Did you say paprika? Whenever we hear about paprika, we think about the Hungarian food, but the connoiseurs have a deeper understanding and know that the Hungarian cuisine is much more than paprika and gulyas. But for today, we suggest you a delicious chicken paprikash.
Let’s take a quick lesson in Hungarian history and geography. Hungary lies in Central Europe, surrounded by Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Serbia and Romania. Like in all the cases, the countries and neighbors nearby have deeply changed the development of the national cuisines. The same happened with the Hungarian cuisine.
The smoked meat is very popular in the Hungarian households: smoked sausages, smoked lard, smoked ham and they are served usually as cold dishes, for breakfast or dinner. In restaurants, they are served as starters. Lard is very popular in the Hungarian cuisine, but it is often substituted with goose-fat, duck-fat or vegetable oil.
They also have a lot of pickled products consumed especially during the winter, being a great source of vitamin C. For the summer, an interesting choice will be the cold fruit soup.
For today, we are going to propose a least known recipe: Chicken Paprikash.
Chicken Paprikash
This recipe is also well known by the grandmothers living in Romania and very loved by their grandchildren.
Ingredients:
- 2 to 2 1/2 pounds of chicken pieces, preferably thighs and legs
- Salt
- 2-3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 pounds yellow onions, (about 2-3 large onions)
- Black pepper to taste
- 2 Tbsp sweet paprika, preferably Hungarian
- 1 teaspoon (or to taste), hot paprika or cayenne
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Preparation:
1 Salt the chicken pieces well and let them sit at room temperature while you cut the onions. Slice the onions lengthwise (top to root).
2 Brown the chicken pieces: Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and melt the butter. When the butter is hot, pat the chicken pieces dry with paper towels and place them skin-side down in the pan.
Let the chicken pieces cook 4-5 minutes on one side, until well browned, then turn them over and let them cook 2-3 minutes on the other side. (Take care when turning so as not to tear the skin if any is sticking to the pan.)
Remove the chicken from the pan to a bowl, set aside.
3 Sauté the onions: Add the sliced onions to the sauté pan and cook them, stirring occasionally, scraping up the browned bits from the chicken, until lightly browned, about 7 minutes.
4 Add the paprika and some black pepper to the onions and stir to combine. Let cook for a minute.
5 Add the chicken broth, place chicken on onions, cover and cook: Add the chicken broth, again scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and then nestle the chicken pieces into the pan, on top of the onions.
Cover and cook on a low simmer for 20-25 minutes (depending on the size of your chicken pieces).
When the chicken is cooked through (165°F if you use a thermometer, or if the juices run clear, not pink when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced with a knife) remove the pan from the heat.
(If you want, you can also keep cooking the chicken until it begins to fall off the bone, which may take another 30 minutes or so.)
6 Remove chicken, stir in sour cream: When the chicken is done to your taste, remove the chicken from the pan. Allow the pan to cool for a minute and then slowly stir in the sour cream and add salt to taste.
If the sour cream cools the sauce too much, turn the heat back on just enough to warm it through. Add the chicken back to the pan and coat with the sauce.
Serve it with rice or cous-cous.
Enjoy this delicious paprikash recipe and share your feedback with us.