Roman Recipes
Pullum Parthicum
(Parthian Chicken)

By Apicius VI, VIII, 237

Whilst updating recipes, I found the modern interpretation of this recipe on a really great YouTube channel called "Tasting History with Max Miller" and really, why re-invent the wheel? I already had the Latin and tranlation, but the modern interpretation was way helpful. Please, check out this really great webchannel! He has a LOT of Roman recipes also.

This Roman chicken recipe, featured in De Re Coquinaria, is an enticing blend of tender chicken, aromatic lovage (or celeray leaves), red wine, and a medley of spices that transports us to the opulent feasts of Roman society. Parthian Chicken gets its name from the Parthian Empire, a reference to the foreign, exotic spices used in the dish, evoking the flavors of the distant East. Roman cuisine often borrowed from the cultures it encountered, incorporating spices and techniques that represented the wealth and reach of the empire.

What is Pullum Particum? Sally Grainger, a highly knowledgeable food historian, suggests that the name originated with the use of asafetida in the dish. Asafoetida is native to the mountains of Afghanistan and would have come to the Romans via trade with their Parthian neighbours. Or perhaps, the dish was Parthian in origin but adapted by the Romans to their taste (by adding caraway).

Note: There is an opinion that the Pullus Parthicum is a kind of chicken that came originally from Asia, Parthia being a country of Asia, the present Persia and northern India, a chicken of small size with feathers on its feet, i.e., a bantam.

The ancient Romans cooked very much like Italian cooks do today or to be more precise, like Sicilian cooks. If you can imagine a contemporary Italian meal without tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, corn polenta or pasta. Sound bleak? It wasn't. The ancients had a myriad of other ingedients to use — and they did!

One other thing, the Romans would not have served the chicken whole, like we do today, more like it would be chopped or broken into pieces. The Romans didn't use/have forks...

Original recipe: Pullum aperies a naui et in quadrato ornas. Teres piper, ligusticum, carei modicum, suffunde liquamen, uino temperas. Componis in cumana pullum et condituram super pullum facies. Laser uiuum in tepida dissoluis, et in pullum mittis simul, et coques. Piper aspersum inferes.

Translation: Dress the chicken carefully² and quarter it. Crush pepper, lovage and a little carraway³ moistened with broth, and add wine to taste. After frying place the chicken in an earthen dish,⁴ pour the seasoning over it, add laser and wine⁵. Let it assimilate with the seasoning and braise the chicken to a point. When done sprinkle with pepper and serve.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken (3-4lbs / 1.5kg)
• 1½ Teaspoons Black Pepper plus extra for garnish
• 1 Tablespoons Chopped Lovage (or celery leaf)
• 1½ Teaspoons Caraway Seeds
• 3 Tablespoons Garum/Liquamen (Colatura di Alici or Asian Fish Sauce can be used for this)
• 1 Cup (250ml) Wine (Red or White)
• ¾ Teaspoons Asafoetida Powder
• ¼ Cup Lukewarm water

Parthian Chicken
(The finished product)

Preparation

• Spatchcock (<<< Hover over) your chicken and place in an oven safe dish. (It can be left in the refrigerator overnight to dry out which will result in a crispier skin)
• Preheat your oven to 450°F/230°C.
• Mix the lovage, ground black pepper, caraway seeds, garum, and wine in a bowl and pour it over the chicken. Dissolve the asafoetida in lukewarm water in a separate bowl and pour over the chicken.
• Bake the chicken for 40-45 minutes or until an instant read thermometer measures 165°F/74°C. To prevent drying, you can baste the chicken several times during cooking, though this is not required.
• When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Then serve with the sauce is was cooked in and ground pepper.

• 2 Pluck, singe, empty, wash, trim. The texts: a navi. Hum. hoc est, à parte posteriore ventris, qui ut navis cavus & figurae ejus non dissimile est. Dan. takes this literally, but navo (navus) here simply means "to perform diligently."
• 3 Tor. casei modicum; List. carei — more likely than cheese.
• 4 Cumana — an earthenware casserole excellent for that purpose.
• 5 G.-V. laser [et] vivum.