Rotisserie Chicken, Medieval Style

In addition to roasting meat in the tannour or grilling it on an open fire in the kebab way, the medieval Baghdadi cooks grilled whole chickens on revolving spits, suspended over an open fire, picnic style. Birds cooked thus were called kardhabaj or kardanaj. It was a popular way of serving chicken. In his tenth-century cookbook, al-Warraq dedicates a chapter to the preparation of such dishes.

One of the recipes requires that after the rotating chicken is almost done, its skin is pierced and injected with murri (bread-based fermented sauce), and basted with olive oil and crushed salt. In another recipe, pullets are rotated over burning coals until they start to drip their juices, after which they are brushed with pancake-like batter while rotating, using a bundle of feathers, until they are thoroughly coated. When the dried-up batter cracks, the pullets are brushed with murri, olive oil, and black pepper, and rotated until fully cooked. The recipe assures us that the pullets will come out ‘scrumptiously tender and juicy, God willing.’ Birds grilled this way were always served with specially prepared sauces, called sibagh (literally ‘dipping sauces’), which were believed to aid digestion. A typical sauce would be made by mixing ground pistachios with sugar, vinegar, liquid extracted from cucumber pulp, salt, oil, and chopped mint. The sauce was then poured on the grilled chicken, which was left to absorb it. Before serving, chopped cucumber pulp, chopped mint, and oil were sprinkled all over the dish. Another sibagh, specially recommended for a hot summer day, was made by mixing sour juice of unripe grapes, thyme, basil (badharooj), parsley, and a bit of dried asafetida leaves (anjudhan). The grilled birds were put in this sauce, and then crushed ice was scattered all over the dish (al-Warraq).