Since we are still staying home, staying safe, I am enjoying cooking/baking all sorts of new dishes, like the Sunday Sauce. I will share this delicious recipe that I found online and tried at home, called Chicken Paprikash. It is a Hungarian dish, often eaten with a side of Nokedli, which is basically egg noodles, or dumpling.
It was sooooo good, I just have to share! Here is the ingredients for the Chicken Paprikash:
INGREDIENTS
3 pounds chicken thighs and/or drumsticks
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons paprika (sweet and/or hot)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth (low-sodium preferred)
3/4 cup sour cream
Since it will be cooked in a sauce for a bit, and I like to keep the chicken skin crisp, I got all chicken thighs. 3 pounds of chicken thighs ended up to be 8 thigh pieces. First, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Don’t be shy, give it a good amount of seasoning. Then, heat the oil (I used EVOO) and butter in a Dutch oven (or any oven-safe pan) over high flame, until the butter is foaming. Since not all 8 chicken thighs will fit in there, I seared the chicken in 2 batches. Place them skin-side down, until it is golden and crisp, approximately 5 to 7 minutes.
Then turn the chicken over, and repeat on the other side, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Remove chicken from the Dutch oven to a plate to rest. While the chicken is cooking, chop up the onion and garlic. I used yellow onion for this.
There will be a nice amount to chicken fat left in the pot. Pour out most of them, except for about a tablespoon or two, we are going to use that! If it is easier for you, just pour all of them out into a bowl, and then put about one or two tablespoons back to the pot. Return the pot to the stove, over medium heat, and add the onion. Cook the onions, stirring frequently to scrape off any browned bits of chicken skin (the yummy bits!), until the onion has softened and gone translucent. As the Sunday Sauce, don’t rush the onions get them all comfortable in their hot tub. Then, add the garlic and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes. At this point, I started to heat the oven to 400F.
Remove the pot from the heat, and then add the paprika and the flour, and stir well to combine, then cook until the mixture is fragrant and the taste of the flour has been cooked out, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. It is important to remove the pot from the heat FIRST, as paprika has to be gently warmed. If it touches the heat quickly, it burns becomes bitter.
Once that’s done, you are ready for the tomatoes! I used crushed tomatoes from a Tuttorosso can. Add tomatoes and broth, mix until smooth.
Put the chicken back in the pan, gently, skin-side up. At this point, all the chickens fit nicely in the pot (although a bit tight). Slide the pot into the oven (uncovered), and cook until the chicken has cooked through and the sauce has thickened slightly, about 25 to 30 minutes.
While the chicken is cooking in the oven, it is time to make the Nokedli. Here is what you need:
INGREDIENTS
1 cup (140 grams) bread flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons sour cream
some milk
Special equipment: spatula, cheese grater, butter knife
I was planning to just use the store bought egg noodle at first, but then I found out that making Nokedli was surprisingly easy. So, if you want to an additional culinary adventure, give it a try! First, whisk the flour and salt together in a bowl. Then, add the eggs…
And add sour cream and stir the mixture to combine. I only had medium eggs, so I knew the dough will be quite dry, and that I will need some milk to make the dough into the right consistency. You can see how dry and crumbly it is in the photo. This is not what you want! Also, at this point, I started to heat up a pot of salted water to boil.
Unless you have the right consistency of the dough already, start adding small amount of milk at a time. You want the dough to be soft, but not runny. Since my dough was really dry, it took a good amount of milk in there to make it just right. Getting there slowly but surely… Now, don’t rush the milk, you don’t want the dough to be super runny! Just take it about 1 tablespoon at a time.
Even though this is considered kind of an “egg noodle” but you are not going to rolled it out and cut as you do with pasta. So, you don’t want the dough to be tough. What you want is a soft dough, somewhere between pancake batter and bread dough. In my opinion, it was similar to choux pastry dough.
Once you got the dough consistency right, next is the fun part! But, if your chicken still have a way to go, you can rest the dough for a bit first. It does make the dough better and easier to work with. Now, I tried two ways of shaping the dough. First method was with the spatula and a butter knife. Put some dough on the spatula, and use the back of ta knife to cut small dumplings into a pot of boiling water. This was easy enough, but the shapes were not the same, and bigger and fatter than they should be… and it was taking too long of a time!
So, I got my cheese grater out, and tried this method. Now, be sure to use the BACK side of the cheese grater, NOT the sharp blade side. If you don’t have a cheese grater, you can use perforated spoon, or anything with holes in it. Put some dough on the back of the cheese grater, and slide & press the dough through the holes. If the dough is not coming through, that means your dough is not soft enough. Add more milk in it to make it just right.
Sorry for the mess, it was paying more attention to the camera than to my pot. LOL. This method was super easy, fast, and very satisfying! You can see this method in action in the video below. Make sure to do this in a small batch, so that they don’t get overcooked and mushy.
Cheese grater worked like a charm! I was able to make a good amount of dumplings at a time, and didn’t have to worry about the size or shape.
It doesn’t take long for them to start floating to the surface after they are dropped into the boiling water. Once they do, give them a minute, and then scoop them out with a slotted spoon. Put a little butter on it to keep them from sticking together. Then, move on to the next batch. Drain the noodles, and toss them in a bowl with the remaining butter, then toss again to coat.
Now that the Nokedli is done, let’s get the Chicken out of the oven! My goodness they are looking great! I wish if you can get the amazing aroma coming out of this pot… If this is more than you can consume at one sitting, just take out what you want, and you can freeze the remaining portion. Or, you can just keep them in a fridge and have them the next day. Do this BEFORE you add sour cream! Add the sour cream when you reheat and serve.
Place the chicken on top of the noodles, then add the sour cream to the sauce, stir to combine and ladle it over the chicken (or onto the entire dish!). It was so delicious!!! Chicken was tender, packed with flavor, and mouthwatering good! The sauce was great too, perfect combination of spices and flavor. I was planning to add splashes of chardonnay at the beginning, but I completely forgot… But we had the chardonnay with the dish, and it was excellent.
I think the dish was perfect as is (and it tasted even better the next day!), but I think it can have some other veggies in there for extra flavor and texture, like bell peppers and mushroom? Well, that will not make it an authentic dish, but hey, it is always fun to make the recipe into your own… It is going to take all of us being safe to get rid of this virus, so let’s continue to stay safe! In a meanwhile, what are you cooking up at your home?