Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes

| Cuisine of Hungary | Chicken 

Paprika chicken

Paprika chicken is a dish of Hungarian origin traditionally made with chicken, paprika and lard, served over pasta. There is no official recipe. Preparations of this dish often vary between families. In the Americanized version, sour cream is often used in place of lard and mild red paprika is typically used in place of the more authentic sweet paprika used by Hungarians.

Ingredients

• 1 2–3 pound chicken, cut into parts
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2-4 tablespoon sweet (not hot) paprika
• 5 to 7 tablespoon olive oil.
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/5 -1/2 cup heavy cream
• salt
• fresh green parsley
• 6-7 whole black peppercorn

Other Ingredients

Vegetables are optional. The traditional Hungarian version contains none.

• 1 green bell pepper
• ½ red bell pepper;
• 1 carrot, thinly chopped
• For every carrot used, add 1/3 parsnip, thinly chopped. This takes away the slight sweetness of the carrot.
• also add one thinly chopped onion.

Procedure

1. Cut the chicken into eight pieces.
2. Add the oil to a medium sauté pan. Sauté the onions, for about 3-4 minutes or until turn yellow.
3. Add the chicken, peppercorn, salt, paprika and stir it rapidly. It is a lot of paprika, but it is not hot and this is a Paprikash. Add water immediately so it will cover the meat. Continue cooking on a small fire, simmer the dish. (Add peppers and carrot after ten minutes if you wish. Optional.) Check on the meal. Stir occasionally until the chicken is tender. If necessary add more water, but very sparingly. Do not boil the chicken, it should be almost fried in the end. This takes about 45-50 minutes. The last 15 minutes stop adding more water and wait until the liquid is almost boiled off. Keep about a half finger thick gravy on the bottom of the pan
4. Add the sour cream and heavy cream to the gravy and stir. If you want to avoid the heavy cream, use more sour cream. Add fresh chopped parsley on the top.
5. Serve with dumplings, rice or mashed potatoes and salad.

Note

It is important not to use hot paprika, the red powder sold simply as "paprika" in most supermarkets, as this would make the soup too spicy and of the wrong consistency. Sweet paprika can be obtained from Polish or central European delis and specialist supermarkets. It is normally sold in 250 g sachets