Chicken Paprikash

Chicken Paprikash is the perfect balance of meatiness, peppery-ness, creaminess, and a zing of tang from the sour cream. The average chicken leg doesn’t take more than 30 minutes to braise, so you can have a rather remarkable dish ready to eat in about an hour. But if you have the time – don’t rush it. Like most braises, letting all the flavors hang out and simmer in the pan really helps.

I used to make this recipe when I was chef at a 1920s-era bar. My menu needed a filling entree with cozy, grandma-vibes, and paprikash fits the bill.

The dish took a bit of work to get just right; early versions were a little too soupy and greasy. I was eventually able to get the sauce how I wanted by using a cornstarch slurry, and that problem was checked off.

After some feedback from the bartenders, I had to kill my dream of serving the chicken on the bone. Apparently most people were there on dates and didn’t want food that took work to eat. I guess some people don’t find boning out saucy chicken in a dark bar sexy? (I’m as surprised as you are.)

I’m sharing this tidbit because I really like serving this dish on the bone and I think the sauce benefits from having the whole leg in there. The recipe I give below is for bone-in, chicken quarters.

BUT it works perfectly well with boned-out chicken thighs as well (and it is kind of nice just being able to get big stabs of boneless chicken). If you’d like to use boned-out chicken, plan on about 3-4 oz meat per person.

Don’t use breast meat, though. This isn’t a breast meat dish.

Paprikash tastes good on top of lots of things, but my favorite is buttery spatzle. It’s also great over egg noodles or orecchiette (which is what I used in this picture.) Whatever you decide to serve it over, toss the noodles around with butter, black pepper, and herbs if you got ’em. Then ladle hearty portions of sauce and chicken over it. I recommend serving with a side of braised greens, or a green salad with a zippy vinaigrette. You’ll love it.

Chicken Paprikash

Warm, delicious, peppery & just a touch tangy. Serve it over spatzle, egg noodles or orecchiette and have yourself a mouth party.
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Servings 4 people

Equipment

  • Large Skillet with lid
  • Slotted spoon
  • Tongs (optional)
  • Sheet pan

Ingredients
  

  • 4 bone-in chicken legs (split at the joint, if desired)
  • Kosher salt
  • 4 strips bacon (uncooked, diced)
  • 1 small yellow onion, smallish dice
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 whole tomato, rough chopped, seeds removed (you can substitute 1/2 cup unseasoned tomato sauce or canned crushed tomato, if needed)
  • 1 1/2 TBSP sweet Hungarian paprika
  • 2 cups chicken stock, cold, divided
  • 1/2 tsp salt (have more on hand for finishing at end)
  • Few grinds freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 T cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 T heavy cream
  • Spatzle or Noodles for serving
  • Chopped parsley and paprika for garnishing (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Liberally season chicken legs with salt. Leave out on a plate at room temp while you cook your bacon.
  • Use a large skillet to render your chopped bacon. (Skillet should be large enough to hold all your chicken.) Start with a cold a pan, and cook until bacon has rendered out it's fat and pieces are very crispy. Use slotted spoon to remove cooked bacon, leaving fat in pan. Place bacon on plate and reserve.
  • Take a look at your skillet. It should be pretty hot but not smoking at this point. How mudh fat is in there can really vary depending on what your bacon was like, but ideally there should be about 1 TBSP of fat in there, or enough to have a very thin layer, covering your whole skillet. You may need to add a little bit of oil in there, or pour a little bit of fat out. Once you've checked this all out and feel good about it, proceed to the next step.
  • Carefully place your chicken pieces into hot bacon fat, and cook until outsides are browned all over. (It can be nice to have tongs for this part to safely move chicken around and get all the nooks and crannies brown.)
  • Once browned, remove chicken from pan, and reserve (maybe it can go hang out with the bacon.)
  • Lower the heat of your pan slightly. Add onions. Once they start to look slightly sweaty, add garlic, tomato, and paprika. Stir and cook until it smells fragrant and exciting (probably about 4 minutes.)
  • Add 1 3/4 cups chicken stock, salt& pepper. Stir. Then carefully place chicken and bacon back into pan. Cover pan with lid, and gently simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. If you don't have a lid big enough for this large of a skillet, covering it with a sheet pan works perfectly well.
  • Once the chicken is cooked, pop on the broiler to your oven. Remove cooked chicken from skillet, and place on sheet pan (maybe the one you were using as a lid?). Place the chicken under the broiler until browned and the skin gets a little crispy again. Keep an eye on it. It won't take long. Great. Leave it on the sheet pan while you finish your sauce.
  • In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 cup cold chicken stock with cornstarch. Whisk together, and make sure there a no lumps. Whisk this slurry in with the bacon, tomato, onion mixture in your skillet. Cook for a few minutes, whisking continually. The fat should incorporate into the sauce nicely, and the whole sauce will thicken considerably.
  • Whisk sour cream and heavy cream into sauce. Taste sauce, and add more salt or pepper as needed.
  • To serve, place noodles or spatzle on plate, spoon hearty amounts of sauce on top of noodles, then place chicken leg on top. Garnish with parsley and a spank of paprika if desired. Enjoy!