Samsa with Tovuq? Uzbek Chicken Pot Pie

Why not chicken? Chicken is harder to find in Uzbekistan but everywhere in the USA. This Uzbek loves chicken. He has now Uzbekanized the American chicken pot pie. This is basically a chicken pot pie made with phyllo dough. You can also use samsa dough for the recipe.

First you need to chop up 2 carrots, half an onion, 2 celery stalks (optional) , and 2 potatoes.

 Then you take 3 cups of chicken stock

Put the chicken stock in a pot and add the vegetables. While the vegetables are cooking (about 15 minutes) butter the phyllo sheets. It is easiest to do in the "book" method. Fold the sheets like a book and butter each "page".

 Put half of the buttered sheets in a pie pan. The vegetables should be soft now.

 Add cream of chicken soup and some cooked chicken. Leftover chicken is best but you can also use canned chicken. Cook for a few minutes on low medium heat. Mix a tablespoon of flour with a tablespoon of butter and put it in soup as a thickener. Add any spices you want. I put in sage but you could also make it like a curry. You could add cumin and coriander and instead of cream of chicken soup use 1 cup of milk or other cream mixed with a tablespoon of flour. I will try it with a more traditional Uzbek cream and post it.

Pour the soup into the pie made from phyllo dough. Now take the other half of the phyllo dough sheets and put them on top.

Bake 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

It tastes just like a chicken samsa. Next time I will show you quick and easy ways to make samsa as well as the traditional way my mother makes it. Anyone can enjoy these Central Asian recipes no matter how busy you are.

We will be showcasing some Central Asian Chicken recipes or "tovuq" in the future.