Parthian Chicken, Ancient Rome

[dragnlaw]

As soon as I recover from the last couple of weeks I'll have to get started on that chicken.

 

[KatyCooks]

I had intended to order chicken legs with this week's Lufa Farms order. Well, they were sold out of the kind I wanted, but a whole chicken from that same company was on special. 1800 grams for CAD11.50. I don't know if that would be a good deal on chicken from the grocery store, but it's pretty darned good for this stuff. I received that basket this evening. My chicken weighs 2191g. So, once again a decent amount bigger than what I ordered.

All that to say that I will hopefully be making this Parthian chicken soon. I expect to pick up some asafoetida tomorrow. I think I will spatchcock the chicken and then cut it in half. Since this is a fresh chicken, I can freeze the other half or figure out another recipe to use it or break it down and freeze some parts and use others. I hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow.

I am very much looking forward to seeing how you get on with it Taxy, and some pictures of course!

 

[taxlady]

I picked up a small jar of asafoetida today. It's an interesting Indian store. I will have to go back soon. There were a number of brands. I asked the lady at the cash, because she was showing me where it was, which brand she likes and got that one.

 

[dragnlaw]

Does your recipe call for fresh or dried?
I ask because I can get either. It is called methi when fresh.

 

[taxlady]

Does your recipe call for fresh or dried?
I ask because I can get either. It is called methi when fresh.

I'm using the recipe from Max Miller of Tasting History. It doesn't call for any methi or for fenugreek seeds. It does call for caraway seeds.

 

[taxlady]

I spatchcocked the chicken yesterday. I only used half of the bird to make the Parthian chicken today. I read in the translation of the original recipe to pound the lovage, black pepper, and caraway seeds, and moisten with the liquamen, so I decided to use whole pepper corns and caraway seeds and grind them in the mortar and pestle. Another time, I will make sure that I have at least cracked all the seeds before adding the celery leaves.

I used a probe thermometer to give me a heads up before it got temperature. I forgot to take this picture until the chicken had been in the toaster oven for about 2 minutes.



I used a thin, aluminium roasting pan. That was a mistake. The pan got too hot and burnt most of the sauce onto the parchment paper. It looked pretty bad. But the chicken didn't get burnt.



I verified the temperature with an instant read thermometer. It took 40 minutes. This is what it looked like once I rested the chicken for 10 minutes and cut it into serving pieces.



It was tasty. I didn't actually notice an unusual flavour from the asafoetida. It also was not particularly pungent in the little jar. I'm wondering if I should get a different kind. The jar is tiny and to read the ingredients, I had to use my camera. It's "compounded asafoetida". The first ingredient is wheat.

 

[dragnlaw]

It looks fantastic taxy! Well done!

 

[Kathleen]

That looks really tasty! Nice job plus leftovers!

 

[dragnlaw]

Grinding my teeth. Trying to put together what will be my version and have been iinterupted so many times - have finally resorted to printing all 4 recipes, each having only 1 different ingredient. If the ingredients are the same then one recipe is for a whole chicken, spatchcocked or just thighs, etc.

I've at least taken some chicken out of the freezer. That's a start!

 

[KatyCooks]

I spatchcocked the chicken yesterday. I only used half of the bird to make the Parthian chicken today. I read in the translation of the original recipe to pound the lovage, black pepper, and caraway seeds, and moisten with the liquamen, so I decided to use whole pepper corns and caraway seeds and grind them in the mortar and pestle. Another time, I will make sure that I have at least cracked all the seeds before adding the celery leaves.

I used a probe thermometer to give me a heads up before it got temperature. I forgot to take this picture until the chicken had been in the toaster oven for about 2 minutes.

View attachment 77407

I used a thin, aluminium roasting pan. That was a mistake. The pan got too hot and burnt most of the sauce onto the parchment paper. It looked pretty bad. But the chicken didn't get burnt.

View attachment 77406

I verified the temperature with an instant read thermometer. It took 40 minutes. This is what it looked like once I rested the chicken for 10 minutes and cut it into serving pieces.

View attachment 77408

It was tasty. I didn't actually notice an unusual flavour from the asafoetida. It also was not particularly pungent in the little jar. I'm wondering if I should get a different kind. The jar is tiny and to read the ingredients, I had to use my camera. It's "compounded asafoetida". The first ingredient is wheat.

I think we used the same recipe so, unsurprisingly we had virtually identical results! (I didnt find the asafoetida overly strong either.)

 

[KatyCooks]

So I finally remembered to look at the ingredients in my little jar of Asafoetida. It contains, in this order:

Acacia Gum
Rice Flour
Asafoetida
Turmeric

Probably no wonder it wasn't overly pungent - there doesn't seem to be all that much actual Asafoetida in it!

 

[taxlady]

So I finally remembered to look at the ingredients in my little jar of Asafoetida. It contains, in this order:

Acacia Gum
Rice Flour
Asafoetida
Turmeric

Probably no wonder it wasn't overly pungent - there doesn't seem to be all that much actual Asafoetida in it!

Yeah, mine has more ingredients than I expected too. I just went downstairs to get a cup of coffee and had intended to read the ingredients on my asafoetida container too, but I forgot. I'll try to remember to check on the next trip downstairs.

 

[KatyCooks]

Yeah, mine has more ingredients than I expected too. I just went downstairs to get a cup of coffee and had intended to read the ingredients on my asafoetida container too, but I forgot. I'll try to remember to check on the next trip downstairs.

Does make me wonder what the chicken would have tasted like if it had been fresh (or concentrated) Asafoetida when we made it.

 

[taxlady]

Does make me wonder what the chicken would have tasted like if it had been fresh (or concentrated) Asafoetida when we made it.

Me too. The ingredients in the one I got are:
Wheat flour, edible gum, asafoetida. Then it says "Wheat flour 55% approx."

So, that's less than 25% asafoetida. I think I'll try using four times as much the next time I make Parthian chicken and see how that goes.

The brand name is "Strong Brand Hing" It's a powder.

I'm pretty sure that the asafoetida that my ex bought was small chunks of resin. It was over 40 years ago, so the details are a bit fuzzy, especially since I never cooked with it.

 

[dragnlaw]

I have not been able to find Asafoetida anywhere other than Amazon and at the price of one arm and half a leg, for a little bottle I will probably never use again, thinking I just might pass on this one.
My researched recipes are almost equally divided in content.

 

[taxlady]

I have not been able to find Asafoetida anywhere other than Amazon and at the price of one arm and half a leg, for a little bottle I will probably never use again, thinking I just might pass on this one.
My researched recipes are almost equally divided in content.

Researched Parthian chicken recipes? Which content, asafoetida?