Yay, it’s TBT again! I just love Throwback Thursday’s! I especially love this one because the weather outside was perfect for putting a big pot on the stove and making my Mom’s Chicken Paprikash – YUM!
Mom’s Chicken Paprikash is an old family recipe that she used to make on cool autumn days. I’d get home from school and smell the onions, garlic and paprika in the air. Talk about rushing to finish my homework and wishing the hours till dinner time would fly by faster!
Following my Mom’s own kitchen rules, the recipe was super simple, used few ingredients and there were only 2 pots to clean after dnner – the chicken pot and the noodle pot. Now, my Mom always served it over egg noodles, but I fell in love with Spaetzle when my oldest brother, Wayne, married a Pennsylvania Dutch girl, Harriet, back in the early 70’s. First time I tried those delicate little egg dumplings I HAD to learn the recipe! Thank goodness they turned out to be easy to make and fit in nicely with my Mom’s kitchen cooking rules, huh?
So here’s how to make our simple family recipe for Mom’s chicken paprikash. You won’t need fresh garlic cloves, but you will need a big fat yellow onion. Oh and if you don’t feel like making spaetzle, just do what my Mom did, serve the gravy over egg noodles!
The ingredients are very basic. Mostly you’ll need a cut up fryer chicken, some chicken broth, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, a big onion, a dusting of flour and a container of sour cream:
Rinse and lightly dust the chicken with the flour:
Now melt some butter in a big heavy pot, then saute the chicken till it’s golden brown. You’ll have to do it in batches. Nest, saute the onions, then add the spices and chicken broth to the pot.
Bring the broth to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and add the chicken back into the pan. The broth is going to look VERY red at this point, but don’t fret, it will mellow and turn a lovely golden red as it reduces.
All that’s left to do is to walk away for an hour and half! Remember to come back and stir it around every 30 minutes though. If the liquid thickens too much or the level of broth falls more than an inch below the top of the chicken pieces, add a bit of hot water to replenish it. It should reduce a bit and thicken slightly during the slow cook.
Now it’s time to cook either your egg noodles or spaetzle and then finish the gravy. To finish it, remove the chicken pieces to a large platter and keep warm. Check the consistency of the gravy, if it’s very thin, add 2 tablespoons of flour to the sour cream and stir well, then stir the sour cream into the broth in the pot. Bring it just to a boil, then pour some over the chicken and serve the rest with the noodles or spaetzle.
Here’s the chicken looking all yummy and lightly sauced on the plate:
And here’s my spaetzle, feeling all saucy and tasting yummy!
Yep, and one last shot of Mom’s Chicken Paprikash – just to make you drool a little bit. Towels not included… sorry!
- 1 4-pound cut up fryer chicken
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Pepper
- ½ Cup All Purpose Flour
- 3 tablespoons Butter
- 1 Large Onion - thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon powdered Garlic or 1 Clove Garlic - minced
- 3 tablespoons paprika (you can use Hungarian sweet paprika if you have it)
- 2 Cans Chicken Broth
- 1 16 ounce Container Sour Cream
- 1 pound egg noodles or Homemade Spaetzle
- Coat each chicken piece with flour, shaking to dust off excess flour.
- Add butter to a heavy-bottomed large pot. Melt butter on medium high heat. When butter begins to foam, add chicken pieces skin side down. Cook until well browned, about 5 minutes. Flip pieces and cook until well browned on the other side, about five more minutes. You will probably need to brown the chicken in 2 batches, set the first batch aside while the second one browns.
- Remove chicken from pot and set on a plate while you saute the onions.
- Turn heat to medium, then add onions. Stir well, and cook until onions begin to turn golden in color. Add garlic powder, salt, pepper and paprika to the onions. Stir for 1 minute.
- Pour in broth, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, add chicken pieces simmer 30 minutes. Stir after 30 minutes, then add more broth or water if it has reduced to more than 1 inch below the top of the chicken pieces. Turn heat to low and simmer for 1 hour, stirring again at the 30 minute point and adding liquid if needed.
- Remove the chicken from the pan to a serving plate and keep warm.
- Skim any any excess fat off of the broth, which should be quite thick by now. Remove the pan from the heat, then stir in the sour cream.
- If the broth is thin, you can add 2 tablespoons of flour to the sour cream and stir well before adding it to the broth.
- Bring the sauce to a gentle bubble, then pour over the chicken and serve with spaetzle or cooked egg noodles.
Just made this, when I added spices w onions, then broth, there’s a glitch, I should added 1 TBSP of flour then, to roux, bc I just finished steps n you say it should thicken, it’s not at all … I’ll add the flour to sour cream but I’d rather do it the other way, (that’s how my mom taught me, n no flour chicken) but I did this time as your recipe. But overall, it looks n smells good!! I appreciate your recipe, thank you. I’m happy yo say, we are polish, German, Czechoslovakia, n I love my mom sharing her recipes, to me, 4th generation n then I pass to my dauggters!!
That’s wonderful that you are passing along your Mom’s recipes! I’ve done the same with my sons and hopefully they will continue to pass them on to my grandchildren.
I’m sorry the sauce didn’t thicken correctly. Sometimes you do have to add a little extra flour to get it thick enough to pour over your spaetzle. And it is one of my all time favorite smells in the house as it cooks!