Morocco's extraordinary celebration pie — layers of crispy warqa pastry filled with spiced pigeon or chicken, eggs and sweet almonds, dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon. A masterpiece of medieval Arab-Andalusian cooking.
Bastilla (also spelled b'stilla or pastilla) is one of the greatest dishes in all of Moroccan cooking and one of the most surprising: a savoury-sweet pie where spiced chicken (originally pigeon) is layered with a delicate egg custard and a crunchy almond-cinnamon layer inside wafer-thin warqa (or filo) pastry, then dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon after baking. The contrast of crispy pastry, savoury chicken, sweet almonds and the floral warmth of ras el hanout creates a flavour profile unlike anything in European cuisine. Bastilla is served at weddings, at eid celebrations, and to honoured guests — it is never an everyday dish. Properly made, it requires hours of patient work.
Serves 6
Place chicken in a wide pot with grated onion, herb bundle, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, ras el hanout, butter and water. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer 45 min until chicken is very tender and broth reduced. Remove herbs.
Remove chicken, shred meat finely, discard skin and bones. Set aside.
Return the cooking juices to medium heat. Pour in beaten eggs and stir constantly for 5–7 min — cooking the eggs slowly in the reduced broth creates a creamy, almost custard-like scramble. It should be moist, not dry. Season and cool.
Don't rush the eggs — slow cooking in the aromatic broth is what gives the bastilla its signature flavour.
Mix ground toasted almonds with icing sugar, cinnamon and orange blossom water. It should be like a coarse paste.
Preheat oven to 190°C. Butter a 26cm round baking dish. Lay 4 overlapping sheets of filo in the base, brushed with butter, hanging over the edges. Add chicken layer, then egg layer, then almond layer. Fold filo sheets back over the filling. Add remaining filo sheets, brushed with butter, tucked underneath. Brush top generously with butter.
Bake 25–30 min until deep golden and crispy. Dust generously with icing sugar and draw a cinnamon cross-hatch pattern over the top — the traditional decoration.
The egg layer should be moist and creamy, not dry — this is the most common mistake.
Work quickly with filo pastry and keep unused sheets covered with a damp cloth to prevent drying.
Seafood bastilla: shrimp, squid and vermicelli filling — popular in coastal Moroccan cities
Individual mini-bastilla: make 12 small parcels folded like triangles for a more elegant presentation
Use warka (Moroccan pastry) if available — it gives a more delicate, crispier result than filo
Best served the day it is made. Leftovers reheat in the oven at 180°C for 15 min to restore crispiness. Do not microwave — the filo turns soggy.
Bastilla descended from medieval Arab-Andalusian court cuisine — the dish travelled to Morocco when the Moors were expelled from Spain in 1492. The combination of savoury meat, sweet spices and pastry (called al-bastella in old Arabic documents) was the height of sophistication in 15th-century Fez royal kitchens. The pigeon original reflected the royal hunt; chicken became the everyday version.
Absolutely — and it works. The sweet-savoury contrast is the defining characteristic of bastilla. The icing sugar and cinnamon dusting is never optional. If you are tempted to skip it, you are making a different, lesser dish.
Per serving · 6 servings total
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