Chicken Paprikas
This is one of the classics of Hungarian home cooking. Everybody has a unique version, so use the recipe as a path to your preferred flavors. The famous Hungarian chef Karoly Gundel recommend mixing the sour cream with cream (1/2 sour cream, 1/2 cream). This way you achieve extremely creamy chicken paprikas but you lose some of the tanginess.
Ingredients
For 4 portions
- 2 tbs oil
- 2 medium onions
- 2 tbs red paprika
- 2-3 lbs/1-1.5 kg chicken pieces, bone-in
- 2 hungarian yellow peppers
- 1 tomato
- 3/4 cup/2 dcl sour cream
- 1 tbs flour
- salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Dice the onions, pepper and the tomato. Heat up the oil, add onions, salt and pepper. Saute the onions over low heat. When translucent, add diced peppers and then the tomato.
- When the mixture cooks down, add the paprika, mix well, add the chicken and water. Water should barely cover the chicken.
- Simmer on a low heat until meat is cooked, about 45 – 60min.
- When cooked, remove the chicken. Mix the sour cream and flour together and add to the sauce remaining in the pan. If your sour cream curdles, first add a spoonful or two of the sauce into the sour cream/flour mixture before adding it back into the pan. Stir, replace the chicken into the pan and cook very gently for another 5 min.
- Serve with nokedli (you can use prepared gnocchi) or good fresh bread.
3 Responses
My dad, who is American but has been living in Switzerland for the past 25 years, makes the most delicious chicken paprikas and serves it with rice pilaf and peas. I’m not sure if the rice and peas are “authentic” or not, but it is by far one of my most favorite meals, even though I am vegetarian and don’t eat the chicken! He puts mushrooms and onions in his. Great website- glad my friend Katie told me to check it out!
thanks for the compliments. pilaf and peas not authentic :), but must be great. it is not about authenticity it is about the taste. right? onions are part of the recipe. sorry, I left them out from the ingredients list, but it is in the description. (i will correct it). some people add mushrooms. i don’t. but i make a very similar mushroom paprikas for katy (my katy 😉 ). she is vegetarian too.
My mum omits tomato … can make it too sour … and does not thicken with flour last stage of cooking (which I do, and I go really easy on tomato too) … I put a pot of tejföl on the table as I like it with a dab, not cooked in …
Piros Arany, Gulyás krém, Erős Pista (or diced red chilli peppers), Vegeta are the seasonings that most Hungarians would use with this dish (the nearest they get to “convenience food ?) …
And paprikás csirke is as close as Magyars get to convenience food ?
Nokedli is the ONLY accompiment to any paprikás !