I like chicken paprikash, but I’ve never made it. In my mind, it’s chili… only with chicken pieces instead of chunks. I mean, what’s paprika? Chile powder, right? I’ve ordered some actual Hungarian paprika. It should be here tomorrow, but chicken paprikas will have to wait until at least next weekend.
So here’s my plan: Get maybe a pound and a half or two pounds of bone-in, skin-on, chicken thighs. Brown them in bacon grease (which has been in the fridge, and I hope is still good). Remove the chicken from the pan. Chop up a yellow onion and sauté it in the drippings. Add minced garlic (I always use ‘too much’ garlic ), and a chopped (Roma) tomato. After a couple of minutes, put the chicken back, a couple of tablespoons of the paprika, some kosher salt, and some chicken stock. Simmer for about an hour (or however long to fully cook the chicken thighs). Remove the chicken again, and put some sour cream and heavy cream into the sauce; then return the chicken to the pan and simmer until the sauce is hot.
My bonafides. Hungarian ancestry and I speak Hungarian.
I’m pretty forgiving when it comes to Chicken Paprikas. It’s kind of hard not to end up with something tasty. I would add a little black pepper for depth of flavor.
Adding the paprika later at the simmering step is important because burned paprika will make the dish bitter.
Tomatoes aren’t traditional but I like to add them as well.
The last few times I made it was in an instant pot and it was super easy. You saute the onions right in there. Put in the rest of the ingredients and set it. You do want to brown the chicken for a minute on each side or so first.
ETA: Oh, never in my life have I heard it called chilli before. lol. I do like to call rakott krumpli (layered potato casserole) “Hungarian Lasagne” though…
I think it is complicated. Spanish and Hungarian paprika are very different, and both have a wide range of hotness. And then there is Asia, South America, and Mexico.
But your recipe, whatever you call it, sounds like it should work.
Do you plan to eat that with rice, noodles, or potatoes? Maybe you can skip the heavy cream or the sour cream. And put some chopped parsley on top at the end.
Ah, i didn’t catch that. Definitely just sour cream for me. There’s also nothing wrong in leaving it out and let people mix it or not into their individual servings as they wish.
I believe lard is traditionally used in making Chicken Paprikash.
Flour the chicken and season it with salt and pepper. Then fry it in a deep skillet until the skin is brown.
Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Cook the onions in the grease with lots of sweet paprika (3 tbs or more). Keep stirring to avoid burning the paprika.
Return the chicken to the pan and pour in enough chicken stock to cover it. Simmer until it’s cooked through. Remove it again and stir lots of sour cream into the pan to create a sauce.
Drench the chicken with the sauce and serve with knedliky (boiled noodles) or Czech dumplings.
When I make the dish, I usually stir in a little hot paprika, just to give it some bite. I also add some tomato paste, chopped green and red peppers, and some toasted caraway seeds.
FTR, my paternal grandmother was from Budapest, and my grandfather came from Szeged, which is famous for its paprika.
There are a lot of channels on YouTube about the origins of Hungarian paprika (it was imported by the Turks, I believe) and cuisine in general. You might want to try Max Miller’s Tasting History for a start.
Two full tablespoons of paprika for one-and-a-half to two pounds of chicken meat, without a lot of bulk from other ingredients, sounds like a little too much to me.
But maybe I’ve been adding paprika too soon when I cook, and that’s why I’m a little skeptical of the outcome. Not that I make chicken paprikash per se, but I do a ton of seat–of-the-pants cooking, and I tend to add spices fairly early on in the process. I will try holding off, at least with paprika, and see if that changes my results.
You definitely need it for this. Especially if it’s a high quality Hungarian paprika. The bulk comes from the onions which basically is what makes up the sauce as it gets mostly disintegrated.
When I say knedliky, I’m referring to the East European-style noodles that are made by passing batter through a strainer over a pot of boiling salt water. Czech dumplings are breadlike and take time and skill to produce.
In a pinch, I would also serve Chicken Paprikash alongside some good buttered egg noodles sprinkled with parsley.
PS: I realize now that I left garlic out of the above recipe. I would definitely add three or four chopped cloves at the stage of sauteeing the onions.
I must not have been paying attention. I grew up on the axiom that paprika was the mildest of the chilis, have always treated it as being more for color than for capsicum.
(ETA: Maybe it was pimientos that were the mildest. Either way, in my mind, paprika was a colorant.)
), and a chopped (Roma) tomato. After a couple of minutes, put the chicken back, a couple of tablespoons of the paprika, some kosher salt, and some chicken stock. Simmer for about an hour (or however long to fully cook the chicken thighs). Remove the chicken again, and put some sour cream and heavy cream into the sauce; then return the chicken to the pan and simmer until the sauce is hot.
I would definitely add three or four chopped cloves at the stage of sauteeing the onions.