Kotopita is not often cooked within the Greek diaspora I am a part of. It wasn’t until I spent more time in Greece that I started thinking about it more. You can buy it from most bakeries in Greece, many of which have their own take on it. The best ones we found had roasted peppers and potato in them. You can eat this for lunch, dinner…or even breakfast! (like we did on our way to the beach most mornings). This recipe is inspired by the ones we had on Kythira from the small local bakeries that make their phyllo from scratch.
This recipe makes a big pie…enough from 10 generous servings…because why not? You can freeze it and reheats nicely in the oven, which makes it great to give to friends or have as leftovers. If you wanted to, you could half the filling if you want to make a smaller one. It is quite a thin pie so a sheet pan would work best, or a baking dish — I just don’t fill it over more than an inch.
Ingredients:
1 pack of phyllo pastry (I use Antoniou 375g pack from the cold - not frozen section)
1.5kg (roughly) of chicken - I like breast and thigh but you can also use chicken legs if you’re on a budget - just add half a kilo more to factor in for the bones.
2 leeks - cleaned and chopped into thin slices
1 brown onion diced
4 cloves of garlic diced finely
1/2 cup of sheep’s feta crumbled
1/2 cup of Romano grated finely (another similar hard cheese will work fine)
3 large roasted red peppers (from the jar is ok)
4 medium potatoes (peeled and diced — 1-2cm big)
Dried herbs - oregano, thyme and fennel seeds (a couple of teaspoons of each)
100g of melted butter for coating the pastry
Béchamel ingredients:
4 cups of milk
1/3 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
Preheat the over to 200 degrees Celsius. Coat the chicken in a good amount olive oil, salt, pepper and the dried oregano, thyme and fennel seeds. Bake for roughly 25 minutes until cooked through. Put aside to cool down. While the chicken is cooking you can prep the other fillings. Boil the diced potato in a pot until tender. In a pan sauté the onion, leek and garlic in olive oil until it becomes soft, try not to char it. Chop the peppers into strips. Once the chicken has cooled down you can shred it with your hands. Combined the onion mixture, peppers, potato, cheeses and chicken in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to season.
For the Béchamel: In a fresh pan mix together the olive oil and flour on a medium heat until it comes a paste that it light brown. Slowly add the milk while continuously whisking, followed by the nutmeg. Add salt and pepper and continue to mix until the béchamel has thickened, and turn the mixture down so it doesn’t burn. Whisk the egg in a bowl and temper it by adding small amounts of the béchamel to it while whisking. Slowly pour the egg into the béchamel and combine. Pour the béchamel into the filling mixture and mix through well.
To assemble the pie grab a sheet pan - mine is roughly 18 x 13 inches for reference. Start by putting aside 8-10 sheets of the phyllo for the top of the pastry. Coat the base of the pan with butter and layer the phyllo. My pan roughly fits two pieces next to each other that overlap the sides (which is fine). Brush the layers in butter and repeat. I do about 4-5 layers (8-10 sheets). Fill the pie (no more than an inch thick) with the pie filling and smooth it out well so that it is nice and flat. Fold the pastry edges over onto the pie and cover with 1 or 2 sheets of pastry. Fold the last 10 pieces of phyllo on top to create an accordion shape (google if you need a reference) and brush the whole top of the pie well with butter. You can sprinkle sesame seeds on top if you like. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown on top.
Omg I need to find some right now 😍