My husband gave me an amazing retirement gift: a Danube River Cruise. It was unfortunately delayed by the pandemic but when we finally took the trip, it was amazing! Budapest was our first stop and we loved this city. Beautiful architecture and easy to walk. Wonderful food including a tasty Chicken Paprikash. I hadn’t thought about making it myself until I saw a Cook’s Country where they prepared the dish which is relatively easy to make. I’m sharing my version of the dish today with you since a reader at a recent conference reminded me of how much you like my recipes! THANK YOU! You can find more recipes in the Cook’s Treat section on the website.
Ingredients
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, very thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, very thinly sliced
1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes, drained (14.5 ounce can)
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 bone-in skinless chicken thighs
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
3 tablespoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup sour cream, plus extra for serving
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Directions
Salt and pepper chicken thighs and let sit for about half an hour to allow spices to work their way into the meat.
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil until shimmering. Add chicken thighs and brown lightly. Remove chicken from heat and add remaining 2 tbsp olive olive, thinly sliced onions and peppers.
Lower heat and cook slowly until onions and peppers are very soft.
Add garlic and tomato paste and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add chicken broth, paprika, fire roasted tomatoes, cayenne pepper and chicken thighs, tops of thighs down. Why chicken thighs? It’s tough to overcook them and have them get as dry as chicken breasts can get.
If you can’t find the fire roasted canned tomatoes, you can use regular diced canned tomatoes. IMHO the fire roasted ones add a smoky flavor to the dish that mirrors the smokiness of the paprika. Speaking of paprika, Hungarian paprika is some of the best and I scored some while visiting Budapest.
Cook for about 15 minutes and then flip the thighs over. Cook for another 15 minutes or until internal temperature of thighs registers at 190 degrees.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and sour cream until smooth. I use more sour cream than in the Cook’s Country recipe because I love sour cream! If you’re watching your calories, light sour cream works as well.
Mixing the flour and sour cream and tempering it with the cooking liquid will help keep the sour cream from breaking when you add it to the hot cooking liquid.
Once the chicken has reached temperature, take a few spoons of cooking liquid and mix into the flour and sour cream mixture. Mix until smooth and after, slowly add the rest of the flour/sour cream mix into the pot with the chicken.
Cook for another 5 minutes or so to get rid of the raw flour taste.
Serve over rice, dumplings, spaetzle, or egg noodles. Sprinkle with some paprika and chopped parsley. You can also serve it with a dollop of sour cream or drizzle it over the dish.
