Chicken Paprikash (Kurací Paprikáš)
Ingredients: one whole chicken, half of a small onion, 2 small tomatoes, quarter of green pepper, two cups flour, one cup sour cream, salt, paprika, halušky
Prep Time: about 2 hours
Chicken paprikash is a dish that is not only truly delicious, but is also really cheap to make. I spent 11 dollars (tax included) at my local grocery store for all the ingredients. This total include potatoes for halušky. Flour and paprika were not included in this tally, since I already had these at home. But, these two items added at most another dollar to the total. We ended up with enough food for at least six hearty plates. That’s just two dollars per person! I don’t know about you, but I think this beats any deal you will find on a McDonald’s Dollar menu. Here you have a great home-cooked dinner that will feed a family of four for under ten bucks!
Take a chicken (sliepka) and cut off / pull off all the skin and fat you can. Don’t throw it out, you will need it!
Cut the skin and fat into inch-by-inch (or smaller) pieces. Fry them for about 10 minutes until the skin starts getting crispy.
Dice half a small onion (cibuľa) and add to the pot.
Cube the meat (mäso) and add to the pot.
Add one tablespoon of paprika and enough hot water to cover the concoction.
Let simmer for about an hour, adding more water as needed.
Chop up two small Roma tomatoes (paradajky) and quarter of a green pepper (zelená paprika). Add to the pot. Let simmer for another 20 minutes or so until everything is nice and tender. While the vegetables are simmering, start preparing halušky.
Combine 2 cups of flour (múka) and 1 cup of sour cream (kyslá smotana). Mix well until you get a mixture resembling yogurt.
Add the cream to the pot, one wooden spoon at a time. Cook until everything dissolves. The resulting mixture should not be too watery. Just like any other sauce.
Serve with halušky. Stir together before eating. Dobrú chuť!
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Thank you so much for letting me try this. It was so good and hearty!
It looks like western cuisine but tastes like Taiwanese dishes. We, Taiwanese, like to cook chicken soup. The dressing contains a very strong chicken flavor. Every bite pops out different level of flavor. The dumpling is very chewy but not tough. Chicken is very smooth. These combination with multi-level chicken flavor makes this awesome dish.
good one
Lubos, thanks for stopping by my site. This chicken looks fantastic. You are quite good with all the photos! I get lazy and don’t have so many pictures. ;(
I finished all the paprikáš today. It was so good! I highly recommend this recipe to everyone.
The original recipe called for half a goose, but since goose is not easily available here, I substituted a whole chicken. If I remember correctly, goose tastes very much like chicken except that it’s greasier. The chicken I got was plenty greasy. It was almost too greasy. The fat goes really well with halušky. This makes for a fine meal for somebody who spent the whole day in the field chopping wood, and not sitting behind a desk (like me). Next time I’ll use less fat.
Speaking of goose, my grandma used to have geese at her farm house. Now these were not those brown geese you may be familiar seeing in the fall. The domesticated goose is white, big, and extremely vicious!! I remember being terrified by them when I was a kid. Her house had a tall metal gate. Whenever I got there I could hear the geese on the other side hissing and clapping their beaks full of sharp teeth. I even read somewhere that geese had been used quite frequently in the past to guard premises.
same here,,,totally different paprikas without peppers and tomatoes,,,
my grandparents had also geese and ducks. Geese are definitely unfriendly, I remember being chased by one as a kid and was sooo scared, coz my grandma used to tell me that they can bite (postipat?). Though i loved ducks, used to feed them (well, sorry to say force feed them) with sweet corn. Till now my fav. “meat” dish is roasted duck and “tukovy chlieb s kacacou pecienkou” – bread spread with duck fat + chunks of duck liver… delicious though unhealthy.
Hi Nina, thank you for sharing your story. In my family we used to say pohryznúť when referring to geese bites, but you could definitely use poštípať too. For those who are not native Slovaks, pohryznúť means to bite as in a dog bite, while poštípať means to bite as in an insect bite – or to pinch. But regardless how you say it, getting bit a goose is no fun. Those animals are mean!
Question for you. Which part of Slovakia is your family from? I remember my grandma raising ducks, but I can’t remember ever eating any. Maybe she told me it was chicken…
By the way, I have quite a mixed view on this whole “fats are unhealthy” view prevalent nowadays. French eat a ton of fat (watch Julia Child videos?) and are some of the skinniest people out there. Fats make us feel full, so I think that in a way, by not eating fats, we are actually getting fatter by consuming more calories. Also, many of the modern foods, while providing the “right” balance of fats, proteins and carbs, also provide a ton of preservatives, colorings, and all kinds of other chemicals. We won’t know for a generation or two what the effect of all these additives is on our health. Also, by starting to avoid natural byproducts of cooking, we became much more wasteful with our food. These days, rendered fat gets thrown out, along with bones, skin, etc… Our predecessors knew how to utilize all these ingredients, stretching their “dollar” (koruna, groše, euro) much further.
Speaking of duck or goose fat, there is a good article at http://www.ochef.com/699a.htm comparing different types of fat. It seems that duck and goose fats are quite similar to pork lard, but contain about half the amount of saturated fat – which has more calories.
Brilliant retort! And you are so right on with the evaluation re: fat, artificial ingredients, calories, waste of animal, etc. I just googled the chart…and mentioning it on my face book page! Djakeum…now time for the chicken paprikash…
looks very different from what my grandmother made…same principal, but no tomatoes or peppers…stewed chicken parts, (bone in) with onion,paprika and halusky made with flour, dropped from a plate into boiling water. Paprikas is served over the halusky…Milk was added to the chicken mixture, as opposed to sour cream.. Served with your choice of the chicken part…usually made with legs, wings and thighs…
amazing how different, but yet so similar!!
Thank you for sharing these wonderful recipies!
My grandma also made the dumplings by forking them off of a plate into boiling salted water. This is the closest recipe to hers and it was fabulous.
A different slant on the Chicken Paprikas and Halusky…I can see that the addl items you add might just give it a different flavor than we have been used to…also we use the sections of the chicken (leg,wings,breast and thigh)…I certainly will try this recipe..and thankyou for sharing..I love and enjoy this site…Nazdar…
I thoroughly enjoyed this chicken dish. The potato dumplings were very filling so I was quite satisfied with a smaller portion; however the chicken was delicious!
ditto!
One thing that really amazes me about Slovak cuisine is how diverse it is for such a small country. I believe that every grandma has her own way of making things. The dishes are more-or-less the same, but everybody adds bit more of this and bit less of this which makes for very unique variations.
Looking very -very good!
It’s good one, I make it frequently but I never thought about separating skin and fat. I’ve just cut chicken into pieces and go from there. I’ll try your way. We always learn a better way to cook
I can definitely see the benefit of your method. Cutting the skin off and slicing it is a hard and messy job! I’ve seen a lot of people leave the legs whole in paprikash. I think this is the way to go. Take the skin off the breasts, but use the legs whole.
thats the hard way to make papriksh thats not the slovak way and it cost to much your way
charlie says:
December 24, 2009 at 9:04 pm
thats the hard way to make papriksh thats not the slovak way and it cost to much your way
—
I am really sure what you mean by “not Slovak way and it cost too much.”
I’ve been doing it a similar way, though not using peppers and tomatoes. That would cut cost by about $1.50?
Some people don’t use a sour cream. OK another $1.50 saving. Paprikas from the whole chicken will deliver about 8 servings, so maybe you can save 40 cents per serving, but I would rather have good tasting meal than cheaper meal.
OK, I think I have figure it out… finally.
I pulled out my old cookbook “Slovenska Kucharka”
There is “Kuraci perkelt” and there is “Kuraci paprikash”
I think Charlie is talking about “kuraci perkelt”. Pretty much the same thing as “Kuraci paprikash” but no sour cream. I made it before but did not like it much, it was too watery for my taste.
A standard Slovak kuraci paprikash adds a sour cream mixed with flour at the end and it makes it more thick (and in my view) more tasty.
A recipe posted by Lubos is called “Kuraci paprikash na srbsky sposob” it’s because of adding chopped tomatoes and green peppers..
I guess I was always making just a pure “kuraci paprikash”. Not really hard to make and not expensive meal.
Hi guys, thanks for posting these observations. Definitely keep sharing your family methods of making these dishes. There is a HUGE diversity to Slovak cooking. I think pretty much every village (or even every household) had it’s own way of preparing food. In the end, you ended up with a cuisine sharing many similar dishes, but no dishes that were exactly identical. The recipes I’ve been posting so far came from an old book called “Grandmother’s Recipes” (Recepty Starej Mamy). But I often adjust them according to what I learned from my own grandmothers and the rest of my family. So you can think of my posts as a cookbook of the Briedová/Lehocká/Remeňová families.
However, this particular recipe, Chicken Paprikash, comes directly from the Goose Paprikash recipe posted in that book.
Do you have a recipe for Bravcove s milanskou?
Edee,
that’s where the problem lies. There is no recipe (official one) for “Bravchove s milanskou”
if you can give some more info about ingredients, etc., I may try to figure it out, so far I have nothing to go by, and it may be that I know the recipe but so far I have no idea
It was a dish that i found on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bravcove_s_milanskou.JPG) This is the link and its just a picture. I’m not sure whats in it at all other than pork and a red sauce. Anything of the sort would do just fine I’m sure. We’re not picky eaters. It just looks really good. Thanks a bunch.
Hi Edee, I have also never heard of a dish by that name. But I showed the photo to my grandma, and she said, “Oh that’s easy, that’s just a dumpling with tomato sauce and pork”. I’ll get her to cook that up and let you know when it’s up. Thanks for sharing the image – that helped a lot.
Eddie, finally made some progress. Just like lubos said, it is a tomatoes sauce, used mostly with pasta, though using it with pork meet is just fine, though not so usual. Based on the origin (Northern Italy) it’s also called Milanese, aka “Spaghetti ala Milanese.”
Here is a recipe from a czech cooking site:
http://www.prima-recepty.cz/recept/30039-milanska-omacka/
Sorry to say this is not my mother’s recipe for Chicken Paprikash….and she was from Soporna.
She used chicken pieces, still on the bone which gives the sauce more flavor, and she used chicken broth instead of water as the cooking liquid. Definitely no green or red peppers….and 2 cups of flour to one cup of sour cream is the wrong ratio of flour:sourcream.
Hi Ann and Miro, I’ll check the recipe when I get back to the States. But at any rate, the paprikash tasted great. And Ann, feel free to post your recipe.
PS: This is a funny coincidence, but tonight for dinner I had chicken paprikáš with halušky. The recipe I posted is slightly different, but I think I like it better. First, since there are no bones, it’s easier to eat (but harder to cook, so I guess there’s the trade off). But mostly, the extra flour makes the sauce thicker. What I had for dinner was almost soup like. It was tasty, but bit messy to eat. The paprikash I cooked up was more “portable”…
Ann, as a matter of fact I am with you. I just made it last night. I bought a few drumsticks and thighs with bone in, and I did not notice but that sourcream to flour is not what I use. I use it more other way around (1 cup of soucream to 1/2 cup of flour
I cut my chicken in big pieces, sprinkle them with salt and red paprika and leave them sit for 20 min. then brown them and add all other ingredients, water and cook them until done. After chicken is cooked I skin it, make a sauce pour over chicken and serve with dumplings (halusky).
My mom and grandma have made chicken paprikas with halusky for as long as I can remember. We have a chicken paprikas dinner at Sokol in Chicago every June now. People rave about how good it is all the time. My favorite meal in the whole world! I learned how to make it in 7th grade for a school project. Now my girlfriend and my brother’s wife have learned how as well. This is something that will not die in our family!!!
Can you share your recipe? Thanks
Have you tried to cover the chicken pieces with flour and fry them, instead of mixing flour with sour cream? It makes lighter the meal! The sauce become thick and very tasty.
My mother makes a great chicken dish which she refers to as Chicken Perkel, not sure about the spelling, basically four big onions fried till the onions go glassy, then add 4-6 pices of chicken, and a whole lot of parpika powder approx 4-6 heaped teaspoons and add about haldf a litre of water. Let this simmer away for about half an hour to 45 min. Check that the chicken is cooked through. Thicken with a half a cup of milk and about 2-3 heaped spoons of flour mixed into the milk before adding to the pot, so that it does not make lumps mix the flour well into the milk before adding to the pot. Serve with rice or halusky
Skvele recepty, nejako som sa prinavratila k domacej kuchyni aj vďaka tejto webstranke! Dakujem!
I love this recipe, and I recently made it for my Mother-in-law and Uncle-in-law while they were visiting from Slovakia and they loved it also! We’ve found that this is really good served with egg noodles also!
I can’t believe I finally found this recvipe. We used to eat this as kids. My mom passed away a couple of years ago, she wrote most of her ethnic recipes down, but failed to do this one. I’ve been searching for sometime for a recipe for chicken paprikash, and found so many that don’t come close to what we used to eat. This is the closet recipe to mom’s that I’ve found, except for the peppers and tomatoes. I can’t wait to make this for my family. Thank you so much for having this website. Once again thank you.
Being the English wife of a Hungarian, this recipe caught my attention. I agree there must be many versions. My mother-in-law did all her cooking on the top of the stove. This one was my favourite. She would simmer the cut-up chicken for hours. Then she would brown the paprika and add water. Then combine the two. I cheat and roast the chicken and then add the paprika, onions, salt to the drippings. I learned how to make the dumplings using the spoon method until I was given a noodle maker by a friend who brought it from Hungary. Now all I have to do is fill the box with the dough and slide it back and forth as it falls through the holes into the boiling water.
This is one of my favorite dishes. I always serve it with a large piece of fresh cut bread. Also, today, I’m going to try to bring the chicken to a par boil first and then cut it up since the last time was extremely difficult and messy for. It was quite comical, me butchering that last chicken, stuff was everywhere, I’m grabbing the legs trying to rip them off mid air, sawing through the tendons and fat with a dull knife. I could have sworn that it was me versus that chicken
I make a similar dish but I use alot of onions usually 6 pounds diced i cook down the onions in butter then add chicken breasts paprika and water to cover then simmer then ladle on top of halusky
Your pictures with your new camera are unbelieveable, almost can smell the aroma!!!!
Thanks Jerry, but these are actually taken with the old camera
What really makes a difference is 1) how much light there is and 2) how clean the camera lens is. This little camera is good in daylight like when I baked this chicken. I think I also cleaned the lens recently. The tiny lens gets easily contaminated by the grease and steam from cooking. It’s actually amazing it still works after all these recipes…
yep, cooking is not good for camera. If you can get a clear cover lenses for you camera, it will protect it from greasy steam.
Thank you so much for all of your variations of chicken paprikash. My mother made this and all of the recipes give some semblance. We didn’t have the peppers but the halushky are a must! You are all so awesome in keeping our Slovak culture and food! alive.
I am so glad to find your blog Lubos! I agree with you about depending what village, regiion you are from, there are diverse in dishes. My family’s chicken paprikash is different just what others posted onions, paprika, sour cream, just no other veggies..but I love how yours differs..Gonna have to try!! But, I need help finding a cookie recipe if you may be able to find for me..?? I am so glad to see recipes posted here that I can find from Slovakia that it is hard to find especially since my family is from Slovakia and would love to expand my recipes to include more slovak food! Thanks for posting!!
hi – just wondering if you got the flour quantity right, “Combine 2 cups of flour (múka) and 1 cup of sour cream (kyslá smotana). Mix well until you get a mixture resembling yogurt. ” Perhaps 2 tablespoons?
Excellent website by the way
Been so hungry for this……..made it today in a crockpot with 4 chicken leg quarters. skin removed and dusted with flour and browned. Set on a bed of 3 large onions with 2 kinds of paprika, salt, and one small garlic clove……….a bit of fresh rosemary and sage. After 6 hours it fell off the bone and flavor was fantastic. Over wide noodles, we both ate too much!!!!!!!!!!!!! And, the dog went crazy.
ok my aunt made this she to was polish/slovick/austrian/check?? but she used a fowl then she made baseball size dumplings and the sauce was white we have an old resipie but hard to read, she used flour and milk for the sause and vingar at the end for that tang… add vinger little at a time????? help were in the boston area
Do jedál obsahujúcich smotanu nie je zvykom pridávat rajciny a papriky v surovom stave. Tieto sa nahradzujú v suchom stave (paprika) a v kasovitej forme (rajcinový pretlak alebo rajcinová drt). V surovom stave (paprika, rajcina) je skôr súcastou zeleninovo-mäsového gulása, do ktorého sa nepridáva smotana.
My mother also made it differntly. No peppers or tomatoes. She used Milnot milk and some dry pepper
I am so glad i found this site! My dad is from Hungry and he made this all the time. Its my favorite. He used bone in chicken but i am going to try it this way. He past away 28 years ago when i was young and didnt write any recipe down. Thank you again Lubos!
Thank you so much for your site. My grandma was from a small village in Slovakia, near Hungary. She was a world class cook. Many of her dishes are on your site. It made me cry!
Made this dish today with Wild Turkey instead of chicken. I added some bacon since the turkey had no fat whatsoever. Wow. Will continue to add a slice or two of bacon even when using fatty store bought chicken.
[...] to you, to be honest. A lie-in, some writing, 4.5 hours of Slovak lessons, broken up with lunch of Kurací paprikáš in the shopping centre. I also went to buy a box of chocolates to take in tomorrow to thank the [...]