Chicken Paprikash, experiment 1, Noreen's

by Don  

Noreen's chicken paprikash?

Meat prep

  • 8 chicken thighs with bone
  • 3 chicken breasts with bone (6 half breasts)
  • 2 cups of flour
  • 1 tbsp paprika (sweet, not hot)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp safflower oil (This is a hi-temp oil, so it won't burn.)

Sauce

  • 2 medium onions, slice
  • 1/4 cup of Hungarian paprika (sweet, not hot)
  • 6 cups of chicken stock
  • 4 cups of sour cream
  • 1/4 cup of flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper

Method

  1. Put 2 tbsp of safflower oil in a pan.
  2. In a large ziplock bag put the dry ingredients from the meat prep sections. Dredge the chicken pieces.
    Put the chicken in the pan skin-side down. Do it in batches so that the chicken browns, not steams. The chicken will let you know when it is time to turn it because it will release from the pan. Turn. When brown, remove from the pan. If there is too much fat, pour the excess off.
  3. Add the onion, halved and sliced, to the remaining fat. Cook till soft. Add paprika. Cook briefly, stirring to bring up fond.
  4. Add the chicken back on top of the onions.
  5. Add chicken stock. Simmer for one hour.
  6. Remove the chicken to a plate. Turn the heat off from the broth.
  7. Put the sour cream in a bowl. Add 1/4 cup of flour. One ladle at a time, add the broth to the sour cream so that it doesn't clump. Do this for three ladles. The purpose is to raise the temp without causing clumping. Then add the sour cream to the broth. Mix well.
  8. Add the chicken back into the broth and let it simmer while the noodles simmer. Once the nokedli are ready, serve with the chicken.

Notes

2016-03-06: I made this for the first time this weekend. Issues...

  • I made it full size, which was ridiculous for my eating needs.
  • Next, I made it in three stages. I did the browning one day, the main simmering the next, and the addition of the sour cream the third. Actually, I think it makes a lot of sense to do the browning a day ahead of time because it is labor and time intensive, whereas it would be reasonably easy to setup the rest of it.

Turned out great flavorwise. This really is Hungarian comfort food again. Works great with the nokedli. Definitely make a half recipe next time. And I would probably like it better using, say with 6-8 boneless thighs, no breasts, and halve the rest of the recipe. And definitely do major trimming of the skin, although really the skin helps the browning process and renders some great chicken fat.

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