Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Chicken Paprikash!

Jó reggelt kívánok, DFO!

That’s all the Hungarian I know and I had to get that from Google translate.

Welcome back!

Speaking of Hungary, hope all y’all have been following along with our DFO Euro 2020 and Copa America previews. They’ve been terrific.

Staying on message here’s SonOfSpam’s awesome team preview – sort of – for Hungary.

We’re going to be making one of the national dishes of Hungary today with Chicken Paprikash or “Paprikás Csirke” which literally means Paprika Chicken. Stick around and you will certainly find out why.

Inspiration for the meal is interesting.

During the deepest depths of the pandemic/shut down my company had a “fun,” “bonding,” “sharing,” project. A division cookbook.

That’s right motherfuckers. I’m part of a “division!”

Basically an email was sent to the entire division that requested recipes. They wanted to have a complete cookbook made up from suggestions from the entire group in time for the holidays.

These were the same folks who were all remote working from home on their little “Zoom” meetings while also drinking wine, making sourdough starter or whatever-the-fuck while my righteous ass was here. At work. Every goddamn day. So they could work remotely.

I’ve been down that road already.

Of course I submitted a couple of recipes which should surprise exactly nobody.

One was for my spicy Thai Style green beans. Recipe here.

The second was for my gratin potatoes. Recipe here.

Both of those recipes are the bright shiny tits by the way.

The green bean recipe is featured prominently in the cookbook.

My gratin potato recipe though?

/takes deep breath.

Didn’t make the cookbook because someone else (with a much higher paygrade than mine mind you) had already submitted a gratin potato recipe that used…A CAN OF CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP!

WHAT THE FUCK?

Imagine my dismay.

I was positively acrimonious! 

Anyway, chicken paprikash was submitted by this great guy – who is Hungarian by-the-way – who I’ve known for years. His version was a bit simpler but this recipe is based on the spirit of his version.

I’ve dabbled around with Hungarian-ish menus before although I attributed my goulash recipe to the Germans.

That beauty is from Season 1 all the way back in the before time of 2015!

Check out that photo!

Sexy!

Chicken Paprikash is basically a chicken goulash. There are many similarities. The primary one being a fucking truckload of paprika. I mean a shovelful. A metric fuck-ton.

This is all good news for me because along with thyme, paprika is an absolute personal favorite. No shit, I’ve got 4 kinds in my spice cabinet as we speak. That would include smoked, smoked Spanish paprika, hot Hungarian, and basic paprika. Each has specific notes and nuances that can be used as enhancements to many a dish.

Some of the descriptions for a good paprika are enticing. Words like smoky, sweet, pungent, campfire, hot, dusky, delicate, rich and so on.

Since it comes from the “capsicum” family – just like chili peppers – it can range from mild to actually quite hot. I’m using Hot Hungarian paprika today and am cutting the heat by also using smoked paprika.

One thing to keep in mind though, like every spice, fresher is better. It can not only lose it’s potency with age, paprika can also become sour and bitter and those are two boneheaded terms to be using if you’re talking about paprika.

Not only am I making chicken paprikash but I’ll be serving it over homemade egg noodles which is authentic as fuck and serving alongside some, you guessed it, homemade French bread.

We better get going on this.

 

Yep. Bread.

As always if you want to follow along with the recipe it’s here.

And why haven’t you been paying attention for the first part of this season? I’ve only done it like every fucking week.

In addition to the bread though, this time we’re also using our Kitchenaide to make the homemade egg noodles. 

Authentic paprikash uses a noodle that’s closer to spätzle but I like a firmer, denser egg noodle myself.

Egg Noodles!

recipe courtesy of spendwithpennies.com

mad respect to the cook at that blog. She knows what she’s doing.

2 cups flour

⅛ teaspoon salt or to taste

2 eggs

⅓ cup milk

1 tablespoon butter softened

¼ cup flour for dusting

Mix the dry ingredients.

Now the wet ingredients.

And mix together.

Now we form it into a ball.

This dough was a tiny bit tackier than my pasta dough so I vacillated between using my pasta roller or rolling them out with a rolling pin.

Right after I put the pasta maker attachment away I rolled the dough in the “1/4 cup of flour for dusting” and then it was the perfect texture to roll through the pasta roller.

Fuck that. I had my mind made up already.

We’re going to roll this bastard out the old fashioned way.

On a lightly floured surface roll that shit out. Get it just a bit thicker than a sheet of pasta dough

Want “old school?’

Pizza cutter!

Slice it into strips.

The hang ’em up to dry.

While the noodles are drying let’s get our bread in the oven.

The usual technique is applied.

Then cook until brown and lovely.

Chicken Paprikash!

2 large onions, minced

Oil for browning*

Kosher salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons Hungarian hot paprika

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock *I used the stock we made last week when we made chicken salad.

1 pack of bone-in skin on chicken thighs

1 pack bone-in skin on chicken legs

1/4 cup heavy cream – you can also use sour cream but I had heavy cream on hand.

Not a lot of ingredients but there is a lot of intensity to those ingredients.

 

Ladies and gentlemen let’s introduce today’s chicken!

That would be the legs and thighs. Love the skin on and even better with the bone in.

Since we’re working with 2 big ass onions and need a small dice…You already know where this is going.

And pulse a few times.

Yep I used all the goddamn kitchen toys today!

There’s that oil* again!

Exactly the same oil we used last week for baking the wheat bread and the oil that was created when we made the Tortilla Española. 

Told you that shit was versatile.

Gather the “paprikash!”

Get some of that oil in a pan and let’s sear our chicken.

Thighs first. These will cook for about 5 minutes per side.

Season with salt and lots of pepper. Give them a flip.

Five more minutes. Then, chicken legs go next.

Season and turn.

The onions will now enter the pot.

Cook the onions right in the chicken juices and oil and such. Let these cook for maybe 7-8 minutes or so. Stirring occasionally. Right at the end add in the minced garlic.

Then all of the paprika and several grinds of black pepper.

What does that much paprika look like?

Holy shit. That’s goddamn impressive right there.

What do you think happens when we stir this together?

Uh-huh. Just onions and paprika. Ain’t no tomato or nuthin’ in that fucker. I saw plenty of recipes that used “some” paprika and then added tomato sauce. Real authentic Hungarians just shit all over those recipes in the comment sections. It’s onion, garlic, paprika, stock and chicken with a splash of cream at the end.

Period.

Cook the paprika’d onions for a minute or two.

That smell will kick you right in the boo-boo about now.

Speaking of stock. From last week we have our homemade stock. AKA the good shit.

Why homemade stock you may be asking? Store bought could work right? 

Look at the shmaltz! That’s why!

Now add the stock into the pot.

See that glorious shmaltz just dissolve in that pan? Goodness!

Now the chicken goes back into the pot.

Slap on the lid and simmer.

At this point the chicken would be done around the 30 minute mark. I go a full 45 minutes because I’m using bone-in and want that shit to fall right off the goddamn bone.

When done remove the chicken from the pan.

Turn off the heat and let the sauce cool for a minute or two then add the cream to the sauce.

Holy shit that is sexy looking. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes then add the chicken back to the pot.

Be sure to coat the chicken with lots of sauce.

Now let’s get after them noodles. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.

Let’s see if those noodles have dried yet.

Looking “noodley.” Get them in the boiling water.

Should take just a few minutes. Remember these are fresh homemade noodles and we want them a little al dente.

Let’s plate up.

Noodles down, then add some chicken and top with sauce. I sprinkled some fresh chives over the top because when you’re already working with the 2 large onions?

Having fresh breath will NOT be an issue after this, I can assure you.

Get some of that bread on there!

Notice we didn’t make garlic toast out of the bread this week. We wanted the bread to help soak up the sauce as we plowed our way through the plate.

Get in closer on that!

Yowza!

Folks, this is fucking delicious. I mean how could it not be?

The chicken is fall apart tender, the rich oniony sauce and the just atomic blast from the paprika are insanely good.

Those noodles though?

Hell yes.

You could actually fuck around with noodle size here. Upon further reflection each of those egg noodles could be cut in thirds and would work fantastically.

Very simple and very few ingredients once again prove to be the trick here.

That chicken the next day?

Motherfucker was that good. Let those flavors marry overnight? Hot damn!

You are absolutely going to love this dish and I fully endorse making it. It’s incredible.

I’ll stop rambling on now.

Again folks. I appreciate all of you so very fucking much. Damn glad to have you here for the journey.

Let’s do it again next week alright? Maybe something a bit less labor intensive though.

Be Safe.

Be Well.

PEACE!