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It's very easy to make, let's see how easy it is to explain or if it's akin to trying to explain how to tie your shoes.
Chicken Paprikash
Ooooooooh boy, I usually do this by feel. Let's see how close I can get to a "normal" recipe.
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 - 2 #) Sliced onions (end to end cut, about 1/4- 1/2 ince wide) same weight as chicken
Salt, pepper and sprinkle paprika on chicken. Lightly dust w/flour. Brown in a few tablespoons of oil of your choice (I typically use butter). Brown on both sides, remove from pan. Add onions to pan and 1/2 caramelize the onions (this will take a bit of time. Don't burn the bits that are left in the bottom of the pan from the browning chicken). When onions are brown add about two tablespoons of flour and about 1/4 c of paprika. Stir this thoughout the onions allowing the spices and flour to coat the onions. This takes some of the "raw" taste of the paprika out. By this time you'll have a bunch of spices, onions etc stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add some chicken broth (a cup should do I think) and stir to losen browned bits. Add 1 pint of sour cream and turn dish to LOW (may need to use simmer plate if you have one so that sour cream sauce doesn't split). Add chieken back into pan and simmer.
This will be done in probably less than 20 mins or so but I simmer mine a longer time. It reheats well, it sits well in case people are late and the SAUCE is DIVINE over rice. I used to have to watch my waiters because they knew that I counted the chicken pieces for parties but they used to come up and take the sauce over rice, and take the sauce, and take the sauce. When I'd get ready for plating it I found that there was just BARELY enough sauce to make it work.
Hints: I cut the breasts into cubes if Im doing it for a chafing dish/cocktail thing. That way people can eat it w/a toothpick. When I made it last week I cut it into good sized chunks just because the breasts were HUGE....they must have come from some May West chickens. 8oz or better each!
I LOVE using boneless skinless thiighs in this recipe but then you typically need more than one per person.
Sometimes if the sour cream doesn't have enough 'tang" to it I add a bit of lemon juice (fresh) and if my chicken stock isn't as strong as it could be I add some chicken base ( or bullion cubes if you can't find base - just don't salt it until after you've dissolved the bullion cubes and stirred it in)
This dish should be REALLY orange when finished. Ergo the "ugly orange stuff" comment.
helen
