Long Pepper Chicken

Historical recipes truly amaze me, especially the old ones. And, when I say, "old" I mean really old. This historical, culinary interest of mine can itself be dated back to a dish called Etruscan Chicken. That was the first time that I made a concerted effort to learn about the history of an ancient people, along with their cuisine and that dish. Since then, whenever I see a possible recipe that could serve as a springboard into some historical research, I jump at the opportunity. Sometimes, that effort may only involve going back a few hundred years. Other times, like the one that serves as the focus of this post, go back millennia.  

The subject is a recipe for Long Pepper Chicken. The recipe's history can be traced back to around 200 to 300 BCE. Historians found the recipe in the Arthashastra, which an ancient Sanskrit treatise written around that time. They believe that the reci[pe was written by Kautilya, who was an assistant to the first emperor, Chandragupta, of the Maurya Empire. Yet, the Arthashastra was not a cookbook; instead, the venerable tract primarily addressed economic policy, military strategy and the management of state affairs. Kautilya's work helped the emperor establish an empire that ruled over much of the Indian subcontinent at a time when the Ptolemies ruled over Egypt and there were still two republics -- the Roman Republic and the Carthaginian Republic -- in the central Mediterranean. 

While the Arthashastra dealt primarily with political, economic and military issues, Kautilya nevertheless included discussions about food. After all, no empire can survive, let alone thrive, unless all of its citizens are fed. To that end, Kautilya gave us a glimpse into what an average person ate during the third century B.C.E. A meal basically consisted of a kilogram of rice or grain, a quarter-litre of soup, 1/16 liter of ghee or oil and salt. That was a meal for an average male. Women received 3/4 of those amounts and children received only 1/2 of that amount. 

The Arthashastra also included discussions of how to cook meat. Typically, for one kilogram (or two pounds of meat), cooks would use fifty grams of salt, 50 grams of sugar, 10 grams of spices, whopping 1.25 kilograms of yogurt, and a small amount of ghee or oil. Of course, when one talks about spices, it was usually, among other things, ginger, cumin, mustard, coriander and long pepper. 

As for Long Pepper Chicken, Kautilya provided the recipe, but in terms of Mauryan measurements. One needed 20 balas of chicken meat and one kaduba of ghee or oil, along with curd, salt and spices, like ginger, mustard seeds and long peppers (apparently to be measured by one's own instinct or experience, like many modern chefs do today). 

And here is where we get another look into the history of food. The use of long pepper, which originated in the Indian subcontinent and southeastern Asia, goes back to the sixth or fifth century B.C.E.  We can trace this ingredient that far back because it is mentioned in the works of Hippocrates, although he referred to long pepper as a medicine, rather than a spice. Yet, cooks used long peppers because it provided a sweet and pungent flavor. It was the principal pepper used by cooks across Asia and Europe until it was ultimately displaced by the black peppercorn in the 14th century C.E. (which later faced its own competition from the chiles originating in the New World). 

So this recipe is not only one of the oldest known Indian recipes, but also a recipe that uses a venerable spice. Both the recipe and the long pepper seemed lost to history. Indeed, the Arthashastra was lost for a period of time, only to be rediscovered by researchers in 1905. The long pepper was also lost, pushed into obscurity by the black peppercorn and chiles (at least for me), until 2025, when I came across a bag of dried long peppers in a local Indian supermarket. Just as there are long peppers left in that bag, there are more stories to tell about the spice. Those will have to wait for future posts.... 

LONG PEPPER CHICKEN

Recipe from Indiaphile

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1/4 cup ghee
• 3/4 cup yogurt
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 long peppers, split (roughly grind 5 peppers in a mortar and paste, leave 7 whole)
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon ginger paste (grated with micro-plane)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions:

1. Marinate the chicken. Whisk the yogurt in a bowl to smooth it out. Add crushed long pepper, ginger and salt. Stir to combine. Add chicken and stir to coat. Cover and let marinate for at least 30 minutes to overnight.

2. Cook the chicken. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add mustard seeds and allow them to pop for a few seconds. Add whole peppers and let them cook for about 20 seconds. Add marinated chicken and let it brown, then turn the pieces and allow the other side to brown. It will take about 6 minutes on each side. 

3. Continue cooking the chicken. Add 1/4 cup of water to the marinade. Stir and pour over the chicken. Deglaze the pan by scraping it with a spatula. Cook the chicken in the sauce until it has reduced to half, about 6-8 minutes. Add water to adjust consistency. Finish with a squeeze of lemon. 

PEACE.