Chicken Paprikás – Paprika Chicken Stew with Onions & Peppers
I enjoy complicated, multi-phase recipes involving a lot of advance prep. Its a good exercise in planning and organizing, and its great fun when all the elements come together and make up the dish. However, sometimes when I want to try something new I just look to books like Bon Appétit Cookbook for simple, easy recipes built upon strong flavor combinations and tried-and-true techniques.
Chicken paprikás is a very traditional, rustic Hungarian dish in which chicken is browned and then stewed with sweated onions and peppers in a paprika-spiked tomato sauce. The Bon Appétit modified the procedure just slightly to fit its audience, such as omitting the bacon drippings traditionally used to sweat the onions and peppers, but that’s fine as old rustic recipes like this one allow a great deal of adaptation.
Heat & Knives
The Recipe:
Source: The Bon Appétit Cookbook
4 large skinless boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 2/3 pounds)
all purpose flour
3 tbsp olive oil
2 red, yellow, or green bell peppers, cut into strips
1/2 medium onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
5 tsp Hungarian sweet paprika
1/4 tsp Hungarian hot paprika
1 1/4 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 cup chopped drained canned Italian plum tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Coat with flour, shaking off excess. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Add chicken to skillet and sauté until brown and crisp, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate. Add bell peppers, onion, and garlic to skillet; sauté 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Add both paprikas and stir 2 minutes. Mix in broth, tomatoes, and tomato paste. Return chicken to skillet. Bring liquids to simmer. Cover skillet and simmer gently until chicken is just cooked through, about 8 minutes.
Transfer chicken to platter, tent with aluminum foil to keep warm. Increase heat to high and boil until sauce coats spoon thickly, about 8 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon sauce over chicken.
