Chicken Paprikas
Chicken Paprikas

Summary:

What is this? Another sloppy chicken dish right after you posted a recipe for Red Pepper Balsamic Chicken? Yes, indeed! This is the Potako spin on the Hungarian classic: Chicken Paprikas (or paprikash to some, or puzzlingly “bop-ra-gosh” to my father)! This is a dish that seems to have no formal recipe other than it needs to have chicken and paprika. I’ve had this dish prepared in many different ways over the years. This is my personal favorite!

It’s pretty easy. It’s pretty cheap. It’s super delicious. Dig in!

Ingredients:

Chicken Paprikas
Chicken Paprikas Ingredients
  • 3-4 tsp bacon fat (or a light cooking oil)
  • 3 tbsp Hungarian paprika
  • 3 yellow onions (or 2 larger)
  • 3 cubanelle peppers
  • 1 medium tomato (not shown above)
  • 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (not shown above)
  • ~2 tsp Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base
  • 2 cloves garlic

Thickening:

  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 2 Tbsp. flour

Preparation:

Chicken Paprikas
Mise en Place

Pat the chicken breasts dry with paper towels, season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

Give a nice uniform chop to your peppers, onions, and tomato. I personally press the garlic for this recipe, but if you don’t have one, throw a fine chop on the garlic. Keep the onions separate from the other ingredients. Slice the chicken breasts length-wise.

Process:

Chicken Paprikas
Hungarian Paprika!

Heat up the bacon fat in large frying pan and add the paprika*. Saute the paprika for about 1 minute. If you don’t have bacon fat (shame on you), you can use any light cooking oil (read: not extra virgin olive oil).

*I can’t recommend the old-school “red box” Hungarian paprika enough. If you’re looking for some creative options, you can use hot or smoked paprika as well.

Chicken Paprikas
Sautéed Onions

Now add the onions to the bacon fat and paprika mixture and sauté for ~3-5 minutes. Season the onions lightly with salt and pepper. Take them right up until they start to get a little color.

Chicken Paprikas
Peppers and Tomatoes

Next, add the peppers, tomato, and garlic to the pan. Reduce heat to medium and cook for ~10 minutes.

Remove veggies from the pan and set aside.

Chicken Paprikas
Seared Chicken

Add the chicken to the pan. You want to get a nice medium brown color. Depending on how hot your stove can get, it’ll probably take ~4 minutes per side. The chicken will be simmering with everything for ~30 minutes, so you don’t have to worry about them being cooked-through. You want the sear for little extra flavor.

Chicken Paprikas
Thickening Agent

As your chicken is searing, mix up your thickening ingredients. It’s okay to use a little bit of water if it’s too thick.

Chicken Paprikas
Final Gravy

Remove the chicken and add the vegetables back to the pan with no heat. Add a cup of water, the chicken bouillon, and the thickening. This will cool the ingredients down enough so that the sour cream won’t curdle. Stir until uniform. Get it back on the heat and return the chicken to the pan. Bring it up to a boil and then back it down to medium. Cook covered for ~30 minutes stirring occasionally (simply to prevent burning).

Chicken Paprikas
Final Cooking

While this is happening, cook up whatever you’d like to serve it over. I personally like a good egg noodle the best, but you may want couscous, rice, dumplings, etc. Of course, I also recommend a good crusty roll!

When it comes to cooking the egg noodles, do it with salted water!

Chicken Paprikas
Potako’s Chicken Paprikas – Done!

Place the chicken on top of your noodles and spoon a bit of the sauce over the top. Add a subtle garnish of paprika and some black pepper to be fancy. If you really want to be a show-boating fruitcake, add some flat-leaf parsley.