Monday, December 19, 2016

Rick's Paprika Chicken

paprika-chicken-2Sometime on the proverbial “cold winter’s night” you may want to cook this for your family and/or friends. It’s about as easy as it gets, and no one ever complains.
I have several versions of chicken paprikash, (mushrooms are great in it) but this is the simplest.
 Ingredients:
 2 TBS canola oil
1 TBS unsalted butter
4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
2 yellow onions, sliced thin
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TBS good paprika (You know, that good Hungarian kind in the red can. I use mostly sweet with a few dashes of hot. Adjust to your taste.)
1 14 oz. good chopped or diced canned tomatoes
1 cup good chicken stock
½ cup of sour cream
Salt and pepper
 Recipe
Heat your oil and butter in a wide pan (with a lid for later) over medium high heat until it foams. Wipe your chicken pieces with a paper towel so they will brown. Season them generously with salt and pepper. Put them in the pan and brown them on both sides, adjusting your heat so they brown but don’t burn.
When nicely brown remove them to a plate, turn the heat down to medium low and put your onions in the pan, and stir. When they are getting light brown (about 4 minutes) toss in the garlic and stir for a minute or two.
Add the paprika and flour and stir into the onion/garlic mixture until they are well blended. Cook and stir until for a few minutes to get the floury taste out. But don’t burn it!
Add the stock and tomatoes and stir. It should thicken up. If it is too thick add a little more stock. When it is bubbling nicely put the chicken pieces back in the pan, turn the heat down to a gentle simmer, put the lid on it, and time it for 30 minutes, turning the pieces at half-time.
When the timer goes if the sauce is thin (it most likely won’t be) remove the chicken and simmer the sauce down. If it is too thick add some more stock.
Adding the sour cream is a bit tricky because it can curdle, but I know you can do it! Here’s what to do. Put the sour cream in a small bowl, and add some of the hot sauce to it a little bit at a time, and whisk it in. Keep adding small amounts and whisk. Then add it to pan with the sauce and stir. This should keep the sour cream from curdling.
Serve over buttered wide egg noodles, with a salad or the green vegetable of your choice. Add a sturdy (but not austere) red wine with some fruit to it, and you will be in comfort food land. Enjoy!
paprika-chicken-1
(Photos by R.L. Floyd. 2016)