One thing Grandma showed me but I never exactly mastered, was cutting up a whole chicken into parts. I’m always relieved when I find a farmer that is selling the chicken cut into its parts; then I buy and freeze it to use later in Hungarian chicken paprikas. I’ve also made the same recipe using a dozen or more thighs. The chicken I’m using today is from the farm in Boonesboro, MD, selling (as previously reported) at area farmers markets including West Frederick.
Since you may have extra parts from your whole chicken that you aren’t going to use, like the neck, I’ll explain below how to use it to make your own chicken stock. You’ll need an hour to cook the stock, so you can use a box of organic stock if you don’t have time. I use my Grandma’s old electric frying pan set on about 325 for the chicken, or use the largest pan you have on medium heat.
The key to tasty paprikas is to use at least three tablespoons of a nice Hungarian paprika. If all you have is cheap dime-store paprika that’s been in the cupboard for years, use more – then email me and I will send you some better paprika. I have also made a perfectly scrumptious vegetarian version of this dish because the paprika makes the dish, not the chicken. I call it Dumpling Paprikas and serve it like soup. To make it, follow this recipe, leaving out the chicken and use vegetable broth, then add the dumplings to the sauce mixture. Otherwise, serve the dumplings on the side of the chicken dish. I mix all of the leftovers together; the dumplings do not absorb juice.
Chicken Broth
Extra parts of 1 chicken
4 C water
Fresh ground pepper
2 bay leaves
1 T fresh chopped parsley
1/2 C chopped onion or celery is optional
Put the neck, back, wing tips, and other parts of the chicken you aren’t going to use into a pot and cover with four cups of water. Add some fresh ground pepper or a few peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves, and a few sprigs of chopped parsley. Add onion or celery if you want. Bring to a boil; skim any foam off the top and cover, lower to simmer and cook 1 hour.
Hungarian Chicken Paprikas
1 T avocado or coconut oil
8+ chicken pieces (1 whole chicken, 2 Hungarian chickens 🙂
1 small chopped bell pepper
1/2 chopped sweet onions (~1 cup)
3 T paprika
3-4 C broth
1 C sour cream
1/2 C milk
1/4 C flour
Heat oil in a pan and add the onion, green pepper, and 1 tablespoon of paprika. Stir; add the chicken pieces. Sprinkle one tablespoon of paprika over the chicken. Cook until it yellows (you do not need to completely brown it). Turn the chicken and sprinkle the last tablespoon of paprika on top. When both sides of chicken pieces have all had a chance to start cooking, add one cup of stock. Gently stir to mix all vegetables and chicken and scrape bits from the bottom of the pan.
Add 1 more cup of broth, cover and cook on medium-low for 30 minutes. If the broth cooks off or you want more juice, add another additional cup of broth.
Now make your dumplings or warm them if you made them previously.
Whisk the sour cream and milk in a bowl. Slowly whisk in a cup of broth and the flour. If you didn’t add the additional cup of broth to the chicken during cooking, add it now to the sour cream mixture.
Move all of the chicken to one side of the pan. Spoon tablespoons of the juice from the pan into the sour cream mixture and stir; add enough so the sour cream mixture starts to warm (it doesn’t take much if you’re using your own warm broth).
Stir the warm sour cream mixture into the pan juices and gently mix all of the chicken pieces with the sauce until well combined.
