Margarita's International Recipes

Hungarian-American

Chicken Paprikash With Dumplings


Chicken paprikash is a popular dish both among Hungarians and Hungarian Americans. There are thousands of variations of this recipe of chicken cooked in a roux heavily spiced with sweet paprika. Alas, I didn't realize until I started making the dish that I was out of Hungarian paprika and decided to substitute with a smokey paprika I'd gotten as a gift. It was probably a mistake, as the dish tasted of nothing else. Still, I'm not sure that it would have worked with regular sweet paprika either, as the flavors of the sauce were very shallow, and lacked depth and complexity. Indeed, I made a Czech version of this dish which included onions and garlic that I liked far more.

I was also disappointed with the dumplings/gnocchi. They were dense, heavy and not very flavorful. They needed, at the very least, more salt.


Chicken Paprikash With Dumplings

Ingredients

    For the chicken

  • 2 Tbsp cooking oil
  • 2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breasts or thighs, cubed
  • 1/4 cup Hungarian paprika
  • 3 Tbsp onion powder
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 1 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 2 1/4 cups water
  • 3/4 cup flour

    For the dumplings

  • 3 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Directions

Heat oil on a large lidded saute pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken cubes and brown on all sides. Add paprika, onion powder, salt, pepper and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat to low, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the sour cream, water and flour in a lidded bowl. Cover and shake vigorously until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.

While the chicken is cooking, set a pot with salted water to boil for the dumplings. Prepare the dumplings by mixing together the eggs, flour, water and salt in a mixing bowl.

When the water is boiling, turn down the heat to low. Tip the mixing bowl until the batter rests on the edge. Using a butter knife, slice dough at the edge of the bow and drop into the pot of simmering water. Continue until all the dough is used. Increase heat to medium-high and boil until the dumplings are cooked through, about 10 minutes total. Drain.

After the chicken is cooked, uncover and add a couple of ladles of simmering liquid into the sour cream/water/flour mixture. Cover the bowl again and shake vigrously until combined. Add this mixture to the chicken and mix well. Bring the sauce to the boil, stirring occasionally, and then turn down the heat to low and cook until the sauce thickens.

Serve the chicken and sauce on top of the dumplings.


Adapted from Danny P's recipe at Food.com


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