True Hungarian Chicken Paprikas 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.

CHEF JOHN'S CHICKEN PAPRIKASH

Steps:

• Season chicken generously on both sides with salt. Heat olive oil in a heavy, deep-sided pan (that comes with a lid) over high heat and brown the chicken well, skin-side down, about 5 minutes; flip and continue to sear until other side is browned, 3 to 4 minutes more. Turn off heat. Transfer the browned chicken to a plate and reserve until needed; spoon out excess chicken fat if desired.
• Add onions and a pinch of salt to the same pan and saute over medium until golden, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, tomato paste, and flour and cook, stirring, another 3 to 4 minutes to form a tomato roux. Stir in 1 teaspoon kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, smoked paprika, and sweet paprika and cook for 1 minute. Add chicken broth and bring to a simmer over high heat.
• Reduce heat to medium-low and transfer chicken and accumulated juices back into the pan. Baste the tops with the sauce, cover the pan with the lid, and simmer, basting occasionally with the sauce, until the chicken is no longer pink in the centers and is fork-tender, 45 to 60 minutes. Remove the chicken and transfer to a plate.
• Skim some fat off the top of the sauce if desired. Whisk heavy cream and sour cream into the sauce and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Transfer the chicken and any juices back into the sauce. Simmer, uncovered, basting often, until chicken is heated through and very tender, about 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

HUNGARIAN CHICKEN PAPRIKA

Steps:

• Sauce procedure: Cut whole chicken into it's constituent parts (breasts, thigh, etc.) and remove skin. Remove skin from thighs. (trim fat deposits and rinse all chicken thoroughly) This step is critical.
• Cut all chicken pieces in half. This exposes the crucial bone marrow. The more marrow you expose, the better the sauce. I chop the wings into 4 or five pieces. Do not add giblets and neck.
• In large pot, combine chicken, salt, Paprika, chicken base, and enough water to just cover the chicken pieces.
• Cook, partially covered, at such temperature that a simmer to very gentle boil is achieved. You want just a bit of bubbling.
• Do so until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and easily removed from the bone--About 1.5 hrs. (I cook the chicken until it is on the verge of falling off the bone. This extracts maximum flavor from the chicken.)
• Strain mixture to separate liquid and chicken. Place chicken into a warm serving dish.
• Return liquid to pot, and vigorously mix in sour cream and milk. I use a whisk for this. Carefully bring the sauce to a boil and remove immediately from heat. Failure to remove promptly will result in very messy boiling over!
• Set burner to it's lowest setting and return pot to the burner to keep sauce hot. The sauce is basically finished at this point. You may wish to fine tune by adding more salt, sour cream, Paprika, and/or chicken base. I sometimes add a 1/2 cup or so of heavy cream for added richness. You may also want to skim most of the liquid fat from the sauce surface.
• Noodles procedure: Combine flour, salt, and eggs in a hemispherical bowl large enough to accommodate mixing.
• Add about 1/2 cup water and proceed to blend ingredients with a fork until well blended. The consistency your striving for is such that the dough is clearly wet, adheres to the bowl, and is loose enough to slowly spread out when a dollop is applied to the cutting board. Add enough water to achieve this. I've never measured how much water I use, but think it's about 1/2 cup plus some. Actually, the consistency is not critical. I'm guessing you've made noodles (or dumplings) like this, and that additional, excruciating explanation is not necessary.
• Set a Dutch oven (good size pot) 2/3 full of water to boil. At this point, obviously the dough goes into the water. I place a good size dollop on a small cutting board and use a gently curved, sharp knife to cut perhaps 1/2" size blobs which are then vigorously swept off the board into the boiling water.
• They are done when they float to the surface. A perforated spoon is used to remove the noodles from the water which are placed in a warm serving bowl.
• I cut perhaps 3-4 dozen noodles, let them cook (very quick), remove, and proceed to add the next 3-4 dozen until all of the dough is consumed. If it looks like boiling over is about to occur, add some cold water.
• Finally: At this point you should have a pot of wonderful sauce, a bowl full of chicken pieces, and a bowl of noodles. For serving, place a good serving of noodles and half (maybe less) as much chicken into a flat bowl. Apply enough sauce to almost cover noodles and chicken.
• You may want to salt to taste. My wife likes pepper on it. I do not. In any case, Viola! That's it. I really want you to try this, as everyone on both sides of our family loves it. My instructions are laborious because attention paid to various details will produce a superb dish, while an average effort with average ingredients produce a result that is only very good.

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.