Few recipes begin with the slaughter of a Roman army but Parthian chicken evokes one of the most calamitous moments in Roman history. Crassus, the richest man in Rome during the 50s B.C., was also one of the ruling triumvirate including Caesar and Pompey, who was later to lose his head, literally, when he escaped to Egypt falsely hoping to be taken in by King Ptolemy. Crassus, who was rich, but without victories on the battlefield, headed east to attack the Parthians but was lured into a vast desert by guides who were secretly in league with the enemy. The resulting Battle of Carrhae was one of the largest massacres of all time; 20,000 killed and 10,000 captured. The Roman army was surrounded by horse archers and heavy cavalry (a specialty of the Parthians) and slowly massacred in the dust and heat as the day progressed. Crassus’s head was later used as a prop in a play, Euripides’ Bacchae, put on for the enemy king.

Although most of us have roasted a chicken a hundred ways, Parthian chicken evokes the very best part of the past, with a host of strong flavors including garum (the original fish sauce), asafoetida (a plant resin with a strong garlic/onion flavor used in Indian cooking), caraway, black pepper, honey, vinegar, lovage, and red wine. The recipe appears in Apicius’s cookbook from the Roman era and, when we followed the directions as best we could, it turned out to be a winner right off the bat.

The first issue was the ingredient list. We kept the caraway seeds, the garum (we call for the Italian version of fish sauce, colatura di alici, or you can use the Asian version), white wine instead of red, a bit of sugar instead of honey, and we fell in love with the asafoetida which has an intense and sulfurous aroma that mellows and sweetens during cooking. (Granulated garlic is a decent substitute in a pinch.) Celery seeds replace the lovage. For more flavor, we toasted the caraway, celery and asafoetida first and then ground them down in a mill or mortar and pestle. This mix is then added to the remaining ingredients and the chicken is coated all over and then roasted at 425°F for an hour.

It’s that simple. Although the Parthians humiliated the Romans on the battlefield, it would appear that the latter were not too proud to steal a recipe or two from the victors. As they say, to the victors go the spoils but, in this case, at least in the long run, maybe the Romans ended up winners.

Chris Kimball

Christopher Kimball is founder of Milk Street, which produces Milk Street Magazine, Milk Street Television on PBS, and the weekly public radio show Milk Street Radio. He founded Cook’s Magazine in 1980 and was host and executive producer of America’s Test Kitchen until 2016. Kimball is the author of several books, including "The Yellow Farmhouse" and "Fannie’s Last Supper."