Traditional Hungarian Paprikash Recipes

HUNGARIAN CHICKEN PAPRIKASH

Steps:

• Place a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat and cook bacon until crisp, about 4 minutes. Add onion and cook until soft and translucent, 3 to 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. Add chicken and tomatoes. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Stir in paprika. Pour in 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup water and season with salt. Cover and simmer over low heat for 25 minutes. Remove lid and cook an additional 5 minutes.
• Transfer chicken to a plate and keep warm. Mix sour cream and 1 teaspoon cold water together in a small bowl. Add mixture to the pot and stir until gravy is evenly colored and smooth. Return chicken to the pot, cover and simmer on low for another 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, stir flour and salt together in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix egg and water together. Gradually add flour mixture and stir together until dumpling batter is very thick and mixture breaks from a spoon.
• Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add 2 teaspoons salt.
• Drop 1/2 teaspoons of dumpling batter into the boiling water. Dumplings will rise to the surface in about 1 minute; boil for 5 minutes more. Use a slotted spoon to transfer dumplings to a bowl. Repeat steps until batter is used up and all dumplings are cooked. Mix 1 teaspoon of butter with cooked dumplings. Add dumplings to chicken mixture in the pot and allow to heat through.

HUNGARIAN CHICKEN PAPRIKASH

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a large skillet, heat butter over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook and stir until tender. Sprinkle chicken with paprika, salt and pepper; place in an ungreased roasting pan. Spoon onion mixture over chicken. Add water. Bake, covered, 1-1/2 hours or until chicken juices run clear., Remove chicken and keep warm. Pour drippings and loosened browned bits from roasting pan into a saucepan. Skim fat. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Stir into pan juices with onion. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until thickened, 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream. Serve with chicken.

HUNGARIAN CHICKEN PAPRIKASH

Steps:

• Combine flour, 2 tbsp paprika, salt and pepper.
• Dredge chicken pieces in flour mixture.
• Reserve left over flour.
• Add oil to large dutch oven.
• Heat oil over medium high heat.
• Add chicken and brown on both sides, about 10 minutes.
• Remove chicken from pot.
• Add little oil to pot (if bottom appears to be too dry).
• Add onion, red pepper, 1 tbsp paprika, and salt.
• Saute until onion is tender, about 2 minutes.
• Return chicken to pot, and add enough chicken broth to cover.
• Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer about 30 to 45 minutes, until chicken is done.
• Remove from heat and let paprikash cool down.
• Combine reserved flour and 1/2 cup sour cream.
• Add small amount of liquid from pot into flour mixture and stir with whisk until smooth.
• Add mixture to pot, stirring constantly.
• Simmer 5 minutes.
• Let cool down again and add remaining sour cream, stirring constantly.
• Sauce should be a very pale orange color (almost white).
• Cook about 1 minute until heated.
• Serve over homemade Hungarian nokedli (spaetzel), wide egg noodles, or cooked cavatelli.

TRADITIONAL HUNGARIAN PAPRIKASH

Steps:

• Saute chopped up onion in the oil. Pull it off from the heat.
• Add the paprika (both kind) to the sautéed onion. (If you leave it on the heat while you do this, the paprika will burn) Mix it until the paprika dissolved.
• Add chicken. Mix it together with the onion-paprika paste, until all the pieces are covered with the paste. Turn your heat up high, brown the meat, while you constantly mixing it. While you doing it, be careful not to burn the paprika paste!
• When all pieces look white all around, turn down the heat to low, add salt, cover and cook. During your low heat cooking the juices of the chicken will come out, so your dish will cook in its own juices. If you pick dry meat (breast) you have to add some liquid(chicken broth).
• After 10 minutes add pepper piece to the food. Cook for another 10-15 minutes. Check for tenderness.
• Before serving, remove skin. Serve with pasta, or baked potato. Top the dish with a tablespoon of sour cream.
• Hungarians serve it with some pickled items on the side, such as cucumber, or pickled pepper.
• Enjoy.

HUNGARIAN BEEF PAPRIKASH

Steps:

• Pat the beef dry, then salt and pepper before placing in the pot.
• Brown the meat on all sides for a few minutes in the pot with oil and butter.
• Transfer beef to a bowl.
• Add onions, garlic and more butter to pot. Sautee until tender, then transfer onion/garlic to a bowl.
• Add can of chopped tomatoes and mustard to pot, stirring and scraping all the bits off bottom of pot.
• Add in the onions and stir until combined with sauce, about 2 minutes.
• Empty the two cups of beef broth into pot, along with the Red Peppers. Stir until slightly softened.
• Add beef, and stir in hot sauce to taste. Remember the hot sauce gains strength as it cooks, so keep testing periodically to get the level heat you want, adding a little at a time.
• Add orange juice and stir over low heat for a few minutes, again testing the level of heat with the hot sauce. Leave uncovered while stirring.
• Once all is to a good boil, cover, reduce heat, and let simmer for one hour. You can even turn it off and let sit for a few hours, to have ready for a meal hours later.
• Now bring the pot to a boil, and add the sour cream. Sitr until blended. Sauce should have a rich orange color, and a creamy, not thick texture. If too thick, add more orange juice.
• Update the level "heat" with more hot sauce, if desired.
• Serve over white rice or thick egg noodles. Enjoy!

AUTHENTIC HUNGARIAN CHICKEN PAPRIKASH

Steps:

• In a large pot, heat the oil and sauté the onion until translucent.
• Add the green pepper, cook for 5 minutes or so, and add the mushrooms.
• Cook until the mushrooms are just softened.
• Add the paprika, caraway, pepper and salt (if you are not using salty stock, such as bullion cubes.)
• Stir and add the chicken thighs and mix.
• Add the tomatoes and enough stock to mostly cover the chicken.
• Cover and simmer slowly for approximately 45 minutes.
• The chicken should be falling off the bone, very tender.
• Remove the chicken to a deep serving plate that has been warmed.
• Reduce the stock a bit if it looks like it will be too much sauce.
• Mix some stock fully into the sour cream to thin it a bit, and then mix the sour cream into the rest of the stock.
• Heat until hot, but Do Not Boil.
• Pour the sauce over the chicken, and serve over buttered egg noodles.
• Miscellaneous Notes:.
• Use 8 thighs if very large. "Bone in" is great.
• Canned tomatoes are fine, as are bouillon cubes for the stock (in which case, don't add salt until the end, after you taste) and low-fat sour cream.
• The prep time includes chopping and sauteing the veggies, and making the sauce at the end.