Chicken Paprikás

From Gizi
Serves 4

It is traditional to add sour cream to the pan before removing the chicken for serving. I don't do this because I usually have leftovers, and reheating the dish with sour cream added gets grainy. Instead, I serve the chicken napped in tomato sauce with sour cream on the side of the plate or in a dish on the table for each diner to add. 

But if you prefer the more traditional paprikás, when the chicken is done, turn off the heat, remove the chicken from the sauce, and stir in 2 large tablespoons of sour cream until smooth and incorporated. Do not apply heat. Return the chicken to the pan, coat it with the sauce, and then serve.

8 chicken thighs, skin and fat removed
About 3 tablespoons neutral oil (I use grapeseed)
2 green bell peppers, cut into strips
Lots of diced onion—depending on size, I use 1 to 1½ large onions
1 14-ounce can tomato sauce
1 cup broth, chicken or Better Than Bouillon vegetable base (I usually use this)
2 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
Salt to taste
Sour cream

Sauté the diced onion in the oil until it starts to turn golden; do not let it brown. Add the paprika and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute to allow it to bloom—but make sure it does not burn.

To avoid splattering, turn off the heat and add the tomato sauce. To get all the sauce out of the can, pour the broth into the can, swirl it around, and add that to the pot as well.

Turn the heat back on, bring the sauce just to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Taste for salt—you may not need any, depending on the saltiness of your tomato sauce and broth.

Slip the chicken pieces into the pan, then strew the strips of green pepper over the top. Do not stir them in at this point. Cover the pan slightly askew and simmer, stirring after the first 20 minutes to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. If your heat is low enough, it shouldn’t be.

Check it again after 10 more minutes—at the 30-minute mark. If the sauce isn’t thickening, remove the lid completely, turn the heat up a little, and keep an eye on it. (You want the sauce to be thick enough to coat a spoon.) If it’s still not the consistency of heavy cream, raise the heat a bit more and continue to reduce it until it is. After a total of 45 minutes, skim off any fat that may have accumulated.

At this point, you can serve the chicken napped with the sauce and pass sour cream at the table.

This is a good recipe for a dinner party. It can be easily increased—you’re limited only by the size of your pan. I’ve been known to make two pans side by side.

I usually serve it with buttered nokedli (similar to spaetzle), blanched green beans tossed with olive oil and salt, and cucumber salad.

Note: Walter’s mother, Gizi, taught me how to make her chicken paprikás. Her version includes more tomato than most. I assume she adapted her cooking after immigrating to the U.S. in the late 1930s. But she never compromised on the paprika, which was always from Hungary—not Hungarian-style paprika.

When perusing Culinaria Hungary (Könemann, 1999), I realized there are two popular Hungarian chicken dishes made with sweet paprika and tomato. They are chicken pörkolt and chicken paprikás. They’re nearly identical—except chicken paprikás has sour cream added to the sauce. Since I make Gizi’s recipe with one small change: instead of stirring sour cream into the sauce, I serve it on the side, that means it’s technically pörkölt—but to me, it will always be paprikás.

Gizi 1937