Balls and Walnuts
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Ultimate leftover roast chicken
I made saltwater chicken tonight, which means that since we’re small eaters, we now have half a leftover roast chicken in the refrigerator. What do you do with leftover roast chicken?
I love chicken pot pie, but no one else in my family feels the same way. They don’t even rave when I elevate the dish to ludicrous extremes — dry roasting the vegetables, making a sauce from homemade chicken stock, and so forth. Oh, well. I shouldn’t be eating all those empty carbs anyway.
Sandwiches? Leftover saltwater chicken makes awesome sandwiches, but sandwiches lack creativity. Unless I make panini. There’s a thought.
But I know what will score me the most points with the wife: b’stila. (The hardest thing about b’stila is remembering how to spell the damnable thing.) B’stila is a Middle Eastern chicken pie with layers of crispy, buttery filo, chicken seasoned with saffron, parsley, and cinnamon (and sometimes ginger), roasted blanched almonds coarsely ground and combined with sugar and cinnamon, and scrambled eggs. Bake until golden brown, top with powdered sugar and cinnamon.
I can’t think of any better treatment of leftover roast chicken than b’stila, but I’m open to suggestions.
D.
Note: A moment ago, I did a Google image search for bstila and b’stila. No one has uploaded any pictures of this beautiful dish. Now I have to make b’stila, take pictures, and blog about it.
Second Note: Ooooh, now I know what Brad is gonna fix for Lori (in my work-in-progress, for those of you who are wondering WTF I’m talking about). Nothing says love like b’stila. Except perhaps challah. Or perhaps a crown roast of lamb.
I had b’stila in Morrocco – and I know I spelled that wrong, lol. Morraco? Marroco? Marroccoo? Argh!
It was made with pigeon and was Delicious. Your recipe sounds pretty good too!
Last time I had some spare pigeon (there must have been a reason that I’d been to Trafalgar Square, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was – obviously a party of some sort) I ended up cooking bistela from a receipt book called Gourmet Game. I wouldn’t have said it involved scrambled eggs, though – it was more like a baked custard (note to British readers – making it from Bird’s Custard Powder is not an adequate substitute).
Yummy dish, in a weird sort of way.
Blog about it already. It sounds great.
I’d’ve just made hash.
Holy crap. Filo, cinamon, and scrambled eggs? How can you go wrong?
That sounds wicked awesome. Or whatever the kidz say these days. I’m going to hunt down a recipe for this baby and make it.
Sam — yup, pigeon is the “classic” b’stila, if there is such a thing, but who can find pigeon in the States? Except for the trap-it-yourself version. Bet I could find pigeon in the Chinese markets of LA.
Stephen — custard is intriguing. But how do you bake long enough to cook the custard, but not so long as to overcook the meat and torch the filo? Perhaps if I made the custard first, then assembled the b’stila …
Darla, I will. With pictures.
Dean, if you go online, be careful about the recipes using ginger. I would go light on the ginger if I were you. You don’t want it to overwhelm the cinnamon.
My usual is chicken à la King: chop the chicken up, add a can of cream of mushroom soup, diced onion, maybe celery, and bake in a casserole dish about 20-30 minutes at about 350. Serve on toast, or perhaps on rice.
I’m not what you’d call a gourmet chef.
Your b’stila recipe sounds tasty, though.
You might have gotten more hits with “pastilla” or “Bisteeya.”
Bisteeya pictures here with recipe
Yes, you can now call me “I haunt foodblogs.” LOL.
That looks like a great recipe, May, and I’m tempted by that Moroccan cookbook (I need one).
Pat, anything that calls for a can of cream of mushroom soup is JUST WRONG. Sorry, but I’m a food snob.
can i come to your house for dinner? that dish would not be allowed in my house, as “buttery”+”chicken”= NOT KOSHER by my dad’s standards… my stand is that chickens do not produce milk, therefore it is ok to eat them with milk. i LOVE chicken quesadillas… not sure about the eggs though…
What?! No cream of mushroom? We live on that crap around here. I guess ‘cream of other stuff’ is out too, huh?
I usually make chicken and dumplings out of leftover chicken. You’ll never guess how I make the dumplings, though.
Are you ready?
Canned refrigerator biscuits cut into fourths. Yup, it’s true. Have I managed to gross you out completely?
Real dumplings are better, I just don’t have the energy these days.
Shaina, you’re reminding me of my favorite hate mail. In response to my Jewish chicken soup with matzoh balls recipe*, wherein I add butter to the matzoh balls, a woman told me I should be ashamed of myself and I was a disgrace to my parents, all because of the butter. Hah! It tastes good. And so does shrimp, and crab, and lobster . . .
Shelbi, I eat pork rinds. Nothing grosses me out. I draw a line, however, between what I feed myself and what I serve to my family. If I want to make cream o’ anything, I’ll cream it myself.
*Get a load of the cool matzoh wallpaper on that page.
Is it better if I call it “crème de je-ne-sais-quoi”?
Wow%21%21%21+Good+job.+C