What is Chicken Paprikash?
Going back to its origins in Hungary, the dish is called "Paprikás Csirke", which literally means "Paprika Chicken." As the name would imply, its namesake spice plays a major role in the flavor of the dish, which gives Chicken Paprikash a similar flavor profile to other traditional Hungarian stews such as Goulash.
Like its Russian cousin Beef Stroganoff, this Hungarian paprika chicken recipe has managed to work its way from relative obscurity into the hearts and stomachs of comfort food seekers around the world. For my version, I like to make it with bone-in chicken pieces, fresh green peppers, sour cream, and of course: tons of paprika.
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Ingredients for Hungarian Chicken Paprikash
Chicken
While chicken breast meat can be delicious when cooked to the right temperature, it's very lean, which is why it tends to get dry and mealy when overcooked. Since stews like this Hungarian Chicken Paprikash recipe require longer cooking times, I highly recommend using leg meat such as chicken thighs and drumsticks.
I like using bone-in skin-on chicken legs which not only adds more flavor to the sauce, it also keeps the meat moist and juicy. The one exception is if you are in a hurry. It won't be quite as flavorful, but you can shave about thirty minutes off the cooking time if you use boneless chicken thighs cut into cubes. Just follow all the same steps and reduce the amount of chicken to about 600 grams.
Paprika
You'll want to use good Hungarian paprika. I'm not saying this because I have a problem with paprika from other countries (I have four cans of Spanish paprika in the pantry). Nor is this about some misguided loyalty to the dish's roots. My recommendation is merely a practical one. There are so many different kinds of paprika, with colors ranging from orange to blood red, tastes running from spicy to sweet, and flavors going from smoky to fruity, the paprika landscape can get a little confusing.
Thankfully in Hungary, the national spice is divided into eight grades, each one with its unique characteristics. The one that's most commonly found in the US is called édes nemes or "noble sweet" which is full-bodied, fruity, and a stunning vermillion hue; perfect for Chicken Paprikash. If you can't find it a more generic sweet paprika will work in a pinch.
Peppers
While paprika provides the primary flavoring for its eponymous dish, I first learned to make this dish from a Hungarian lady who always added some fresh green peppers to her Paprikash. The difference between red peppers and green ones is how ripe they are when they're picked. This is why red peppers tend to be sweeter while green peppers tend to have a more concentrated flavor than their fully ripened counterparts.
I've tried making this with and without adding fresh peppers, and I've found that adding green peppers gives the dish a more robust flavor. I used a local variety of green chili called Piiman, but any mild green pepper such as Bell, Cubanelle, or Yellow Wax Peppers (a.k.a. Banana peppers) will work.
Sour Cream
Hungarian Chicken Paprikash is finished off with a generous dollop of sour cream. This adds a mild tang, balancing out the richness of the stew while imparting a roundness that adds depth and dimension to this humble traditional Hungarian dish. It won't be quite the same, but if you're trying to cut back on fat, a strained yogurt does a pretty decent job as a substitute for sour cream. Finally, if you need to make this kosher, you can use raw cashew nuts puréed with water and a bit of lemon juice in a blender to approximate the richness and acidity of the sour cream.
How to Make Chicken Paprikash
For my Paprika Chicken recipe, I like to build a strong foundation of umami by browning the chicken in batches. Then the onions and peppers get caramelized in the same pot. To this base layer of flavor, the paprika gets added and sautéed for a few seconds. The high temperature helps the spice release its full bouquet of aromas, particularly if your paprika isn't the freshest. Just be careful not to burn it as it's easy to do, and will make your sauce bitter.
Next, some chicken broth goes in before the chicken gets added back and simmered until the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender. Finally, a roux of sour cream and flour is made to thicken the sauce, but you don't want to add it directly to the stew. Since adding cold sour cream to a hot liquid will make it curdle, it's important to temper the mixture by slowly introducing the hot cooking liquid to the roux until it is warm before adding it to the pot.
What to serve with Chicken Paprikash
The classic pairing is a small Hungarian dumpling called Nokedli which is similar to German Spaetzle. They're made with eggs and flour and can be prepared from scratch while you're waiting for the chicken to cook. In the US, Paprika Chicken is usually served with egg noodles, but I find the craggy surface of Nokedli is better suited for hanging onto the delicious Paprikash sauce. Other suitable options include boiled potatoes, Blue Mashed Potatoes, rice, or bread.
If you're striving to get more protein into your diet, I have a list of easy, tasty, high protein recipes in this article, Easy High Protein Chicken Recipes.
Other Chicken Recipes
- Cabbage & Chicken Stew
- Cream Stew
- French Mustard Chicken
- Chicken Chili
- Chicken Biryani
- Japanese Curry from Scratch
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
- 1 kilogram whole chicken legs (12 drumsticks and thighs)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 275 grams onion (1 large onion, chopped)
- 100 grams mild green pepper (1 large pepper, seeds removed & chopped)
- 30 grams sweet paprika (~¼ cup)
- 1 cup low sodium chicken stock
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Use paper towels to dry the 1 kilogram whole chicken legs thoroughly. Reducing the moisture content on the surface of the chicken is essential to get it to brown.
- Sprinkle the chicken evenly with the 1 teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper.
- Heat a heavy bottomed pot (such as a Dutch oven) over medium heat until hot. Add the 1 tablespoon olive oil and swirl to coat the pan.
- When the pot is hot, add the chicken in a single layer, skin side down, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. If they don't all fit in your pan, divide the chicken into two batches. Leave the chicken undisturbed until golden brown (about 5-7 minutes).
- Flip the chicken pieces over and brown the other side. Repeat with the rest of the chicken if necessary.
- Transfer the chicken to a bowl and then add the 275 grams onion and 100 grams mild green pepper to the pot. Stir to distribute evenly and then cover with a lid to let the vegetables steam for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the lid and sauté the onions until they are golden brown.
- Add the 30 grams sweet paprika and fry, continually stirring for about 10 seconds. Paprika burns easily and will become bitter, so be careful not to burn it.
- Add the 1 cup low sodium chicken stock, and then return the chicken to the pot along with any accumulated juices. Cover with a lid and turn down the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook the chicken until it is tender (about 45 minutes).
- While you're waiting for the chicken to cook, mix the ½ cup sour cream and 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour in a bowl until it's free of lumps.
- When the chicken is done, temper the sour cream by transferring some cooking liquid from the chicken a spoonful at a time to the cream mixture and stirring after each addition. You want to slowly raise the temperature of the sour cream until it is very warm.
- Once the sour cream is tempered, you can pour it all back into the pot and stir to combine. Do not let it boil once you've added the sour cream. Taste the sauce and add some more salt if needed. The paprika chicken is done when the sauce has thickened.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Michael, you don't need to boil flour to get it to gel. You just need to simmer it long enough (a few minutes should do) thicken the sauce.
Michael says
This is one of the best recipes for Chicken Paprikash I have found (including George Lang's - who also adds a diced tomato). But I have a question about the flour added to the sour cream. In traditional sauce-making, shouldn't flour be added to gently simmering sauces and simmered long enough to cook out the floury taste? But that is incompatible with letting the sour cream simmer. So the inconsistency is confusing. Thanks for your wonderfully detailed recipe. You're obviously a master chef!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Audrey, I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed it enough to make it again!
Audrey says
This dish is delicious!! We are making it for the second time tonight 🙂 Thank you for sharing
Craig Sauvageot says
Thanks! I missed it. Gonna try it this weekend.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Craig, there's a link to the recipe for the dumplings (called Nokedli) in the last paragraph of the headnotes.
Craig Sauvageot says
You showed the Paprikash served over some dumplings. Got a recipe for those particular ones? They look great!
Susan says
Thanks Marc! I actually made them last night with shoulder chops and it turned out really well..though next time I will follow your advice and simmer them longer as the meat was still a bit tough. So glad to have found your site 🙂
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks Susan! Yes this will work with pork chops however I would recommend doing this with a cut of pork that has a good deal of fat and connective tissue such as rib chops, or shoulder chops (aka "steaks"). Loin chops are very lean and will get dried out too quickly. As for the cooking time it will depend on the thickness of your chops. Assuming you use a cut with enough connective tissue, you can tell when they're done when they are fall apart tender.
Susan says
This recipe sounds and looks DELICIOUS! Do you think I could make it with pork chops as well? How long would they need to simmer?
Thank you!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Amy, I'm so glad to hear you and your family enjoyed it! Thank you for leaving a note to let me know!
Amy Parkhurst says
I had to leave a comment about this wonderful recipe. My family loved it! The tips you added about tempering the sour cream were greatly appreciated. I learned the hard way about that a long time ago, but was glad for the reminder. I used a regular bell pepper as my mother is very sensitive to heat and the flavor was still epic. Thank you for this delicious return to home cooked favorites.
Marc Matsumoto says
H Crystal, please read the recipe again. You need to temper the sour cream by slowly adding a bit of hot stock to it at a time and stirring it to slowly warm it up. Putting cold (or even room temperature) sour cream into the hot sauce will make it curdle.
Crystal Chaung says
Oh, thanks. That means letting the sour cream become roughly room tempurature was too cold.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Crystal, it sounds like your sour cream broke. This usually happens when cold sour cream is added to the hot sauce, or the sauce is allowed to boil after the sour cream has been added.
Crystal Chaung says
The sauce looks dotted, maybe the sour cream didn't get warm enough. I used 6 poblano peppers (and burned my hands) and sextupled the sauce ingredients except for sour cream which I didn't have enough of stocked. Is edible and pairs with sliced cucumber.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Tracmill, you could do up to step 7 in a regular pan and of steps 8-11 in a crockpot. It's important to do the browning in a regular pan as a crockpot does not get hot enough to brown the chicken or caramelize the onions, which is where this stew gets it's great flavor from.
Tracmill says
Hello any wat to transpose this recipe for a crock pot?
Tracmill says
Hello any way to transpose this recipe for a crock pot?
Karen Nichols says
I made this recipe tonight and it was delicious! I was lucky enough to find Hungarian peppers at the store. My family wants to add it to our permanent menu rotation. Thanks for the recipe!
Natalie says
I have made this recipe a few times now
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Karen, the chicken will only be about halfway covered. If it wasn't even half way covered, your pan may have been larger than mine. The pan should be just large enough to fit the chicken in a single layer. My pan was about 10-inches in diameter.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Barbara, you could use any other kind of meat, but the cooking times will probably change.
Karen says
I don't see that anyone else had this problem, but after following the recipe to the letter and adding the stock, there was not enough liquid to begin to cover the chicken even partway. I ended up adding about 1/2 cup of water and some white wine to make enough liquid to cook the chicken and make the sauce without scorching the bottom. Did I miss a step or make a mistake? The finished product was delicious.
Barbara Moore says
I love this website but have yet to try one of your gorgeously presented recipes. Can chicken paprikash be made with any other meat/seafood/main ingredient other than chicken?
didear says
You can buy those dumplings (Spätzle) in any German store. I buy mine from a German / European store online.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Frank, yep, there's a huge variety in types of paprika. Spanish pimenton definitely more potent than Hungarian sweet paprika owing to the smoking of the peppers before they're ground. Adjusting the amount of paprika towards the end sounds like a good strategy.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Vidya, if you can't find anaheim peppers, you can just use green bell peppers.
Vidya Wasi says
I missed that link. Thanks for pointing it out.
What about the Anaheim pepper? The stores do have pepper but I'm not sure they have that specific one. I must remember to check.
Seen they have a green sort, chopped up in glass jars too but that would be last resort.
I'm far from a food expert. Excuse my lack of knowledge.
I appreciate your help.
Frank Sheeran says
Hey Marc, yes! In fact I've used digital gram scales since the early 90s. Its the only way to go. Normally spice volumes are too small for a scale, and while this volume of paprika was absolutely large enough to measure by grams maybe that's why I didn't think of it.
That said, paprika seems to be especially variable in heat, color and taste. I don't even KNOW for a fact that I used too much weight; maybe mine was simply stronger or fresher or smokier than yours. While toasting it as you recommend is good, committing all the paprika at that early stage makes it impossible to adjust down later.
So my point is that we can trade off the benefit of toasting a little bit for the benefit of adjustability. I'll be putting in half the paprika at the stage you suggest, ready to add the other half (or more, or less) after the sour cream and flour have blended and thickened. Thx again for the killer recipe.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Frank, that's why I usually specify things like powders in grams instead of cups. Since powders (like paprika) can be compressed it's possible to pack too much into a cup when measuring, thats why volumetric measurements are not meant for things like powders. Small digital scales can be had for as little as 1000 JPY, I'd recommend picking one up if get a chance.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Vidya, if you can buy flour, yogurt and eggs where you live, you can make Nokedli (click the link for the recipe)/ As for the paprika, using Hungarian sweet paprika is ideal, but you can use any sweet (not hot) paprika.
Vidya Wasi says
I can get everything except:
Nokedli (a.k.a. Spaetzle, Spätzle),
the special paprica and pepper.
Always annoys me when I want to try a foreign recipe when I can't find some of the ingredients. Sigh.
Frank Sheeran says
Yeah, I think shipping cost decided I'd try the Spanish first. Regardless, we use so much in making this that we're going to be buying a lot more. Ample time god willing to compare them.
BTW I'm thinking maybe I used too much. 25g or about 1/4 cup is listed on your recipe, but that seemed to be half our 5 oz can so we might have packed 50g into the measuring cup. That'd also explain how we got a far darker color than you did.. Without questioning your preference for frying/toasting the paprika initially, I think I'll try frying just 2 tablespoons to start with, and add more later if needed.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Frank, this looks great. If you enjoyed the smoked taste of the pimenton that's great, but if you do decide you want to try it with Hungarian paprika, they have it on Amazon (in Japan).
Frank Sheeran says
Phenomenal. I can't remember following a recipe more closely (though I added a garlic) and was absolutely stunned as was my wife Asami. We couldn't find name-brand paprika here in Tokyo so we ordered some Spanish smoked sweet paprika off Amazon or Rakuten. Its hard to believe a 1/4 cup is right, but I guess paprika isn't really quite a spice or herb. Its probably better thought of as a powdered vegetable. There are lots of varieties of paprika apparently (eight in Hungary alone) so no wonder our sauce came out a radically different color than yours. We are TOTALLY making this again and not changing a thing. I lived in Switzerland six years so I'm an old hand with Spätzli. Flat noodles would be my second choice though.
iwbiek says
I've lived in Slovakia, just north of Hungary, for about 10 years, and we've always used hot paprika, "csipos," for this dish. The ironic thing is, I've read that sweet paprika wasn't developed until the early 20th century, so when you read about Jonathan Harker eating "hentl paprikas" in "Dracula," for example, it was almost certainly with hot paprika. The heat is a big part of the dish for me, so I wouldn't want to use just sweet. I'll sometimes mix them, mostly for color, as Hungarian sweet is usually a much deeper red than Hungarian hot. Even my wife, who is Slovak and can't stand spicy food in general, loves the heat from paprikash.
Denise says
I use half sweet and half hot paprika. I brought it back from Hungary when I visited there. Yummy!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Cheryl, it won't be quite as rich, but Greek yogurt will work fine.
Cheryl Casey Ross says
Can you use Greek Yogert instead of sour cream?
Erzsebet S says
I have never found the Hungarian édes nemes locally, although Hungarian Hot Paprika is available here. Finally found it online at Amazon called "Pride of Szeged, Hungary" -- Exquisite 100% Sweet Delicacy Paprika. It is imported from Szeged where it's grown and it specifies édes nemes on the red can.
Heather says
Look for Paprika paste also. Excellent for using in Paprikash Cierka
Ritsuko says
It came out delicious, Marc! Arigato for another winning recipe.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Ritsuko, you could use potato starch, but keep in mind the sauce is going to have a slightly different texture than using flour.
Ritsuko says
Can I use cornstarch or potato starch to thicken as I don't eat flour?
kmd says
Made this tonight with a variation on your spaetzle recipe. Out. Of this. World. Deep flavor, paprika is strong but not at all overwhelming. My partner could not stop making little "mmm" noises, and pronounced it "killer."
motogonzo says
I have been looking for approachable recipes from Hungary and the descriptions and photos from this were really outstanding. Thank you.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Zolee, good point, it is pretty easy to scorch paprika, but the onions and peppers contain some moisture and a brief stint in the pan before adding a liquid brings out a the flavor (especially since you don't know how long the imported paprika has been sitting on the shelf in the US).
Zolee says
Hi! I really like your recipes and your attitude towards cooking but to be honest I never expected to find a hungarian recipe much less hungarian text on this site. I must say good job as ever but one thing as a heads up which I feel is important: Be very careful stir frying paprika as it can get bitter quite easily. Probably best if you add it off the stove or along with a bit of water.
Joshua Hampton says
I don't think I've had this dish before, but it looks nice and easy to make, for all that it takes a long time to cook. Thanks for the recipe.
Heather says
You will LOVE it
Janos torok says
Thank you Zollie! Some great tips. We cook as we remember how anju used to do it and not because we are traditional experts.
Marc Matsumoto says
It sounds like your yogurt curdled. I'm not sure if this was because it was greek yogurt, but it shouldn't matter that it's fat-free. Did you slowly add the hot sauce into the yogurt before adding it to the pot? Was the warm sauce/yogurt mixture mealy before adding it to the pot? Was the sauce boiling when you added the yogurt?