Family favorites include this chicken salad with grapes, which is also a fantastic sandwich stuffing. For outdoor retreats, a speedy, simple, and cooling treat!
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 5 mins |
| Additional Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 5 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 9-inch pie |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 pounds ground lamb
- 4 cloves garlic, minced (Optional)
- 2 tablespoons currants
- 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- 1 ½ cups tomato sauce
- ¼ cup water
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons full-fat plain Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 12 sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed, or as needed
- 2 teaspoons sesame seeds (Optional)
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons very finely sliced mint leaves
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice, or to taste
- 1 clove garlic, crushed (Optional)
- 1 teaspoon water, or as needed
- salt to taste
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, salt, and lamb. Break up lamb into small crumbles. Cook, occasionally stirring, until most of the liquid evaporates, about 8 minutes. Toss in garlic, currants, pine nuts, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, paprika, black pepper, cayenne, and allspice. Cook and stir for 1 minute.
- Pour tomato sauce into lamb mixture. Add water, stir, and reduce heat to medium. Cook until lamb mixture dries up and you can stir it without seeing liquid on the bottom of the pan, 20 to 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool completely before using.
- In the meantime, combine egg, yogurt, water, and butter in a bowl. Whisk together thoroughly.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Butter a round baking pan or sheet pan.
- Place 2 sheets of phyllo on your work surface. Keep remaining sheets covered with a damp towel. Sprinkle some egg wash lightly on top and spread using a pastry brush. Layer on 2 more sheets, one at a time, brushing some more egg wash over each.
- Line 1/3 of the lamb filling along one wide edge of the phyllo. Roll pastry up starting from filling side and place it against the edge of the pan. Brush more egg wash on top.
- Shape and fill 2 more rolls with remaining phyllo, most of the egg wash, and filling. Wrap rolls along and inside the first one, filling the pan, and brush with egg wash. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
- Bake in the preheated oven until browned and crisp, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes.
- Combine yogurt, mint, lemon juice, and garlic for the yogurt sauce. Mix in enough water to achieve the desired consistency for dipping. Season with salt and cayenne. Cut börek into wedges and serve with yogurt sauce.
- Save any extra phyllo, since the filling recipe above makes extra, and you can fold up some smaller, triangular böreks if you want.
- Substitute chopped raisins for the currants if desired.
- If you’re not into lamb, this works perfectly with beef. Or try a spinach-cream cheese filling for a vegetarian version.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 449 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 24 g |
| Cholesterol | 111 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 25 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 1086 mg |
| Sugars | 5 g |
| Fat | 28 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
My husband bought phyllo dough by mistake so I needed a savory recipe to use with it. This sounded delicious and looked very pretty so I tried it. I used organic ground chicken, lots of garlic and cayenne in addition to the other spices. The phyllo dough was tricky but I did it. However, my dish was too large so it wasn’t full and I should have buttered the bottom or used parchment paper. It really stuck to the bottom. It was very tasty! I’d make it again. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
This is a wonderful recipe. I made very few changes. As a nod to my vegetarian daughter, I made it with ground turkey and it was perfect. I also added a handful of fresh spinach and a tiny bit of feta. It is a showy, flavorful, delicious dish!
A bit putzy, but looked nice and tasted wonderful. I’ve made it twice so far.
This sounded great, and though ok, it was not like my mother-in-laws Borek. The spicy lamb filling was good, but not what we were expecting in this dish.
It was good and added something to the list of things I could cook but it wasn’t something I see myself cooking often. My kids liked it and the yogurt sauce was good, I’ve been trying to make new and unique foods lately to get out of making the norm. My fiancé said “this is weird, but it tastes good.” I will say, not enough sauce is made as my fiancé is a sauce crazy person so I had to double up on the sauce.
This is a great dish. Flavorful and easy to make. It’s the easiest use of filo dough ever! I think using the egg wash on it was what makes it easy to work with.
Very good !!! Amazing flavor !!! I will make just the meat mixture for sandwiches or to be served over rice. It tasted good wrapped up in the phyllo pastry, but I won’t make it like that everytime. This is a keeper for sure !!! Thanks Chef John !
This was spectacular! Not fond of lamb, so I used ground beef. The spices were spot on. Used a pastry cutter to “crumble” the meat, and that made quick work of it. This is an excellent company dish — very dramatic looking and you can make the filling in advance. Another A+, Chef John.
Really great and tasty dish! Couldn’t get enough of it
I made this recipe as it is written. I liked the borek and will make it again but I thought it was a little bland. The yogurt topping is essential and makes all the difference. After all was said and done, I made 4x as much as was suggested. Just the same, I will look at other recipes and may add spices based on other recipes. It really is not as hard as it looks and is fun to make. It looks beautiful when cooked and makes good leftovers.