Bill Granger's Moroccan Chicken Pies

This is another recipe by Bill Granger - one of my favourite foody personalities.  It's a delicious chicken pie with just a hint of Morocco thanks to the cinnamon, apricots and green olives.  Don't worry about the big flavours of cumin and coriander bashing you over the head - this is Morocco Light!  I served mine with baby marrow and mushroom couscous, mixed with chopped fresh parsley and goat's cheese, only because these had to be used up. 

Serves 4 - 6

For the pies, you will need:

50 g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon turmeric
750 g skinless chicken thighs, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed (I couldn't be bothered crushing them and only chopped them finely)
2 teaspoons grated ginger (I used ginger paste)
500 g butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks (a little bigger than a dice)
100 g dried apricots, roughly chopped (the packet I had was 125 g, so I just chucked the whole lot in!)
100 g pitted green olives
375 ml chicken stock
1 tablespoon preserved lemon rind, finely chopped (couldn't find the ingredient so left it out)
375 g ready-made puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten

Combine the flour, cinnamon and turmeric in a bowl or Ziploc bag and season with salt and pepper.  Toss the chicken to coat, shaking off any excess flour.  Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan (or pot - which I used as it has to be quite deep).  Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 - 6 minutes, until soft.  Add the chicken and cook for 2 -3 minutes, until the chicken is lightly browned.

Add the squash, apricots, olives, stock and preserved lemon (if using), bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the squash is soft and the chicken cooked.  Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.  Bill suggest using six 250 ml ramekins or ovenproof dishes, but I made the pie in one large dish.  Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until about 4 mm thick.  Spoon the chicken into a large casserole dish, or cut out six pastry circles and spoon the chicken into the six ramekins.  Brush the rim of the casserole or ramekins with the egg and cover with the pastry lid, pushing down lightly around the rim to seal.  Brush the top with more egg and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown.  My pie baked for about 25 minutes and it was done!