just going to drizzle some olive oil on top and season both sides with salt and black pepper that’s all the seasoning that’s going to go on this because there’s

Going to be so much flavor in the filling these are going to go in the oven that’s already preheated to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and they’re going to bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until they’re fully cooked once they come out of the oven I’m just going to transfer

Them to a cutting board and I’m going to chop them up into small pieces if you prefer the texture of shredded chicken you can use two forks to shred this up and then just put all of the cutup or shredded chicken in a big bowl now I’m

Going to finally chop a large onion and I’m going to add it to a saucepan with a little bit of olive oil and I’m just going to cook it over medium heat until it’s nice and soft then I have two garlic cloves that I’ve grated I’m just

Going to add them to the onions and I’m going to toss them around until they’re warm through and fragrant that just takes a few seconds don’t overcook garlic otherwise it’ll burn and then it’ll become bitter I’m going to transfer the onions to the bowl with the

Chicken in it and the oil is also going to go in there too and I’m going to save the saucepan because I’m going to make the Bal sauce with this next but before I do I have one 16 o jar or 454 G of roasted red bell peppers I’ve drained

Them and I’m just going to roughly chop these and add these to the chicken as well if you don’t have the these Jarred bell peppers which are Smoky and a little bit Briny they’re so tender and delicious you can dice up two bell peppers and just cook them along with

The onions in the saucepan and that’ll work too so they’re going to go in with the chicken and now we’re going to make the bashal sauce so in the same pot that’s going to have lots of little onion bits left over it’s going to add

Lots of flavor I’m just going to go in and add a little bit more olive oil about a/4 of a cup and 1/3 of a cup of all-purpose flour I’m going to whisk that all up and I’m going to cook it over medium Heat until it’s slightly toasted so I can get

Rid of that raw flour taste then I have 4 cups of whole milk that’s cold I’m going to add that to the pot with between an e/ to a/4 of a teaspoon of nutmeg add as much nutmeg as you like I don’t like to go heavy with a nutmeg it

Leaves a little bit of an aftertaste so I just put a tiny bit in my white sauces I’m also going to season it with some salt and black pepper and I’m going to whisk this until the mixture comes to a boil and it begins to thicken it’s not

Going to to get too thick it’s going to continue to thicken once it bakes in the oven once it begins to thicken I’m going to take two eggs I’m just going to whisk them up in that same picture that the milk was in and I’m going to temper them

With the hot milk mixture so that way they don’t scramble when we add them back to the pot whisk everything all together and then pour everything over the chicken the the sauce is going to thicken as it cools so it might look a little bit thin to you but it’s going to

Be Perfect Pour That mixture over the chicken and now it’s time to add the cheeses is I like to add a handful of shredded parmesan cheese a big handful of either shredded mozzarella or if you like Gudda you can add that to it for more flavor and then I have a nice chunk

Of feta cheese my favorite feta is a sheep’s milk feta and I’m just going to crumble this in so that way everything is nice and creamy and I’m going to season it with a hefty pinch of crushed red pepper flakes for a little kick of heat if you don’t like the red pepper

Flakes just leave them out a teaspoon of dried Thyme and a heaping teaspoon of dried oregano mix everything all up and then you could give it a taste and adjust the seasoning if it needs more salt and pepper you could add it at this point Again mix everything up well and

Now it’s time to assemble the pie when I first made this recipe I made it in a 9 by 13in baking pan and you can totally do that I love to make it in these pans because it makes a really hearty pie the pie is going to be really thick and

There’s going to be lots of thick filling in it but the other day I had guest over and I made it in a in a 9 by3 in pan and it just came out so good the filling wasn’t too thick there was more crunchy F I just loved it so I’m going

To give you options this makes one batch but I’m I also have another batch going in the back that you can’t see that I’m going to make for the freezer and instead of making it in a big half sheet baking pan I’m going to make it in two

Quarter sheet baking pans so that way I can have it on hand if guests arrive or I can send it with my son whenever he’s away for work I love to have stuff in my freezer a well stocked freezer is a lifesaver so I have a pound of filo here

That’s been thawing out um it was in the fridge throwing out overnight and then I left it at room temperature today in the morning so it’s been out for a couple of hours before we begin I’ve melted two sticks of butter and I left the wrappers in there

I did this quickly in the microwave I’m just going to brush my pan with these wrappers that still have lots of butter on them and now I’m going to open up the felo and I know some people are afraid of working with felo because it tears

And does stuff like that but if you thought it out properly and if you buy really fresh Foo you won’t have that problem before we begin I’m going to reserve seven sheets for the topping okay and once you open felo you cannot do anything else you have to assemble

Everything otherwise it’ll dry up and start breaking on you this moves so quickly we’re just going to line the pan with the filo one layer at a time and I’m just going to drizzle butter between each layer the first layer goes on the bottom and then I’m just going to go around the

Pan letting some extend outside and some stay inside you go around the in a clockwise Direction and if you ever get two sheets that are stuck together just put them on together don’t try to separate them because they’ll just tear up and it’s not worth it

And I’m just going to keep going in the same pattern until I run out of Foo and there’s just going to be a little bit extending outside most of it is going to be inside the pan because there’s going to be plenty of felo on the top we’re

Going to make an accordion topping which is so beautiful and crunchy it looks nice and it just tastes so good if these two are stuck together they’re going to go in together I’ll just put them on the bottom like this and I’m not putting butter on the top layer now the filling

Is going in so creamy and good just spread it and then just take all the felo that’s extending over the edges of the pan and fold it over the filling and just brush some butter on the top don’t brush drizzle okay that’s done now we’re going to make the accordion topping this

Is my go-to way of making the top crust of pies that are made with Fila so we’re going to take one sheet at a time and you just gather it up like this and you put it on top so you do it on the wider side because this is a bigger Pan I said seven sheets I think maybe you need eight to nine sheets this looks like I’m running a little low but that’s okay just going to spread them out like this and it’ll be fine and all the F that’s hanging out of the pan you’re

Just going to want to uh tuck it in if it’s starting to break you could wet wet your fingers a little bit and that’ll help it and I’ll just take all of the butter and drizzle it over your brush and Let It Go all over the top layer

With your brush focus on the edges too so everything gets nice and crisp and full of flavor and I’m using salted butter for this because the salted butter here in America is not too salty I’ve heard that in Europe sometimes the salted butter is a little too salty so

You can just get plain unsalted butter and just add a little bit of salt to it but this is ready for the oven so make sure that your oven is preheated to 350° F and once the pie is assembled if you’re baking it the same day bake it on

The center rack for between 55 to 65 minutes oven temperatures do vary so definitely keep an eye on it because the top can start to Brown a little bit too fast and you don’t want it to be dark brown and almost burnt looking and then the center and the bottom layer is not

Fully cooked if your oven tends to Brown things a little bit too quickly halfway through baking time go in and cover your pie Loosely with some foil and then cook it until it’s nice and crispy remove the foil for the final 10 to 15 minutes so

That we can get a beautiful golden brown color on it the longer you cook it the crispier the bottom layers will be now the thing is this chicken filling is very juicy so it is going to it is going to tend to make the bottom layer a

Little bit on the Soggy side so if you want to prevent that you can sprinkle a layer of unseasoned breadcrumbs on the bottom of the pan and that’ll fix it or you can just lower the oven rack to the bottom rack for the last 15 minutes so

The bottom layers can get nice and crispy once it comes out of the oven let it sit at room temperature for a good 15 minutes so everything can settle and then you can slice it up into your desired serving sizes you get a lot of

Pieces in this big pie that’s why I love making it in in this big half sheet baking pan but I also really like making it in a 9 by3 inch pan because each slice a little bit harder it’s up to you how you’re going to make it I also went

Ahead and I made another batch I love making this because it freezes beautifully and I love to stock my freezer well I made another batch two quarter sheet trays of this pie but I didn’t do the crinkle top because I almost put all of the filling in at once

And then I didn’t separate the top layers to make the crinkle top I just made a simple top for this just like plain flat top which is also going to be delicious and it freezes beautifully too in order to freeze this once you pour the butter on top go ahead and pop the

Trays in the freezer and let them set let the felo freeze really well and let the butter freeze really well then that takes about an hour or so then take them out and wrap them tightly in a few pieces of foil or plastic wrap make sure

You label it with you know what the dish is and also the date so that way you know and these will keep fresh in the freezer unbaked for about 3 months you can uncover cover them and then just bake these just the way we did this pie

Except if you’re baking them from the freezer you don’t thaw them out you just cover it Loosely in foil cut a little hole in the foil so that way the steam can escape and you bake it covered for 45 minutes at 350 and then you uncover it and you bake it until it’s

Beautifully golden for another about 30 minutes or so every oven varies so just keep an eye on it and you will enjoy this kotopita anytime you’re in the mood for it there are plenty of ways you can substitute things if there’s something in here that you don’t like if you don’t

Like roasted red peppers you can sauté some mushrooms and put them in here zucchini would be really nice too if you don’t have the Jarred brind roasted Peppers you can put fresh bell peppers in here like I said when you’re sautéing the onions you can sauté the peppers at

The same time if you want to turn this into a strudel or several strudles because there’s a lot of filling in this you can definitely wrap this in the felo and make it into a strudel shape or even use puff pastry if you love puff pastry

You can even make little mini pies out of this like triangle just the way we do spop the options are endless if you want me to show you how to make any of those in particular post it in the comment section down below let’s do the taste

Test and let me let you hear how crispy this is see that top how crispy it is and the filling is so juicy M my goodness so creamy so flaky and buttery it’s just ABS absolutely Divine I think you guys are going to love this the kids

Are going to love this one too just because it has all those cheesy flavors and crispy flavors that the kids love head on over to the website to print this recipe out make it share pictures with me on social media and I’ll see you back here next time with another

Delicious recipe worth sharing yes s