Light and easy chicken paprikash

Have you been craving a delicious Hungarian chicken paprikash, but you don’t want a heavy stew with flour, sour cream and chicken skin? Do not look any further, this chicken stew is your recipe! It is so easy to make, uses a few everyday ingredients, and it is light, no flour, no sour cream or chicken skin.

It has been a must in our family for ages, tested multiple times. We are lucky, if there is some stew left for the next day, but unfortunately it is not the case most of the time. I usually serve it with “nokedli”, Hungarian homemade small dumplings (similar to the German spaetzle), but it is divine with egg noodles as well, oh, wait, and pickles on the side, of course :). It keeps well in the fridge for 3-4 days in an air tight container, or for about two months in the freezer.

A few words about Hungarian paprika. The word “paprika” means pepper in Hungarian. Paprika is a powder made from various kinds of Capsicum annuum peppers, dried and ground up. There are eight different kinds of paprika depending on colour (from bright red to brown), and flavour (mild to spicy). The sweet paprika is a mild bright red variety, called “édesnemes”. Paprika adds both a wonderful flavour and colour to dishes. You can find Hungarian paprika in most grocery stores, the best and most famous comes from the town of Szeged and Kalocsa. Read more about Hungarian paprika here.

A hint for serving the stew on a hot summer day – serve the pickles chilled right from the fridge. Do you have fresh dill pickles or by any chance the authentic Hungarian style fermented dills “kovászos uborka“? Serve them on some crushed ice as some Hungarian restaurants serve it in the summer. Do not put it out too early though, because they will “disappear” even before the stew gets to the table :).

Light and easy chicken paprikash

1.5 kg chicken (drumsticks, thighs, breast cut into four pieces) any combination of drumsticks, thighs and breasts could be used.
2 medium onions
1 medium tomato
1 bell pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp red sweet Hungarian paprika
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp ground black pepper

Prepare the chicken. Remove the skin from the drumsticks, thighs and breast. Trim off most of the excess fat. Cut the breast into about three or four medium sized pieces.

Dice the onions, the tomato and the pepper.

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large heavy-bottomed pot, add the onions, and sauté it on low to medium heat until they are golden and tender.

Remove the pot from the heat, and add the sweet Hungarian paprika. I use 2 tbsp paprika, for the colour and flavour, but if it is too much for you, add a bit less at the beginning, and more later as you like.

Place the pot back to the heat, and add the chicken. Carefully, on medium heat sear the chicken for a couple of minutes, but stir frequently to avoid burning the paprika. Searing the meat helps to keep the flavours inside.

Add the diced tomato, diced pepper, the salt and ground black pepper, and stir. I used 1 tsp salt in the entire recipe, but you could start with about half of the amount, and add more towards the end as you wish.

Reduce the heat to low, cover and let it simmer for about 1-1.5 hours. You can add 1 or two tbsp water if you want at this point, but you will see, the chicken-tomato-pepper mixture will start releasing a lot of liquid very soon. Every 15-20 minutes gently stir and later, once there is enough liquid, just shake the pot horizontally left and right. The meat will turn very tender, so by shaking the pot rather than stirring you can avoid “destroying the meat”.

Serve it with some egg noodles or dumplings, and with some delicious pickles on the side. 

Bon appétit! Jó étvágyat!

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Light and easy chicken paprikash recipe

Course Main Course

Cuisine Hungarian

Keyword chicken, easy, goulash, Hungarian, paprika, paprikash, ragout, stew

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Total Time 2 hours

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg chicken (drumsticks, thighs, breast cut into four pieces) any combination of drumsticks, thighs and breasts could be used.
• 2 medium onions
• 1 medium tomato
• 1 bell pepper
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp red sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper

Instructions

• Prepare the chicken. Remove the skin from the drumsticks, thighs and breast. Trim off most of the excess fat. Cut the breast into about three or four medium sized pieces.
  
• Dice the onions, the tomato and the pepper.
• Heat the oil over medium heat in a large heavy-bottomed pot, add the onions, and sauté it on low to medium heat until they are golden and tender.
• Remove the pot from the heat, and add the sweet Hungarian paprika. I use 2 tbsp paprika, for the colour and flavour, but if it is too much for you, add a bit less at the beginning, and more later as you like.
• Place the pot back to the heat, and add the chicken. Carefully, on medium heat sear the chicken for a couple of minutes, but stir frequently to avoid burning the paprika. Searing the meat helps to keep the flavours inside.
• Add the diced tomato, diced pepper, the salt and ground black pepper, and stir. I used 1 tsp salt in the entire recipe, but you could start with about half of the amount, and add more towards the end as you wish.
  
• Reduce the heat to low, cover and let it simmer for about 1-1.5 hours. You can add 1 or two tbsp water if you want at this point, but you will see, the chicken-tomato-pepper mixture will start releasing a lot of liquid very soon. Every 15-20 minutes gently stir and later, once there is enough liquid, just shake the pot horizontally left and right. The meat will turn very tender, so by shaking the pot rather than stirring you can avoid "destroying the meat"
• Serve it with some egg noodles or dumplings, and with some delicious pickles on the side. Bon appétit! Jó étvágyat!
  

Notes

Use white (breast) and red meat (legs) in any combination you like, but preferably with the bones as the bones make the stew even better. 

Since I cannot find real Hungarian peppers throughout the year in Canada except for a week or two at the end of the summer, I usually use Bell peppers in all of my stews. Usually the green peppers as they are the least sweet.

Be careful not to burn the paprika on the heat, as burnt paprika gets a bitter flavour. 

The meat will turn very tender, so by shaking the pot rather than stirring you can avoid “destroying the meat”.

You can use more onions, up to about 20% of the meat quantity for a thicker stew. Using too much could make the sauce taste too sweet.

I do not add any liquid to the stew, as the chicken and the tomato-pepper combo will release enough during cooking on low, sometimes even too much. To achieve the desired stew liquid amount simply just simmer the stew without the lid for the last 20-30 min. 

To make a smooth stew – take the chicken out from the pot, and blend the onion-tomato-pepper mix with a heat-proof hand blender, then simply put the meat back. 

If you prefer a sour cream-flour sauce – mix 1 tsp flour with 2-3 tbsp sour cream and a few drops of water if the sour cream is too thick. Add a few tbsp hot liquid to the mixture, and whisk it well. By adding some hot liquid to the flour-sour cream mix first you can avoid making the stew lumpy later. First gently take the meat out, then add the sour cream mixture to the sauce while stirring constantly, and cook for another few minutes on low to medium heat. Place the meat back in and you are done. For even creamier sauce use half table cream, half sour cream. 

I do not use any flour in my recipe, as my family likes it this way! 

 

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