Chicken paprikash

Ingredients

Paprikas

• 1free-range chicken (1.6 kg), jointed into 8 pieces, or 8 thighs and drumsticks
• 80 gpork lard or 4 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2large onions (400 g), finely chopped
• 3 tbspHungarian sweet paprika (edesnemes)
• 1 tsphot paprika, or 1 fresh hot pepper
• 1green TV paprika pepper, sliced
• 1tomato, peeled and chopped
• 300 mlwater or light chicken broth
• 2 tspsalt

Finish

• 250 mlsour cream (20 percent fat)
• 2 tbspplain flour
• 100 mlsingle cream

Nokedli

• 300 gplain flour
• 2eggs
• 180 mlwater
• 1 tspsalt
• 20 gbutter, for tossing

Directions

1. Melt the lard in a heavy casserole and sweat the onion over low heat for 12–15 minutes until soft, golden and sweet. This slow onion base is the whole foundation of the dish.
2. Pull the pan off the heat completely, stir in both paprikas and let them bloom in the residual warmth for 20 seconds. Paprika scorches above roughly 140°C (275°F) and turns bitter within seconds.
3. Return to low heat, add 3 tbsp water at once to stop the paprika catching, then the salted chicken pieces, sliced pepper and tomato. Turn to coat everything red.
4. Pour in the water, cover, and simmer very gently for 40–45 minutes, turning the pieces once, until the meat pulls from the bone and the sauce has reddened and thickened with rendered fat.
5. For the nokedli, beat the flour, eggs, water and salt to a thick, sticky batter and rest 10 minutes. Press through a nokedli grater or spaetzle press into a large pan of boiling salted water.
6. Cook 2–3 minutes until they float and are no longer floury inside, lift out, rinse briefly with hot water and toss with butter.
7. Whisk the flour into the sour cream and single cream until perfectly lump free (the habaras). Temper it with a ladle of hot sauce, then stir back into the pot off the boil.
8. Return to the lowest heat for 3–4 minutes until the sauce is glossy, salmon-pink and coats a spoon. Never let it boil after the cream goes in or it will curdle. Serve over the nokedli.

Technique

• Use genuine Hungarian paprika and use it generously; three tablespoons is not a misprint. Old, brownish paprika gives a dull, dusty sauce.
• Tempering the soured cream, and adding flour to it first, are the two insurances against curdling.
• Authentic paprikas contains no tomato puree, no wine, no stock cube and no mushroom. The colour and body come from onion, paprika, fat and cream.

Substitutions

• No TV paprika pepper: a pale green Italian or Turkish sweet pepper is close. A green bell pepper works but is more assertive.
• Sour cream can be replaced by creme fraiche, which is more stable, or full-fat Greek yoghurt stabilised with the flour.

Variations

• Borjupaprikas uses veal shoulder and simmers about 90 minutes.
• Paprikas krumpli is the potato version with sausage, an everyday village dish.
• In Szeged and the south, cooks finish the pot with an extra pinch of hot paprika and serve it with galuska.

History

Chicken braised in a sauce built on paprika and sour cream, developed in Hungarian cooking after paprika itself, a New World chili pepper, reached Hungary through Ottoman-era trade and cultivation beginning in the 1500s and 1600s and became so central to Hungarian cooking that it is now considered virtually a defining national spice. Its sour cream finish, stirred in near the end of cooking to enrich and slightly cool the sauce’s heat, is treated as an essential technique distinguishing paprikash specifically from other paprika-based Hungarian dishes like gulyás that do not include that dairy enrichment. It remains one of the most widely recognized specifically Hungarian dishes internationally, commonly served with nokedli, a small Hungarian egg noodle or dumpling similar to spaetzle.

Frequently asked questions

What is Chicken paprikash?

Chicken paprikash is a main from Hungary: chicken in creamy paprika sauce with nokedli dumplings. Chicken braised in a sauce built on paprika and sour cream, developed in Hungarian cooking after paprika itself, a New World chili pepper, reached Hungary through Ottoman-era trade and cultivation beginning in the 1500s and 1600s and became so central to Hungarian cooking that it is now considered virtually a defining national spice. Its sour cream finish, stirred in near the end of cooking to enrich and slightly cool the sauce’s heat, is treated as an essential technique distinguishing paprikash specifically from other paprika-based Hungarian dishes like gulyás that do not include that dairy enrichment. It remains one of the most widely recognized specifically Hungarian dishes internationally, commonly served with nokedli, a small Hungarian egg noodle or dumpling similar to spaetzle.

How long does Chicken paprikash take to make?

Chicken paprikash takes 25 min of preparation and 1 hr of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Chicken paprikash?

Yes, within limits. No TV paprika pepper: a pale green Italian or Turkish sweet pepper is close. A green bell pepper works but is more assertive. Sour cream can be replaced by creme fraiche, which is more stable, or full-fat Greek yoghurt stabilised with the flour.

What is the most important thing to get right in Chicken paprikash?

Melt the lard in a heavy casserole and sweat the onion over low heat for 12–15 minutes until soft, golden and sweet. This slow onion base is the whole foundation of the dish.