Chicken Paprikash: Don't Laugh!

[gulfporter]

My upbringing was poor and our food was equally poor and bland (Lithuanian).  After we married (1971) we went to my MIL's for Sunday dinner most weeks.

 

She made Chicken Paprikash often; I'd never heard of it but it became my favorite meal.  I finally asked her for the recipe and she handed me a can of gravy!

 

I made it several times as it was easy and cheap (I was at best a novice home cook).  Over time I moved on to more ambitious recipes (my FIL gifted me a Gourmet Magazine subscription every Christmas, and later Bon Appetit).

 

Today I saw a recipe for Chicken Paprikash in WaPo and started wondering if I could find online the one my MIL introduced me to in the early 1970s.  

 

Well, here it is ---   https://www.cooks.com/recipe/ed19w3qx/chicken-paprikash.html    

 

Fyi, we both recall that after making it the first time, we doubled everything but the chicken as my husband enjoyed guzzling the sauce!

[Tropicalsenior]

I have two questions. I can't get chicken gravy here but I can make chicken gravy. How many ounces are in the can? Also, it calls for sour cream. Do you mix it this in before you start to simmer it? In Mexico, can you get sour cream or do you get what we have here that is called Natilla. Sometimes ours breaks down if it is simmered very long. Would it be possible to it add it at the end like stroganoff?

By the way, thank you for the recipe it sounds great.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[gulfporter]

@Tropicalsenior  I wonder if Franco American is still in business and making gravy.  My memory is that the gravy was thick and gelatinous until heated, no idea if all canned gravies are like that??  update: It appears Franco American gravy is available....in Canada!  Can't find a US source.  

 

btw, sour cream is a somewhat pricey import item here in MX; while Mexican crema is ubiquitous IMO it's not an acceptable substitute due to both its consistency and sweetness.  

 

The recipe has all ingredients combined in one dish before going in the oven...it was one reason a novice cook was attracted to it.   But as long as the sour cream heats through I'd imagine it could be added at the end. 

 

I will wait and make this in AZ when we are there over Thanksgiving and into mid-December.  

 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by gulfporter (log)

[rotuts]

the Cooks.com Rx does not come through for me.

 

is this an Rx from Cook's Illustrated   

 

what issue ?   is it a video production ?  

[TdeV]

I sent it to you @rotuts.

[TdeV]

2 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I have two questions. I can't get chicken gravy here but I can make chicken gravy. How many ounces are in the can? Also, it calls for sour cream. Do you mix it this in before you start to simmer it? In Mexico, can you get sour cream or do you get what we have here that is called Natilla. Sometimes ours breaks down if it is simmered very long. Would it be possible to it add it at the end like stroganoff?

By the way, thank you for the recipe it sounds great.

 

I'm interested to notice how you solve this, @Tropicalsenior. (I'm not likely to buy canned gravy either).

[rotuts]

I wouldn't give up completely on canned or jared gravy

 

as a starting point.    it won't kill you

 

and might give you a ball park idea of the final dish

 

then you can work from there, making improvements.

 

Campbells now seems to have no-salt condensed ' cream of ' soups

 

there is a chicken , and ive tried th cream of mushroom.

 

there is quite a bit of NaCl in canned //jared gravy 

[heidih]

````````````````````

Stepmother makes this constantly though she calls it chicken goulasch - paprika, ton onion and garlic. She does not flour -only saute. Thicken with cr o mushroom can. They like it. Uses stovetop. Hers is quite saucy and she resorts to cornstarch when needs thicker. Sometimrd bit o  soy sauce. I do not eat it.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I'm with you, Heidih. There are things we shouldn't put in our mouths, much less swallow.

[TdeV]

Today, Washington Post has published their 30 reader favourite dishes.

 

Chicken Paprikash is from 2006. PM me if you want the recipe.

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, TdeV said:

Today, Washington Post has published their 30 reader favourite dishes.

 

Chicken Paprikash is from 2006. PM me if you want the recipe.

 

It doesn't use canned gravy.

[TdeV]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

It doesn't use canned gravy.

 

Isn't that a good thing? 😁

[ElsieD]

5 hours ago, TdeV said:

 

Isn't that a good thing? 😁

It's a good thing if you don't like canned gravy.  

[heidih]

19 hours ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

I'm with you, Heidih. There are things we shouldn't put in our mouths, much less swallow.

Not that. Its emotional. My mom made a great scratch version and I can't bring mysel to tell stepmom how wonderul hers is. She is so insecure if one does not she takes it as a slight. Better to stay away.q

Edited October 27, 2023 by heidih (log)

[TdeV]

How did your mom's version go, @heidih?

[heidih]

33 minutes ago, TdeV said:

How did your mom's version go, @heidih?

I don't recall.Last time I maybe ate hers was well over 40 years ago  

[Tropicalsenior]

On 10/26/2023 at 4:48 PM, TdeV said:

I'm interested to notice how you solve this,

Sorry I haven't answered before. I've been debating whether to admit my dirty little secret or not. When I want to make chicken gravy (I'm assuming that this would be a 15 oz can) I take two cups of chicken broth and two to three tablespoons of flour and mix it thoroughly with a whisk. I then heat it in the microwave at one minute increments until it is thick. Since it is chicken broth it usually looks a little anemic so I put in just a very small dash of soy sauce to give it a rich color.

I don't have any recipes in my repertoire that call for cream of chicken or cream of mushroom. I've never liked them and although they are available down here in some of the high-end grocery stores, they cost between $8 and $10 a can and I am not about to buy them. If I see a good looking recipe on the internet and it calls for cream of anything soup I just say scratch that and look for another one.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[Smithy]

The WaPo article sounds much like the chicken paprikash I've made (don't ask me whose recipe, probably Sunset) except it says to remove the skin! Who does that, and why?

[heidih]

3 minutes ago, Smithy said:

The WaPo article sounds much like the chicken paprikash I've made (don't ask me whose recipe, probably Sunset) except it says to remove the skin! Who does that, and why?

I think because in such a prep it becomes flacid. 

[Smithy]

2 minutes ago, heidih said:

I think because in such a prep it becomes flacid. 

 

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.

[Wolf]

If it's still of interest, I could write a few words on subject of chicken paprikash and goulash and post a recipe or two (modern version is quite convinient but traditional, posted in 1911 as old way of cooking paprikash is absolutely splendid).

 

As for skin, I'd remove it only after cooking- why give up on the goodies that make it better like collagen and a bit more chicken fat.

[Duvel]

9 hours ago, Wolf said:

If it's still of interest, I could write a few words on subject of chicken paprikash and goulash and post a recipe or two (modern version is quite convinient but traditional, posted in 1911 as old way of cooking paprikash is absolutely splendid).

 

I’d appreciate the effort 🙏

[Wolf]

Here's my take on hungarian stews and how they relate... Goulash is rather thin stew and is not thickened with anything other than stewed onions, paprikash is considerably thicker with emphasis on paprika (and sometimes peppers) and can be thickened either with cream or flour (sometimes both) and pörkölt (perkelt in neighbouring slavic countries) is even thicker and can be thickened. All of them can be prepared with a variety of main ingredients, but mostly goulash is made out of meat and poultry, paprikash is made with virtually anything (meat, poultry, fish, even mushrooms) and pörkölt is as far as I know made with meat and fish. All of them have a base of stewed onions onto which main ingredient is added (caveat, the example of old-timey paprikash is the only example I've seen with browning step of the main ingredient*), stewed and then are spices and liquid added, and simmered. At the end stew is thickened (interesting method is mixing in the flour in cream before adding). Usual additions to those stews are either cubed potatoes or nokerdli (small hand torn pasta, not unlike spätzle). Interestingly, I think if starch component is added the thickness gets reduced (stew gets more 'soupy'). The liquid traditionally being added is almost always water. If wine is added along it becomes something new- e.g. Weingulasch or vinski gulaš, and becomes thinner (but this maybe belongs into the next paragraph about 'exported versions').

 

As they moved abroad (particularly to neighbouring countries from which they launched their expansion) funny things happened- while their nature (how they're prepared) stayed the same the thickness changed dramatically. Original goulash is as thin as something called goulash soup (Gulaschsuppe, gulaš juha) outside of Hungary, and when moving abraod it became as thick as paprikash if not even thicker. What most people outside of Hungary think as goulash (the 'exported version') is much closer to pörkölt than to original goulash. Paprikash stayed much the same since it is quite versatile and can be made in variety of 'thicknesses' (from quite thick to quite thin). Sometimes paprikash is served with pasta (tagliatelle would be close enough) that was covered in cream before serving.

 

* mind you, a good and attentive cook will prolong stewing the main ingredient and onions until all, literally all, water has evaporated and then proceed to brown them- this step is vital with pörkölt, but benefits all of them so it best not be omitted

 

P.S. sorry for longish post and please take everything I wrote with a grain of salt- I'm no expert on Hungarian cuisine, but my parents lived for a while in a part of Croatia close enough to Hungary. Recipes to follow.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Wolf
adding a missing part of the sentence and added info on serving (log)