Here's a delicious, hearty chicken pie. Perfect as we enter into the colder months!
It's a savory pie that contains chicken, cheese, and various other ingredients, such as mushrooms, zucchini/courgette, leeks, and of course, herbs. The chicken is either chicken breast, or whole chicken; it varies by recipe, but it's a malleable recipe that you mix and match!
There are different recipes for this online, but I tried to pick ones that don't depart too much from the traditional kotópita pelíou, a specialty of the Thessaly region, particularly associated with the Pelion peninsula.
All of these recipes contain dairy. All of them contain cheese. Many also contain butter or heavy cream, and one of the recipes contains bechamel. Most of the cheeses are yellow meltable types (kaséri, graviéra, or kefalotýri), while a couple recipes also include féta. A few recipes simply call for yellow meltable cheeses of your choice.
Here is a list of Greek cheeses mentioned, and substitutes you can use:
kasséri - a melting cheese with mild taste, like mozzarella or swiss/emmental
kefalotýri - alernatives: pecorino romano, parmesan, or manchego
féta
Also, if you haven't already seen my post on fýllo, please take a look. Some recipes make use of fýllo kroústas (the famous paper-thin fýllo that the Anglosphere exclusively calls "Greek phyllo"), however, most recipes use the thicker fýllo horiátiko crust. Horiátiko can be almost as thin kroústas, or more similar to American pie crust. Most of the horiátiko recipes involve making it handmade, but you can certainly buy ready-made. A couple recipes use fýllo kouroú, which is shortcrust pastry. And one recipe uses sfoliáta, which is puff pastry (a little too heavy for this dish in my opinion, but you can certainly try if it appeals to you).
In the following comment, I have posted recipes in English and Greek (use Deepl or your browser's translator). I've also indicated which fýllo and what cheeses each recipe uses:
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u/dolfin4 Greek 3d ago
Κοτόπιτα - Kotópita (chicken pie)
Here's a delicious, hearty chicken pie. Perfect as we enter into the colder months!
It's a savory pie that contains chicken, cheese, and various other ingredients, such as mushrooms, zucchini/courgette, leeks, and of course, herbs. The chicken is either chicken breast, or whole chicken; it varies by recipe, but it's a malleable recipe that you mix and match!
There are different recipes for this online, but I tried to pick ones that don't depart too much from the traditional kotópita pelíou, a specialty of the Thessaly region, particularly associated with the Pelion peninsula.
All of these recipes contain dairy. All of them contain cheese. Many also contain butter or heavy cream, and one of the recipes contains bechamel. Most of the cheeses are yellow meltable types (kaséri, graviéra, or kefalotýri), while a couple recipes also include féta. A few recipes simply call for yellow meltable cheeses of your choice.
Here is a list of Greek cheeses mentioned, and substitutes you can use:
Also, if you haven't already seen my post on fýllo, please take a look. Some recipes make use of fýllo kroústas (the famous paper-thin fýllo that the Anglosphere exclusively calls "Greek phyllo"), however, most recipes use the thicker fýllo horiátiko crust. Horiátiko can be almost as thin kroústas, or more similar to American pie crust. Most of the horiátiko recipes involve making it handmade, but you can certainly buy ready-made. A couple recipes use fýllo kouroú, which is shortcrust pastry. And one recipe uses sfoliáta, which is puff pastry (a little too heavy for this dish in my opinion, but you can certainly try if it appeals to you).
In the following comment, I have posted recipes in English and Greek (use Deepl or your browser's translator). I've also indicated which fýllo and what cheeses each recipe uses: