Printer Friendly Version

Chicken Paprikas is one of the most basic, and perhaps one of the easiest of all Hungarian recipes.It is reasonably fast and requires few ingredients and little preparation time, especially if the onions are chopped in your food processor. The cooking time will vary with the amount of chicken, but because the chicken simmers slowly in the paprika broth, it is easy to tell when it is cooked. One step that must be followed religiously is saut�ing the onions slowly for at least 20 minutes.Many Hungarian recipes�all of the true goulashes --begin with this step. Anyy recipe that says to dump all the ingredients together at once and begin cooking is just not authentic.The secret to all of these dishes is the slow, careful saut�ing of the onions.They should not get brown� just very soft, and almost pink in color.Chicken paprikas fills the house witha wonderful aroma from the paprika and bell pepper�it�s hard to wait for it to be ready to serve.Read about paprika by clicking here. The recipe for homemade dumplings is included, just in case you want to go all out!

1 large chicken, cut up or use an equivalent amount of your favorite chicken pieces

(thighs and upper thighs are very good)

2-3 large onions chopped� or an amount to be about 1/3 of the weight of the chicken. Don�t skimp! Chop using the pulse feature rather than the regular chop which may over chop the onions, resulting in a pulp. (The onions should be finely chopped, but still be individual pieces)

Oil or bacon fat for saut�ing onions

3 Tablespoons paprika-- or enough to give it a vivid color

Salt

1-2 tablespoons ketchup

2-3 slices of bell pepper

1 small carton sour cream

2 Tablespoons flour

cooked noodles or homemade dumplings

In a large cooking pot, add about 3 Tablespoons oil or bacon fat and heat.When oil is hot, add onions and stir immediately.Reduce heat to medium and continue to saute onions. If they begin to stick, add about � cup water and continue stirring.They should not stick to the pan and they should not get brown.Reduce heat even more if necessary, but onions should still be cooking. Salt the onion lightly while cooking. Salt helps soften the onions and will be needed anyway for seasoning. It is best to watch onions constantly, stirring often, to make sure they don�t burn. When they are really limp and transparent, they are ready. Careful cooking of the onions is the most important part of this dish. Cooking the onions takes anywhere from 20 minutes or more, depending on how large a quantity you are making. When the onions are ready add the chicken pieces to the and turn the heat up and quickly sear the chicken, stirring the onion and chicken thoroughly for about 3 minutes.The skin side of the chicken pieces should be just lightly golden, not brown.Add enough water to the pot to cover the chicken.Reduce heat enough to keep pot simmering. Immediately add 2 heaping tsps. paprika, ketchup, and bell pepper. The color should be a rich orange red. If it looks anemic, add more paprika. Cover and continue to cook until chicken is tender. Reduce heat before adding sour cream. Blend flour into sour cream. When chicken is tender, finish sauce by adding the sour cream and flour mixture to the sauce. Stir to blend completely and cook for about 2-3 minutes.Add salt to taste.Serve over noodles or homemade dumplings.

Nokedli:

These are easier to make if you have a noodle cutter, a gadget that looks something like a cheese grater. There are various shapes and sizes of these.I have seen them on the web at Hungarian specialty stores and they are not cheap.However, I bought one called a Chinese noodle maker at Cost Plus for a couple dollars a few years ago.It works great. If you don�t have one, a paring knife and small cutting board works just as well (although it takes longer).

1 egg plus 2 yolks (the whites make the dumplings tough)

2 cups flour (Wondra flour is much easier to blend with eggs)

salt, 1/2 tsp

water

If you are lucky enough to have a Kitchen Aid mixer, by all means let it do the work. Put all of the ingredients in the bowl together and using the dough hook, beat until the dough is very smooth and pulls away from the bowl. Add enough water to make a smooth, runny dough. Continue as below.

Traditional method:

Combine flour and eggs in a mixing bowl. Add enough water to make the mixture into a dough.Beat until smooth, using a stroke that beats through the middle of the mixture against the side of the bowl.When the dough is completely smooth, (this takes awhile), it leaves the sides of the bowl clean as you beat and sort of makes airy noises.Place the dough into the noodle gadget over the boiling water and using the slide or the knife, quickly extrude the dumplings into the pot.If you don�t have the gadget, place the dough on a cutting board over the boiling water and using a small sharp paring knife, cut the dough into pieces about the size of an almond and quickly push each piece off the cutting board into the pot. When the dough is completely used up, stir the dumplings to keep them from sticking together. Continue to boil until they all rise to the top do not overcook.Drain season with salt.

Noodle (dumpling) cutter