Light and easy chicken paprikash recipe
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!