Chicken Paprikash
Creamy Sour Cream and Paprika Chicken for easy and flavorful weeknight dinner.
Posted By Savita
Chicken Paprikash, a Hungarian chicken dish with chicken cooked in creamy onion, sour cream and paprika sauce. Serve with pasta or a crusty bread to scoop creamy sauce. It is a weeknight-approved, easy and delicious pantry-ingredient chicken dinner that your family will love! Sauce tastes even more delicious the next day. (hint hint)
Oh, don't let signature red color of Paprikash Sauce intimidate you. Chicken Paprikash is NOT hot spicy but has very pleasant flavor of sweet Hungarian paprika. (learn more ahead)
Traditional Chicken Paprikash:
Chicken Paprikash is a popular hungarian chicken dish. The authentic version of this recipe use very basic ingredients. Mainly sweet hungarian paprika, hot paprika, sour cream, onion, garlic and chicken.
Due to it's world wide popularity, there are many variations. Some only use chicken, paprika and sour cream. Some use more paprika, other use less. Some use tomatoes, others not and on and on..
My Version:
I like chicken paprikash sauce to be creamy and very flavorful. For me, only paprika and sour cream are not enough. So, I use two more ingredients for a more creamy and delicious sauce.
Tomatoes and Flour-based Roux.
1) Tomatoes give flavor and sweetness to sauce. These also enhance the color of paprika even more.
2) Flour roux gives it creamier texture. It helps thicken paprika sauce and even prevents sour cream from separating.
So, my version of this recipe yields a bold-flavored and novice-user proof Chicken Paprikash Sauce. I have to say, creamy sauce makes this one of the most requested chicken-pasta dinner in my family.
Note: You can also prevent curdling of sauce by *tempering. Read more about tempering in Recipe Card notes.
The key ingredient to make Chicken Paprikash at home is Hungarian Paprika. Not just any but "Sweet" Hungarian Paprika. When I started cooking with Paprika, I had no idea there are so many kinds of Paprika. I even had tough time finding Paprika in store. Often I had Smoked Paprika in pantry which is not the right paprika for Chicken Paprikash.
Let me introduce you to the most commonly used Paprika's and where to buy these.
Sweet Hungarian Paprika: A good quality Sweet Paprika, is sweet, not hot at all, and has good aroma of paprika. If you ever looking for color in sauce without adding heat of chilies, Sweet Paprika is the way to go. The gorgeous color of Chicken Paprikash comes from this sweet paprika.
You can buy Sweet Hungarian Paprika online. Or In US, look for Szeged Sweet Paprika Seasoning Spice in stores like Whole Foods, Walmart etc.
Hot Hungarian Paprika: This is best when recipe needs heat as well as color. For Chicken Paprikash, I add a teaspoon of Hot Hungarian Paprika for some heat. You can also use Cayenne instead.
Smoked Spanish Paprika: Spanish smoked paprika gives smokey flavor and red paprika color to a recipe. This is one of my favorite paprika when making grilling rubs and marinades. This is easily available in all US stores. For everywhere else, buy online.
Make-Ahead and Reheat:
The flavor of Chicken Paprikash gets better when made ahead. In other words, it tastes even better the next day.
To reheat, I recommend heating on "low" so that sour cream does not separate. If sauce is too thick, add some chicken stock while re-heating.
If making Papriaksh just to serve the next day.. I recommend to add and reheat with sour cream just before serving.
Update: I came back from India this week. So thankful to God for opportunity to visit home and meet family. So so happy to be back and ready to share delicious new recipes with you all.
Try something different for dinner tonight. All ingredients to make Chicken Paprikash are already in your pantry. Get some Sweet Paprika and fresh chicken, try delicious Chicken Paprikash for dinner. Happy Cooking!
-Savita
Pairing Ideas:
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Chicken (boneless thighs, cut to 1-2 inch pieces)
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 tbsp Unsalted Butter
- 1.5 tbsp All-Purpose Flour
- 2 tbsp Tomato Paste (or 1 cup Tomato Puree)
- 1/2 tbsp Garlic (2-3 large cloves, minced)
- 1 Cup White Onion (thin half moon slices of a medium white onion)
- 2 tbsp Paprika (sweet hungarian paprika)
- 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper (or hot hungarian paprika)
- 1 Cup Chicken Stock
- 3/4 Cup Sour Cream (*read notes)
- Salt and Black Pepper
- Parsley
- Pasta (for serving. Cook as per package directions.)
Directions
-
1. Heat olive oil in a saute pan. Season diced chicken with generous pinch of salt, black pepper, and a tsp of paprika. Add seasoned chicken in pan and cook stirring often until chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon into a plate. Set aside. -
2. Return pan to heat. Add butter. Let it melt. Add onion and garlic. Saute until onions are soft. (3-4 minutes) Stir often. Don't let garlic burn. Sprinkle flour on top of cooked onions evenly. Continue cooking for 1-2 more minute. Don't let flour burn. -
3. Now add paprika, cayenne and tomato paste (or tomato puree, if using). Cook another 1 minute. -
4. Add chicken stock, 1/2 cup water, and 1/2 tsp of salt. Mix well. Make sure there are no lumps. Return chicken to pan. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium low and cook for 10 minutes or until sauce is thick and chicken is cooked through. -
5. Remove pan from heat, mix in *sour cream. Taste and adjust salt. Mix in chopped parsley. -
6. Serve over pasta or side of crusty bread to scoop the sauce. Enjoy!
Savita's Recipe Notes:
*To avoid lumps, mix sour cream with 2 tbsp of water and use hand whisk to whisk fully before adding to sauce. To avoid curdling. Mix sour cream into sauce off heat. Also, add 1/4 cup sauce into sour cream. Mix well, then add all to pan with sauce. This technique is called tempering and helps brings everything - sauce and cream to same temperature. Hence, prevents curdling. If sour cream used is not sour. Add more or less as per taste.
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