Chicken Paprikash

An impressive home-style meal!

After my brother and SIL brought me back a TON of paprika from Hungary I was at a loss with what to do with it for quite a while. I had used it sparingly as a garnish for deviled eggs and such, but I couldn’t think how to use a whole bunch all at once. Then I stumbled upon a question someone had asked online, “What was my grandma making with slow-cooked chicken in a paprika gravy?” The answer: Some bizarre Midwest adaptation of Chicken Paprikash but still the same general idea. “Oh right, that’s a thing!” I thought. Sure enough my SIL informed me that they did indeed eat a lot of paprikash in Hungary and Croatia. So this is my adaptation since I didn’t have a cookbook on Hungarian classics laying around.

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First take desired quantity of meat and brown it in a heavy bottomed dish (this is ceramic coated cast iron).

Dice your veg. This is half of one large sweet onion (yellow onion is fine too) and one medium sized red bell pepper.

Remove your chicken from the pan and saute your veg on low for quite a while in the rendered chicken fat. About 15-20 minutes until the onion is golden brown. Make sure you add a pinch of salt to draw out the moisture and I added a teaspoon of honey too.

Add 2 tablespoons of of sweet paprika and stir into the veg, letting it cook for about a minute, releasing it’s flavores into the oil. Keep stirring so it doesn’t burn.

Deglaze the pan with a cup of medium dry-sweet white wine (Hungarian wine tends to be sweet. I think I used a chardonnay here). Add two cups of chicken broth and replace the chicken back into the pan. The skin can be removed at this point because it gets soggy as it simmers. Cover with a lid and cook for about 30 minutes and then remove the lid and cook for an additional 15 minutes, until the thighs are fully cooked and the liquid has reduced by half. Make sure to give it a little stir every now and then so the peppers don’t stick to the bottom. Even though the liquid has reduced, I still wanted my sauce to be thicker so I added about a 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with cold water to the sauce and let that thicken it up.

When the sauce is reduced turn off the burner and let the dish cool slightly. Next you will be adding the sour cream and you don’t want it to be too hot of the sour cream will break. When the mixture is cooler, you can remove the chicken into your serving dish and then start adding the sour cream a dollop at a time.  The sauce will become light pink and even thicker.

Serve with spaetzle, egg noodles or rice. garnish with some sliced scallions.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 chicken thighs (or chicken breasts or drumsticks if so desired)
• 1/2 sweet onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 Tbsp. Sweet Paprika
• 1 cup white wine
• 2 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 Tbsp. Cornstarch + 2 Tbsp. cold water
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup scallions, sliced

Serves 2.5 (2 adults and 1 toddler)

Time: About 75 minutes