Chicken Paprikash, Cooked by a Romanian

One day in a co-op in Toledo, Pip came across some incredibly pungent and rather hot [Spanish? Hungarian?] paprika in the bulk spice section. And in his excitement from finding such a good-quality spice, became pretty heavy-handed with the scoop when purchasing. So we ended up with enough paprika to fill a 12-ounce jar.

And that's how we decided we needed more recipes with paprika.

We looked at many a Hungarian paprikash recipe out there on the interwebs, but never found "the one".  So we took tips from four or five good candidates and tweaked them to our liking.  Pip also said that this version is close to the one he remembers his mother cooking back in Transylvania.

1 package of chicken legs
2 heaping tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons olive oil (or butter)
2 small yellow onions, chopped
4 or 5 small Hungarian wax peppers, chopped
1 poblano or 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt)
2-3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
salt and pepper

De-bone and clean your chicken legs.  (If you have the time, you can easily make stock with the bones. We love Pepin's recipe, which you can find at the bottom of this page.) When your chicken is clean, sprinkle paprika and a little salt on the meat.

Warm the oil in a high-walled frying pan or small soup pot.  Add the chicken to the pan and brown a little.  Because you've doused the chicken with paprika, you can't easily see when it's browned on both sides, but that's your end goal.  We remove the chicken from the pot when it is about 75% cooked.  Set the chicken aside.

In the pan that is now full of delicious chicken drippings and paprika, saute the onions and peppers.  Add a dash of oil if needed.  When they're sweaty and the onions are translucent, mix in the flour so it's a little "fried".  Then add the broth and whisk until smooth.  Once the flour lumps are gone, stir in the sour cream, parsley, and garlic.

Finally, add your chicken back to the pan and simmer on low until the chicken is fully cooked.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with dumplings/spaetzle, egg noodles, or crusty bread.