Chicken Paprikash Receipe

Plate of mashed potatoes with chicken paprikash served with fork and knife on the side.

4.50 from 2 votes

This recipe is one of the most famous recipes to come out of Hungary. Chicken stewed in Hungarian paprika and sour cream makes for an easy and delicious meal!

Course Main Course

Cuisine hungary

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1 15

Servings

Calories 552kcal

Author Alexandria Drzazgowski

Equipment

Ingredients

Table Salt for seasoning
¼ cup lard or vegetable oil/butter
2 onions diced
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tbsp sweet paprika
6 chicken bone-in skin on chicken pieces (I used thigh and leg)
6 tbsp sour cream
1 tbsp all purpose flour optional

Instructions

Season the chicken with salt. Set aside.
In a dutch oven add the ¼ cup lard and heat it up. Once it's melted, add the 2 diced onions. Saute the onion until translucent.
Once the onion is translucent, add the 2 minced garlic cloves and stir for another minute. Remove the dutch oven from the heat. Add the 2 tbsp paprika and stir to coat the onions completely.
Add the chicken and stir to coat the chicken in the paprika. Put the pot back on the heat.
Add the lid onto the pot for 5 minutes. Check the chicken. If it is releasing liquid (enough to come up the sides of the chicken), you do not need to add more water. If the pot still looks dry, add about 1 cup of water into the dutch oven, or enough to cover the chicken about halfway.
Add the lid back onto the pot and let it cook for 20 minutes. Then open the lid, flip the chicken, put the lid back on and cook for another 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Use tongs to remove the chicken from the dutch oven and set aside.
Put the 6 tbsp sour cream in a small bowl and spoon in a few spoonfuls of the sauce from the pot. Mix it up in the bowl to make it smooth.
Add the sour cream mixture into the dutch oven and mix to combine. Then, use a food processor or immersion blender to blend the sauce until it is completely smooth.
If your sauce is very thin: Add 1 tbsp of flour into a small bowl with a few spoonfuls of sauce from the dutch oven. Mix until smooth, then pour into the pureed sauce, allowing it to cook for a few minutes over medium heat. This will thicken the sauce.
Add the chicken back into the sauce. Serve with noodles, dumplings, or mashed potatoes. Enjoy!

Notes

Lard: If you can find it, cook your onions in lard. If not, you can also use vegetable shortening, vegetable oil, or butter. Lard adds a unique and delicious flavor to this dish. If possible, don’t use a substitute.
Paprika: Use sweet paprika (as opposed to spicy paprika). I imported mine from Hungary to make sure it had the best flavor. This isn’t necessary but I would certainly recommend it! It makes a huge difference. Using a high-quality paprika is important because it is the only seasoning in the dish.
Chicken: Use bone-in, skin on chicken pieces. I used legs and thighs.
All Purpose Flour: Optional, for thickening the sauce if desired.
Sour cream: You could substitute Greek yogurt for a healthier option but the taste and texture will not be exactly the same.
If you want crispier chicken skin, you can brown the chicken until golden brown in the Dutch oven before cooking the onions. However, most recipes I watched of Hungarians making a Chicken Paprikash Recipe did not do this.
Use fresh, good-quality paprika! Ground spices lose their flavoring over time, so it’s best to use a fresh bottle, especially because the paprika flavoring is so important in this Chicken Paprikash Recipe.
Remove the Dutch oven from the heat when adding the paprika. This ensures that the paprika doesn’t burn.
If you are adding flour to your sauce to thicken it: Add some of the sauce into the flour bowl and mix to combine until completely smooth. Then add the flour into the sauce. If you skip this step, you will end up with flour lumps in your sauce.
Many authentic chicken paprikash recipes include several different versions of paprika. The base should be sweet paprika but feel free to add some hot paprika or even pureed paprika if you can get your hands on it for even more flavor.
This dish is made with skin-on chicken or a whole chicken cut into pieces but the bone-in chicken pieces do tend to take longer to cook. You could save some time by using boneless skinless chicken breasts or boneless chicken thighs but the taste will not be as authentic.

Nutrition