Playing in the Kitchen: Chicken "Paprikash"

After many weeks of unpacking, rearranging, and repairing, we finally got our house functional enough to have people over for dinner. Ann invited our friends Kayli, Alyssa, and Alisha over for a Sunday night dinner. These three we met back in McMinnville when they were on the crew at our favorite tap house. They moved to Bend in September and we followed them in February. Kayli is now the AGM at Crux Fermentation Project while Alyssa and Alisha are on the kitchen crew at Worthy Brewing.

Ann and Kayli kibitzed while the rest of us made dinner. Alyssa and Alisha wanted to learn how to cook some Indian dishes, but I really don't yet have the spices that I need to show them any kind of ropes. There appears to be no place out here to score some of the spices that I need for any style of Indian cooking, so that meal is going to have to wait until I take a trip to Portland or Eugene to stock up.

Ann suggested that I make a version of chicken paprikash instead. Fortunately, I have some really good fresh paprika on hand, so that turned out to be a good choice. While I started forty years ago by learning the classic method and ingredients for paprikash, I have modified the dish over the years to make it mine, hence the quotation marks around the word paprikash. 

Chicken "Paprikash" on Egg Noodles

While the three of us were cooking dinner at the stove on the island, we looked up to see Kayli putting make-up on Ann's face. Not sure what was going on there as we were concentrating on cooking, but I can surely say that that is a first for me. Never before have I made dinner while anyone in the kitchen was getting a makeover!

Kayli Doing Ann's Makeup

Tada!

The Kitchen Elves

My Beer Being Photobombed

Traditionally, the chicken for paprikash would be browned in lard before heading for the oven, but it is really difficult, now that I am no longer at the restaurant doing whole-animal butchery, to find any decent fatback or kidney fat that will render into decent lard. So, I've really stopped fighting the fight and just render bacon to start my paprikash. It gives the dish a smoky flavor that while non-traditional is really delicious, especially when I amplify it by using a small amount of pimentón along with Hungarian paprika.

Non-Traditional: Bacon

After rendering the bacon, the next steps are to brown the chicken, remove it from the pan, drain most of the fat off, and cook some yellow onions with a little bit of garlic in the remaining bacon/chicken fat. Once the onions are nice and translucent, add a good amount of paprika (let's say a quarter cup) and a little bit of smoked paprika (perhaps a scant teaspoon). It's important at this point to stir the paprika into the fat extremely well so that it does not clump.

Browning Chicken in Bacon Fat

Browned Chicken Ready for Sauce and the Oven

Once the paprika is well incorporated into the onions, I put the non-traditional bacon back into the pan and add a quart to perhaps a quart and a half of double chicken stock. [To make double chicken stock, I first make a chicken stock, then using the bones from the first stock along with more raw chicken, I pour the first stock over the chicken and make the double stock.] I use a double stock to improve the mouthfeel and texture of the finished sauce, because unlike some people, I do not thicken my sauce with any flour, preferring to let the gelatin in the stock do its magic.

After lightly seasoning the sauce (some will evaporate during braising) and bringing it to a boil, I pour it over the chicken and put the chicken in a moderately hot oven, say 400F, uncovered to finish cooking. Depending on the size of the chicken (I used bone-in thighs), it will take 35 minutes to an hour. We didn't really time the chicken in the oven; we just checked it for liquid level and doneness every 15 minutes or so. It was probably in the oven 45 minutes or so.

Finished Sauce

I would typically make dumplings or spätzle on which to serve the chicken, but in the interest of simplicity, we just cooked some really wide and short, almost square, egg noodles while the chicken was resting after coming out of the oven. After having removed the chicken from the braising sauce, I finished the sauce with about a cup of sour cream and a bit of salt to taste.

To plate, toss the noodles with sauce. Put the chicken over a bed of noodles and top with more sauce.