Chicken Paprikash

I probably told you in my goulash blog post (I did write up the goulash, didn’t I?) - anyway, I’m always mentioning that I’m Sicilian.  I don’t often mention that I’m also Hungarian (or a I like to call it, Magyar, which is just another term for an ethnic Hungarian).  Only recently have I been experimenting with Hungarian cooking and wine (the wines I love - a nice sparkling white from Torley, and some Furmint - both dry and sweet - and Kekfrankos - which is Hungary’s Blaufrankisch grape).

And wait until I make the poppyseed strudel again - there’s a fun Magyar dish!  (A little difficult, too.)  It was my grandpa’s favorite.

So last night I finally attempted chicken paprikash.  And I’m happy to report that it’s delicious and quite easy to make, and relatively inexpensive, compared to most things I make.  (We’re also fortunate to have a dear Hungarian friend who sent me a package of authentic Hungarian paprika a little while back, so that certainly helps!)

There are very few ingredients - chicken thighs, sea salt, black pepper, sour cream, cayenne pepper, paprika, chicken stock, unsalted butter, onions, and mushrooms.  If you have a spaetzle machine, by all means, make the spaetzle (or as Hungarians call it, nokedli) - I don’t have such a machine yet, or else I’d make nokedli from scratch.  So for now, I used egg noodles.  And as for wine, I chose the 2006 La Pommeraie de Brown, the 2nd label of Chateau Brown in the Pessac-Leognan part of Bordeaux (just over half Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Merlot), and Peter chose the 2006 Val Sotillo Crianza Ribera del Duero.  Both were very good matches for the dish - for weight I’d go for the Bordeaux, and for flavor match I’d go for the Ribera del Duero, but either way it was delightful.

The whole thing was pretty easy - I asked the local butcher to leave the skin on the chicken thighs.  I patted them dry and seasoned with plenty of sea salt and black pepper, and the melted some unsalted butter in the Le Creuset pot (recipes generally called for a saute pan but I don’t have a real saute pan that’s big enough - the cast iron enamel pot was perfect anyway) - anyway, once the butter was melted (and smelling gloriously), I browned the chicken in the butter, and then I browned some thinly sliced crimini mushrooms, and once I removed them, I cooked the sliced onions in the browning butter, as they began to caramelize, I added plenty of sea salt, a touch of cayenne pepper, and lots of Hungarian paprika (I can still smell the sweet smoky aromas today).  Once the onions were cooked down a bit, I put the mushrooms back in, and poured in some chicken stock.  After all ingredients were incorporated, I put the chicken back in, and cooked it (recipes generally called for 20-25 minutes, but I think I left it simmering for close to 50 minutes), until the sauce had thickened and the chicken thighs were cooked thoroughly.  I removed the chicken pieces briefly, and then stirred in a bit more salt and sour cream, put the chicken back in, and when it was ready to be served, the macaroni gets cooked and the paprikash gets heated again, and placed atop the macaroni.  It’s that easy.  And delicious!