We love making this Chicken Paprikash dish and serving it with a side of rice for dinner. It’s a rich dish cooked in a delicious sauce! If you’re going for authentic taste, you have to use Hungarian paprika.
Note: Please note that while I was born in Europe in an ex communist country (Albania), I feel a lot more closer to the Mediterranean cuisine than the Eastern European one as it’s obvious in my blog. But once in a while I remember some of the old recipes that we learned during decades of Eastern Bloc.
I know it’s confusing, but for example see my Albanian version of the Russian salad recipe. However, please look for the recipe from a Hungarian chef or blogger if you’re looking for the real authentic version. This is just my rendition of this famous recipe and I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does.
Ingredients for Chicken Paprikash
Here are the ingredients I used to make this comforting chicken dish:
- Chicken thighs with skin on
- Hungarian Paprika (highly recommend) or in its absence a really good quality sweet paprika.
- Olive oil
- Onions
- Tomatoes
- Chicken broth
- Tomato sauce
- All purpose flour
- Sour cream
- Fresh parsley to garnish
Let’s Cook:) – Sonila’s Tips and Notes
Ok so let’s start with thawed chicken, I prefer dark meat like drumsticks or chicken thighs with skin on. Pat dry and place on a plate.
Then season chicken pieces thoroughly on both sides with lots of Hungarian paprika. I use a brush to spread evenly but you can use your hands or even wear cooking gloves if you’re squeamish.
Next step is to brown the chicken thoroughly in olive oil in a deep skillet. Then set the chicken aside and start making the sauce. Once you make the sauce with onions, tomatoes, flour, tomato sauce, broth etc then add the chicken back in and simmer on low for about 45 minutes or so.
I love adding parsley to garnish the dish for both the look and the aroma it gives the final dish. We usually serve this dish with plain white rice.
Note on lard – Traditionally this recipe calls for lard but I tend to use olive oil in most of my dishes so this is a deviation from traditional in the way I cook this dish.
Chicken Paprikash
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 chicken thighs about 3 lbs or skin on, bone on chicken
- 3 tbsps Hungarian sweet paprika
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion large or 2 medium
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 roma tomatoes diced
- 4 oz tomato sauce
- 3 tbsps all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp salt
- 0.5 tsp black pepper
- 2.5 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3 tbsps fresh parsley finely chopped
Instructions
- Season chicken thighs with paprika on all sides.
- Add olive oil to Dutch oven or deep large skillet in medium heat. Add seasoned chicken and brown for 3-4 minutes on each side.
- Once chicken is browned, remove from skillet and let it rest on a platter, covered.
- Add diced onion on skillet and if need an additional spoon of olive oil. Scrape all the sides with a wooden cooking spoon. Saute onion. Add diced tomatoes.
- In a minute or so when tomatoes have softened add all purpose flour and mix with the wooden spoon to ensure nothing sticks to the skillet and the flour starts cooking.
- In a few minutes add tomato sauce, broth, salt and pepper. Mix well.
- Add browned chicken back to the skillet and lower temperature. Simmer for about 45-50 minutes in low heat and covered.
- After simmering, remove chicken and add sour cream to sauce. Mix well, taste for flavor and salt and adjust as needed. Add chicken back in and let cook few minutes just to allow the flavors to mix.
- Turn heat off, garnish with fresh parsley and serve with your favorite side dish! Enjoy:))).
Notes
- I highly advise you use bone in, skin on chicken. It adds flavor to the dish.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- You can use just sour cream like I did. However, plenty of authentic recipes call for additional heavy cream or creme fraiche in addition to sour cream. If you’ll try to add both, then do ¾ cup sour cream and ¼ cup cream instead of 1 cup of sour cream.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this dish for later, please pin one of the pictures from this post to your boards in Pinterest so you can easily retrieve the recipe in the future. Let me know in comments if you have any questions or even share your variations of this recipe.
Thank you for reading my blog, it means a lot to me and my family!
Some regions add Hungarian style peppers and some don’t. There’s no right or wrong, just check with your family if they did add peppers or not. If you’re not after an authentic taste, then you can test the recipe once with peppers and once without. I have tried it with red pepper and it’s delicious!!
I prefer a (affiliate) Dutch oven or a large tri clad deep skillet to cook this dish. You want a pot or skillet with heavy bottom that maintains heat and does great with low but long cooking sessions.
Other Comforting Chicken Dishes
These are some of my popular chicken recipes in case you’re looking for more inspiration.
- Braised Chicken Thighs
- Creamy Garlic and Mustard Chicken
- Creamy Chicken in a Mushrooms and Spinach Sauce
- Chicken in a sun dried tomatoes sauce with feta cheese
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