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There's a recipe for it in Judith Jones' new autobiography, The Tenth Muse. Haven't tried it yet, but it came with a good story, and Jones is very reputable.

www.breadbabies.blogspot.com

This is my grandmothers recipe

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Chicken_Paprikash

My dad's chicken paprikash was once my grandma's chicken paprikash and it has now become my chicken paprikash. Here's the recipe: (no tomatoes or bell peppers to mess it up!)


-Season 3 lbs of chicken with Salt and Pepper (any pieces that you like, but legs and thighs work best)
-Brown chicken in left over bacon or pork fat and set aside
-Chop 1 large onion and fry in fat
-Add 3 or 4 tablespoons of Hungarian Paprika (important!) to the onions
-Let it cook a bit to develop the flavour.

-Add the chicken back to the pot and arrange evenly.
-Pour enough chicken stock (or even water) to go about halfway up the meat.
-Put a lid on it and let it simmer gently for about half an hour or until your chicken is done and super tender.

-Next, scoop out about 1/2 cup of liquid and mix with 1/2cup to 3/4 cup of sour cream (the full fat is best).
-Pour the sour cream mixture back into the pot and stir.

Serve over buttered broad egg noodles. Be sure to use a shallow bowl and get enough sauce on those noodles!
Sauce is also good mopped up with rye toast.

Yum!

I made my grandpa [his parents came from Hungary] teach me paprikaš just 2 weeks ago. Along with the lesson and an awesomely successful meal, me passed along "The Hungarian Cookbook: 151 most flavorful recipes" published by CIA in Chigcao, 1964. He told me he went through every recipe in the book with his mom to make sure she agreed with everything - it's incredibly long, however, and similar enough to the one above [he's very picky about paprika, however], but we ate it with spatzle, which I thought was a better match - I don't like wide egg noodles, anyway. If anyone wants a scan, let me know - the book itself is quite a treasure.

P.S. I ate the leftovers with naan.... completely off the deep end of untraditional, but super delicious nonetheless...

P.P.S. It's spelled paprikaš - 'aš' in Magyar is pron. "shh"

P.P.P.S. yes, I'm dorktasticly proud to be 1/4 Hungarian.

This recipe is a great one - quite similar to the one posted by revolution9, but I'll give it to you anyway. It's certainly never failed my family. If you're concerned about fat, you can use skinless chicken pieces without too much detriment to the finished product. Most people serve Chicken Paprikash with egg noodles, but I also really like boiled potatoes.

Chicken Paprikash

1 4-5 pound chicken cut in pieces
1/4 lb. butter
1 large onion chopped
1 scant tsp. salt
1 cup sour cream
2 TBSP Hungarian paprika
1 clove garlic finely chopped
pepper to taste
2 cups chicken broth (use low-sodium, or it'll be salty)

Brown chicken and onion in butter. Add salt, pepper, and paprika. Add chicken broth to cover and simmer about 1 and 1/2 hours, adding more broth if necessary. Remove 1/2 cup liquid and mix with sour cream. When mixed, add to chicken and simmer for about 10 minutes. Wide egg noodles or egg dumplings may be added when serving.

I'll jump in too.
I fell in love with paprikash during recent work trips to Budapest, and got the recipe here from a colleague's mother.
It's good with diced veal too, though, untraditionally, I prefer creme fraiche to sour cream. (It adds more body).

http://lespetitpois.blogspot.com/2009/03/les-meilleurs-addresses-du-budapest-et.html

Shira

I use my friend's Hungarian grandmother's recipe. It's so simple, and I can make it in a flash:

Start with 1 large chopped onion and throw it into a pot. Add vegetable oil until it just coats the onion pieces and turn your burner on med-high. Then when they are slightly golden, put in a heaping teaspoon of red paprika. Hungarian paprika is best but the stuff you buy at your local supermarket should do. Mix that around and then put in 5-8 pieces of chicken thigh (bone-in). You can use any cut of chicken really. The breast just means its less juicy. It's best with the bone in.

So let that fry up for about 3-5 minutes on each side to let the chicken absorb some of the paprika mix. Then throw in one diced tomato, and a diced pepper (any color will be fine - though the pepper is optional). If you think there won't be enough liquid you can add a little bit of hot water, but it usually doesn't need it.

Now stir it up a bit and cover. Simmer on low for about an hour, or long enough to fully cook the chicken. If desired, pour in a small container of sour cream and stir.

Serve with boiled potato, spätzle or pasta. Salt and pepper to taste.

It's awesome!

I agree with Shira. Creme frache is key. And use a generous hand with the paprika.

OMG this is one of my favorite dishes my mom used to make - such a comfort food for me. Simular to the recipe gildeddawn posted but minus the garlic and add a bit of flour or double the sour cream and reduce the chicken broth for a much thicker sauce which is amazing on wide egg fettichini - yum, I'm going to have to make some next week!

Cook's Illustrated published a recipe for Paprikash in March of '02. It's also on their website if you have access and in The Best International Recipe. I made it about a year ago and loved everything but the green bell pepper. I also used smoked paprika rather than sweet, which is not traditional but insanely delicious.

If you can get the paprika paste in a tube, it's superior, I think, to the powdered. And, for wine--I'm a fan of
Oremus's Tokaji or maybe a Pinot Gris.

looks like there are lots of great recipes. i adapted one from martha stewart and sometimes use turkey instead of chicken.

i've made this several times and it's always delicious. i believe that using a bit of smoked paprika is key. also, having made this both with great paprika from budapest and supermarket paprika that had probably been sitting for ages, the higher quality the paprika the better your dish.

enjoy!

http://www.chowmama.com/2009/02/10/turkey-or-chicken-parprikash/#more-543

You know, I ate roast lamb for dinner tonight, but all I could think about was Chicken Paprikash! Now that's saying something!

I have to make this soon. MMM

Thank you so much for all the wonderful suggestions. I'm making a go of it tomorrow.

~Marina

@ scarrico:

I don't mean to be a miss know-it-all but being born in Hungary (residing in Sweden for the past 29 years) and being fluent in hungarian I must correct you.

It's spelled Paprikás (the s is pronounced shh unless you write it with a z as in sz and would be pronounced like a simple s). The š you're using doesn't exist in the hungarian alphabet, I think it's more used by the Czechs.

Your recipe however sounds delicious! =)

@ szilvia

I'm from eastern Croatia (about five minutes from Hungary) and we spell it paprikaš...

Either way, here's a recipe:

Ingredients:
1 medium-size fish (remove bone between head and body) or whole chicken (my favorite it old rooster)
1 large diced onion
Several hot peppers
4 or 5 heaping spoonfuls of paprika (both spicy and sweet)
1 packet of fish broth mix or enough chicken bouillon cubes
50 ml tomato juice

Directions:
Mix ingredients together in several liters of water in a small cauldron
Heat over fire until boiling
Cook for 30 minutes (for chicken, cook 1 hour or until meat falls off the bone)
Serve with noodles

We also had it soup style.

Also, you have to be male to make it.