Slow cooked chicken, green peppers, and tomatoes in a creamy, sweet paprika sauce – it’s a delicious Hungarian recipe that’s sure to be a family favorite.
This is a perfect weekend meal and just as good heated over as leftovers.
Chicken Paprikash
- 2 2½ pound broiler fryer chickens, cut up
- ¼ cup butter
- 3 large onions, chopped
- 1 small green pepper, chopped
- 1 ripe tomato, chopped
- 2 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup sour cream
Wash chicken and pat dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat butter in large skillet. Brown chicken pieces on all sides, removing as they brown. Sauté onions, peppers and tomato until wilted. Add paprika and chicken broth. Add chicken, turning in pan drippings to coat. Cover and simmer until tender, at least 40 minutes. Remove chicken and keep warm. Stir in sour cream with drippings. Heat gently, but don't allow to boil. Spoon sauce over chicken. Add spaetzle and serve.
Spaetzle
This recipe can be doubled if your family falls in love with these dumplings. They’re delicious heated over with some of the paprikash sauce.
- 2 cups flour
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup water
Mix flour, eggs, salt and water and beat until smooth and shiny. The dough should be the consistency of thick sour cream. You may need to add more liquid or flour to get the right consistency. Drop a teaspoon of batter into boiling water. If it falls apart, keep adding flour.
Put dough on a cutting board above boiling water and with a sharp, flat knife, scrape off a small amount of dough into the boiling water. Spaetzle should be small; each dough scraping should be about the size of half of a quarter.
When the dumplings rise to the top of the water, they’re ready. With a slotted spoon, scoop the spaetzle up and drain well. Keep warm in an ovenproof bowl with a little bit of butter stirred in, in a warm oven until all the spaetzle are done.
Tips:
- Sweet Hungarian paprika can be found in most grocery stores. In a pinch, you can substitute regular paprika, but it will lack the sweetness of the Hungarian variety.
- Always cook spaetzle in small batches. Too many in the boiling water at once and they’ll start to fall apart. For every batch, dip your spoon down to the bottom to rescue any spaetzle that have stuck to the bottom.
- Chicken Paprikash and Spaetzle are best served mixed together. The sheer volume, however, can become unweildy. Serve it in an extra-large, oblong pasta bowl or a 10x15-inch glass dish.
For more ideas for chicken, see:
