Chicken paprikash (paprikás csirke) with cucumber salad
65 min · 52 g protein · 562 cals / serving
Tender chicken in a velvety, brick-red sauce of slowly softened onions, sweet Hungarian paprika, peppers and tomato, finished with tangy sour cream. It is spooned over egg noodles and comes with a cold, sweet-sour cucumber salad dusted with paprika, exactly as a Hungarian grandmother would serve it.
Ingredients
Paprikash
- 1/2 tbsp canola oil
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- 3/4 lb chicken thigh, skinless, in large pieces
- 14 oz chicken breast, in large pieces
- 2 tbsp paprika, sweet Hungarian
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 banana peppers, Hungarian wax or green bell pepper, sliced
- 1 large tomato, chopped
- 1 1/4 cups chicken broth
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup light sour cream
- heaped 1/2 cup lowfat plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
To serve
- 5 1/2 oz egg noodles, wide egg noodles or nokedli
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Cucumber salad
- 2 large cucumbers, very thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 1/2 tsp salt
Steps
- For the salad, salt the cucumber, leave 10 minutes, squeeze out the liquid and toss with the vinegar, sugar, garlic and 3 tbsp water. Chill. For the paprikash, heat the oil in a heavy pot and cook the onions over medium-low heat 12–15 minutes, stirring, until very soft and golden.
- Add the chicken and garlic and cook 3–4 minutes until the chicken turns white. Take the pot off the heat, stir in the paprika (it burns easily) and coat everything.
- Return to the heat and add the peppers, tomato, broth and salt. Cover and simmer gently 20–25 minutes, until the chicken is tender (165°F).
- Whisk the sour cream, yogurt and flour smooth, then whisk in a ladle of the hot sauce. Stir it into the pot off the heat and warm gently for 2–3 minutes, without boiling, until thick and creamy.
- Cook the noodles. Serve the paprikash over the noodles, scattered with parsley, with the cucumber salad alongside, dusted with a little paprika.
Good to know
Does the paprika matter?
It is the whole dish. Use fresh, sweet Hungarian paprika; a tin that has sat open for a year tastes of dust. Add a pinch of hot paprika if you like heat.
Why did my sauce split?
Boiling after the sour cream goes in curdles it. Temper it with hot sauce first and keep the pot below a simmer.
Bone-in chicken?
The traditional way. Use 3 lb skinless bone-in thighs and drumsticks and simmer 35–40 minutes. All dark meat is a little richer: about 67 instead of 70.
Per
- Calories
- 82
- Protein
- (38%)
- 8 g
- Fat
- (26%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (36%)
- 8 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 177 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2248 kcal goes into the pot and 2848 g of ingredients comes out as about 2750 g of food: 82 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.