House of the Dragon | Chicken Valyria

Happy (upcoming) Thronesgiving, friends! Ok, technically, House of the Dragon is coming back next month for Season 2. So . . . Dragonsgiving? Drag-mas? Ooh, I’ve got it! Dragonalia! Anyhoo, I would be remiss if I didn’t offer up a culinary contribution to this event. In fact, I’ve cooked up a three-course meal. Let’s start with the meat of the matter in this recipe for Chicken Valyria.

Click here to jump to the recipe for Chicken Valyria.

From Old Valyria to King’s Landing

Now, keep in mind that I cooked up these recipes last year before the House of Dragon’s premiere. The Hart of the Dragon Pie I posted a year and a half ago? I cooked and released that mid-season. Before that, I only had George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood. Fire & Blood is written like a historian’s collection of notes and features little to no dishes. So, with that, I decided to create my own based on the world, the time period, and our own food history. 

The Targaryens came to Westeros from Old Valyria, an empire of dragon-riding oligarchs compared to our world’s Roman Empire. They then conquered and united the Westerosi kingdoms into a single country. We already know Martin’s Westeros is inspired by British history before the Renaissance. 

At this time in the story, shortly before the Dance of Dragons, the Targaryens were at the zenith of their power. Considering this, their court’s cuisine may still exhibit strong traces of Valyrian influence. So today’s dish is a Roman recipe, slightly modernized and adapted to fit a medieval English court.

The Realms’ Delicacy

Once again, I consulted the Apicius, the oldest surviving collection of Ancient Roman recipes, and found this chicken recipe:

DISJOINT A CHICKEN AND BONE IT. PLACE THE PIECES IN A STEW PAN WITH LEEKS, DILL AND SALT [water or stock] WHEN WELL DONE ADD PEPPER AND CELERY SEED, THICKEN WITH RICE [rice flour] ADD STOCK, A DASH OF RAISIN WINE OR MUST, STIR WELL, SERVE WITH THE ENTRÉES.

While flavorings differ, this method corresponds precisely to modern-day chicken fricasse. My version, though, uses a combination of drumsticks and bone-in chicken thighs browned in butter. By the Middle Ages, dairy was a more common food source, especially in northern, non-olive-growing regions such as the British Isles. You could argue that Westeros’s acquisition of Dorne into the Seven Kingdoms provides a source of olive oil, but butter and cream give us a more decadent sauce.

For my aromatics, I added cumin and cinnamon instead of black pepper. Cumin was so valued for its flavor and supposed medicinal qualities that the household of England’s Henry III would buy it in quantities of 20 pounds at a time. I think its earthy flavor also helps ground the celery seed. Cinnamon tastes similar to bog myrtle, a common herb used by early Britain’s Celts. 

Finally, to thicken and hold this creamy sauce, I added pappardelle pasta directly to the pot while simmering. Despite what your schoolteacher likely told you about Marco Polo bringing noodles to Europe from Asia, early forms of pasta were already a part of Ancient Roman cuisine. Lagne, a wide noodle made from durum wheat, is recorded as far back as 1 AD and was often baked instead of boiled. Dried pasta became popular in the 1300s for its long shelf life and portability. We even see recipes for “macrows” (macaroni) and “loseyns” (an early form of lasagne) in the cookbook Forme of Cury, published in 1390, by Richard II’s “Chief Master Cook.” 

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Taste of Valyria