GREEK COMFORT FOOD

This fantastic Greek dish is one of the ultimate comfort foods.  I crave this every few months.  I so appreciate that my mom made this every once in a while during my childhood. This dish is perfect for cold weather. It is also ideal anytime you want a hearty and filling meal. This meal is easy to make.

Chicken with Hilopites.  What are hilopites?  Usually homemade, this little square egg noodle (“Heelo-pee-tess”) may be hard to find in the US other than in cities with large Greek populations (NYC, Chicago..).  I remembered hearing my mom explain that she can’t find hilopites in Seattle and missed them dearly.  

Now days, I can find them online with ease. They can also be found at my local Greek gyro shop where they carry some grocery items.

They are little square egg noodles.   This can be made with other pasta like orzo, but these little things have the best texture for this recipe.

Here’s the recipe:

KOTOPOULO ME HILOPITES

• 1 chicken cut up
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
• 1 tomato cut up
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 1 package hilopites
• 1 onion chopped
• 2-3 cups boiling water
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• grated mizithra cheese
• Salt
• Pepper

Preheat oven at 275 degrees. Seems low, but much higher and the pasta sticks really bad to the pot. I learned that.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven on medium to medium high heat. Brown chicken a few pieces at a time. Don’t overcrowd, you end up steaming the pieces.

Remove chicken and place aside. Sauté the onion until translucent ten add garlic in the pan for 30 seconds or so.  Add the tomato paste and let cook for a minute or two. Then add the tomato sauce, tomato, cinnamon, and 1 cup of boiling water. Return the chicken to the pot. Let all slowly simmer for about 20 minutes.

Chicken should be a bit over half done and tomatoes broken down some.

Remove the chickens from their pot and set on a platter. Stir in  the hilopites and another 1 to 1 ½ cups BOILING water. Make sure it is boiling water as you are putting it in a 275 oven. The pasta would never absorb the water and cook if you dump in a bunch of cold water. Use just enough liquid to be soaked up by the pasta. It’s an eyeball thing.

Return the chicken pieces and put this in the oven to cook for about 20 to 30 minutes. By then it kind of looks like this:

Plate it up! Here it is before the cheese on top

You got to do the cheese though. The Mizithra gives it that oomph of saltiness it needs.

I wish I had taken a better photo. I almost forgot to as I was hangry.

OPA!