Alright, as promised, I’m sharing the judhaba I made tonight! A downright DELICIOUS chicken dish from ninth-century Iraq, this was a lot of fun to recreate. Recipes and pictures in the thread! 
If you’re new to following me, I like to recreate historical recipes. I have a great fondness for the medieval Islamic world and the Abbasid era in particular. This works out great because the ruling elites at the time were big-time gourmands and collected recipes.
The culinary arts were regarded as just that…art, and these recipes are a great record of the cultural influences at the time; in particular, the way Persian and Arab traditions came together. Nobles even held cooking competitions, a continuation from a Sassanian tradition.
From a Persian inscription on a 14th century bowl: "As long as the soup is good, do not worry if the bowl is pretty!" metmuseum.org/art/collection…
If you’re interested in learning more, by the way, here’s a great article: archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/200604/c…
The dish I’m making today comes from a recipe attributed to the caliph al Wathiq, who ruled from 842-847. Really the only thing anyone ever says about al Wathiq is that his reign was unremarkable and basically the definition of meh. (His dinar below)
Which seems unfair! By all means, al Wathiq—who was only thirty when he became caliph—was rather good-looking and had an easy, uncontested rule. Do you know how uncommon that is for the Abbasids? His successor was murdered at the order of his own son!
Also, he defeated a rebellion after certain parties got drunk, banged their drums a day too early and then al Wathiq executed their leader himself with an enormous ancient sword called al Samsama which was said to belong to a legendary warrior. HOW IS THAT UNREMARKABLE?
Oh, and he died after he sat inside an oven and over-heated. It was meant to cure his dropsy and most definitely did not. Which damn…seems a cold way to go for an apparent foodie.
Anyway! The dish I’m making today, judhaba, was very popular and VERY fancy. Essentially roasted meat over a sweet bread-pudding, the rich went nuts for this stuff.
By the way, these recipes are the domain of the rich; you can practically hear the haughty sniffing when they dismiss the "common" way of cooking lentils.
Judhaba was so beloved that a tenth century poet named Kushajam wrote an ode to it, which is one of the most extra things I’ve ever read.
Now, judhaba is meant to be cooked in a clay oven, with a chicken (preferably one fattened on hempseed and chased until exhausted) suspended over it. Oddly enough, my tiny NYC apartment does not have this, but never fear, I found a work around!
And before I start on the recipes, just a note, I am one of those cooks who doesn’t really like to follow recipes and prefers to taste and adjust as I go. I wrote notes, but feel free to do the same. I pulled this dish together from four different translations/iterations.
First, the bread. Inspired by our dear Kushajam, I opted to go with a semolina flatbread and essentially just altered my usual pita recipe. You can use store-bought flatbread, but beware anything too thick or chewy, like naan as it needs to absorb the sauce.
(By the way, the recipes are in with the pictures above and below)
Next, I made the fruit filling. The recipes call for a variety, but I stuck with apricots and dates.
Simmer 3-4 cups chopped, dried apricots and dates (pits removed) with enough water to cover and 1-2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses. I cooked for maybe 20-30 minutes until water had mostly absorbed, mashed everything together lightly and mixed in 1/4 cup of sugar.
On to the chicken!
Preheat oven to 425. Wash and dry a chicken (mine was about 4 ½ lbs). Mix up 2 tbs rosewater, 1 tbs olive oil, 1 tbs ghee, 1 tbs salt, pinch saffron, 1 tbs sumac and dash of honey. Bast the skin and cavity with this and roast uncovered for 30 minutes
In the meantime, tear up enough bread to cover your cooking dish (I used a big enamel cast iron) and toast lightly (this will help it absorb liquid). Oil dish then layer in bread. Sprinkle about a ½ cup chicken broth over it.
Layer in apricot-date mixture and then drown that sucker in rosewater. We’re talking at least ¾ cup (dissolve another generous pinch of saffron over it. Sprinkle about ¼ sugar over that and then add another thin layer of torn bread (untoasted).
And since someone always jumps into my mentions over saffron threads...I lightly crumble them between my fingers. I can't find my mortar and it really doesn't bother me that much.
When juices are starting to run out of chicken, well, things are about to get interesting! You need to suspend the chicken over the bread pudding so that the fat rains over it. I had intended to put mine on skewers and then couldn't find them. So I settled on using my stove grate
I suppose you could use a roasting rack, but I'm not sure because I've never actually seen one and had to google it to make sure it was a real thing. But my stove grate was free and just hanging out and worked perfectly so...
Anyway, suspend your chicken and pour accumulated juices over everything. Reduce temperature to 325 and tent chicken with foil if it's browning too quickly. Cook 30 minutes, then turn chicken over, again letting juices drip over bread. Cook another 20-30 minutes or until done.
Let the whole thing rest 10 minutes. Then carve chicken and serve, garnished with mint and toasted slivered almonds. I didn't see this garnish in any of the recipes, but it's an authentic combo, used elsewhere and I felt it kicked things up.
I served it with my go-to spinach recipe, which is fairly simply spiced and cooked with yogurt and garlic. And let me tell you, the chicken was DELICIOUS. Easily one of the best things I've ever tasted.
Granted, it was meant to be served to royalty in one of the most sophisticated courts in the world, so I hope it would be good, but even my four-year-old declared it, with fists raised high, "THE BEST DINNER EVER!"
And if you'd like to try more recipes, these are great books to check out:
SCENTS AND SENSATIONS by @LibraryArabLit
MEDIEVAL CUISINE OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD by Lilia Zaouali
A BAGHDAD COOKERY BOOK trans by Charles Perry
ANNALS OF THE CALIPHS KITCHENS by Nawal Nasrallah
SCENTS AND SENSATIONS by @LibraryArabLit
MEDIEVAL CUISINE OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD by Lilia Zaouali
A BAGHDAD COOKERY BOOK trans by Charles Perry
ANNALS OF THE CALIPHS KITCHENS by Nawal Nasrallah
