Albanian Phyllo Meat Pie (Byrek me Mish)

Albanian Byrek me Mish or Phyllo Meat Pie is a savory, flaky pie filled with delicious meat sauce and made with homemade phyllo layers from scratch.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Albanian, Balkan, Mediterranean

Keyword Byrek me mish, phyllo meat pie

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 30

Dough resting time 30

Total Time 2

Servings servings

Calories 729kcal

Author Sonila

Add flour to a glass mixing bowl. Create a crate in the middle, add salt and then water. Using your hands work the mix into a dough ball. Place the dough ball into the glass bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and set it aside.

Dice onion and blend tomatoes. Set skillet in medium heat on the stovetop. Add olive oil. Once oil shimmers, add onions in. Saute until translucent. Then add ground beef.
Use a wooden spoon to break the ground beef and stir as it browns. Once beef is browned, add seasonings (salt, pepper, paprika and bay leaves). Then add blended tomatoes. Mix well and lower heat to simmer. If meat sauce is too thick, then you can add some water or even beef broth to make the meat filling thinner. Let it cook for few minutes, then taste for seasonings and if no adjustments are needed turn heat off and let the sauce cool off.

There are several methods to stretch the phyllo layers. For this recipe, I'm using the method I grew up with and feel more comfortable with when making phyllo dishes. It requires a rolling pin and stretching each layer one by one.
Clean the work surface well and dry. Dust with cornstarch and start stretching the first dough ball into a thin layer. Continue working the layer until it can't stretch anymore and it is very thin.
Drizzle olive oil over baking dish. Add the first phyllo layer on the baking dish. Alternate between drizzling olive oil and adding layers of phyllo on top of each other. Halfway through working on the layers, add the meat filling over the phyllo layers. Continue layering the phyllo layers on top and don't forget drizzles of olive oil.
Once you are done with all the layers, tuck the corners in to close the edges so filling doesn't spill out.
Bake on a preheated oven (350 degrees F or about 180 degrees C) for about 30 minutes or so until byrek looks golden brown. Turn oven off, cover byrek to keep heat in for another 30 minutes or so. If you like byrek to be crunchy and crispy, you don't have to do anything else at this point. If you like byrek to be a little softer, then drizzle some water over byrek before covering it. Steam will help soften the crust.
Cut in your favorite shape and serve with yogurt or ayran (dhalle). Enjoy!

While I do prefer to use fresh tomatoes, it's understable that they're not always available. So use about 12-14 ozs of tomato sauce if you don't have any soft tomatoes.
You can add additional seasonings to taste to the meat filling.