Moroccan Chicken and Date Pastilla

Every month my Mom's Club hosts a potluck cooking club with various themes. I knew as soon as I heard that this month's theme was International Foods that I wanted to make something Moroccan. Have I ever had Moroccan food? No. In fact I had no idea if Moroccan food was even good, the name just popped into my head and I couldn't think of anything else. I googled Moroccan food (how would we survive without Google?!?) and found this dish that sounded oh so yummy and relatively kid friendly. I don't know why, but I have a thing for dishes that mix the savory and the sweet, and boy does this fit the bill. I realllly enjoyed this, and the other mommies seemed to also. Michaela didn't eat any because there was chocolate mousse and whipped cream in the room, which completely clouded her desire to eat anything else. I have a feeling that she would enjoy this, so I'll have to try feeding her the leftovers for lunch.

Ingredients

1 onion, diced finely
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon + 1 pinch turmeric
2 lbs chicken breast
2 cups chicken stock
3 eggs
1 cup dates, pitted and chopped coarsley
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
1/4 cup parsley, minced
3/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
Salt and pepper to taste
6 sheets phyllo dough
olive oil
powdered sugar and cinnamon

Directions
Saute onions in a bit of olive oil for 5 minutes or until translucent. Add garlic and spices and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add chicken and chicken stock. Cook for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken and shred. Return to the pan along with the eggs, dates, raisins, cilantro, parsley, salt and pepper. Incorporate all the ingredients together.

Prepare your phyllo dough on a flat work surface. Lay out one sheet and brush with olive oil until the whole sheet is moistened. Lay another sheet tilted 45 degrees on top of the first and brush with olive oil. Repeat with 4 more sheets (6 total) tilting each 45 degrees from the previous one. Lay the phyllo dough in a 9 inch springform pan and fill with the chicken mixture. Fold the overhanging dough over the top to seal the pie. Brush olive oil on the top. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30-45 minutes or until brown. When cooled, top with powdered sugar and cinnamon and serve.

Notes
*To toast the almonds, spread them in a single layer on a baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden. You can use untoasted almonds, but toasting them releases their flavor.
*If you don't have a springform pan, a regular pie pan would be fine, you would just have to scoop out the servings.
*If you are using a larger pan (I used a 10 inch), your phyllo dough won't close over the top. Simply prepare another 6 pieces of dough as above and cover the top, tucking in the extra around the sides of the bottom crust.
*The original recipe calls for saffron, but this is not an ingredient readily available in my area. If you are using saffron, use a pinch in place of the extra pinch of tumeric.
*Tumeric stains! I didn't wipe up the juice from the chicken that fell on my counter until several hours later, and by then it had already left quite a stain. I managed to remove most of it with the magic eraser, but please be careful with this.

Cheese & Herb Stuffed Chicken

Oh. My. Goodness. Make this, eat it and love it! I'm not sure how healthy this is, but wow does it taste good! I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone to make it, but honestly it was not as hard to make as it sounded. My measurements for the ingredients might not be right, I just kind of added things without measuring until it looked good.

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts

4 oz goat cheese

3 tablespoons parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon chives

1 small handful italian parsley

1 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons margarine

Kitchen string

Directions

Mix cheeses, chives, and parsley together. Butterfly the pieces of chicken and pound thin with a meat mallet or the bottom of a skillet. Spread a third of the cheese mixture lenthwise across the chicken breast and roll up like a burrito. Tie up with kitchen string and put in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Put the chicken in a casserole dish, presentation side up and pat all over with margarine. Bake in 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or until internal temperature of chicken reaches 165. Put drippings from casserole dish in a saucepan with the chicken broth and reduce until it has the consistency of a sauce. Pour a little bit over each piece of chicken and serve.

Notes

• Use real parmesan cheese, not that nasty fake stuff from the green bottle.
• Chives are the top of a green onion. I'm just telling you this because the original recipe called for scallions and I didn't know what they were so I bought green onions. So I'm using the word chive just so that you know that I'm smart. I know things. Yeah...
• The original recipe calls for regular parsley but I bought Italian because it sounded fancier.
• I didn't have any kitchen string so I used some regular string that I had in my craft closet. I normally wouldn't use this because most craft string is waxed and might melt all over the chicken, but this string didn't look waxed so I figured it was ok. I also read that unwaxed floss would work too.
• I didn't have a meat mallet so I used a rolling pin. It was really refreshing to get all my frustrations out!