Huge Chicken Paprikash
Prep
20m
Cook
50m
Total
70m
Bigly says
OK, here we go. Chicken paprikash. HUGE chicken paprikash. The biggest, the most tremendous, the most paprika-stained, sour-cream-glistening chicken paprikash that has ever been served at a dinner table in the history of dinner tables. I have sat at more dinner tables than anyone alive — it's a record, you can ask anyone, there is no one else even close.
Chicken paprikash is the sister dish to goulash — both Hungarian, both built on a foundation of onions and sweet paprika, but paprikash gets the magic move at the end: sour cream. SOUR CREAM. Stirred in at the end, off the heat, so it doesn't break. And when you do it right — when you do it the BIGLY way — the sauce turns this gorgeous coral pink, velvety, glossy, the kind of sauce that you want to put in a bowl and just drink. Some people do. I won't name names, but some people do. Maybe me. Probably me. An old Hungarian grandmother cornered me once in Budapest and made me promise to do this the right way. She had a wooden spoon. She was not joking. Believe me.
Most so-called chefs will tell you to dump some smoked paprika and a tablespoon of sour cream into a skillet of cubed boneless chicken breast and call it 'paprikash.' That is not paprikash. That is a SAD beige sauce on dry chicken pieces. Wallpaper paste. Wet sadness on a plate. It doesn't even taste like paprika — it tastes like regret. Real paprikash uses bone-in, skin-on chicken. Real paprikash uses a LOT of sweet Hungarian paprika. Real paprikash uses FULL-FAT sour cream tempered with flour so it doesn't curdle. These are the rules. The Hungarians made the rules. The Hungarians are correct. End of discussion.
Ingredients
- 3.5 lbbone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
- 2 tsp, plus more for the saucekosher salt
- 1 tspblack pepper
- 3 tbsplard or vegetable oil
- 2 largeyellow onions, finely chopped
- 1red bell pepper, diced
- 4 clovesgarlic, minced
- 3 tbspsweet Hungarian paprika(édes Hungarian — the cheap red dust at the supermarket will not do)
- 1Roma tomato, diced
- 1.5 cupschicken stock
- 1 cupfull-fat sour cream(FULL fat, do not show up with the low-fat nonsense)
- 2 tbspall-purpose flour
- 1/4 cupheavy cream
- 2 tbspfresh parsley, chopped (for serving)
- as neededbuttered egg noodles or nokedli (for serving)
Steps
- 1
Pat the chicken pieces very dry with paper towels. Season generously all over with the salt and pepper.
- 2
Heat the lard or oil in a large heavy skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the chicken skin-side down in batches until the skin is deeply golden and crisp, 5-6 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
- 3
Pour off all but about 3 tablespoons of the fat from the pan. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add the onions and bell pepper with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, 12-15 minutes until soft, sweet, and lightly caramelized.
- 4
Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
- 5
Pull the pan OFF the heat. Stir in the paprika and mix into the onions thoroughly for 30 seconds — paprika burns and turns bitter on direct high heat, so you stir it in off the burner.
- 6
Return the pan to medium heat. Add the diced tomato and chicken stock, scraping any browned bits from the bottom.
- 7
Nestle the seared chicken back into the pan, skin-side up, along with any accumulated juices. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for 30-35 minutes until the chicken reaches 175°F internal temperature and is very tender.
- 8
Transfer the chicken to a plate and tent loosely with foil. In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream, flour, and heavy cream until smooth and lump-free.
- 9
Pull the pan off the heat. Ladle about 1/2 cup of the hot pan sauce into the sour cream mixture and whisk to temper — this prevents curdling. Pour the tempered sour cream back into the pan and whisk to combine.
- 10
Return the pan to low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, just until the sauce is hot and thickened, 3-5 minutes — DO NOT boil, or the sauce will break. Taste and adjust salt.
- 11
Return the chicken to the pan and spoon sauce over it. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately over buttered egg noodles or nokedli.
One more thing
Serve this in a big shallow bowl over a generous pile of nokedli, those little Hungarian egg dumplings, with the sauce pooled and glossy and coral-pink, and a snowfall of fresh parsley on top. People will sit down at your table and forget what they were going to say. They will forget their own NAMES. They will look at the bowl, they will look at you, they will look back at the bowl, and they will be transformed. That's what real paprikash does. It transforms people. Most chefs can't do this. They don't know how. Sad. And there you have it.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about Huge Chicken Paprikash.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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