Paprika

[fifi]

No problemo...

I was trying to scale down the recipe (my latest kick for cooking for one) and I actually tried a couple of things to enter into the chicken contest that I never got around to.

I use skinless, boneless chicken thighs. For every 4 thighs, use about 1/4 cup of paprika. Salt the thighs fairly generously. Put them in a plastic zip type baggy and pour in the paprika. Toss around and kinda massage the thighs to get the paprika coating all surfaces. This will look like an insane amount of paprika. Slice onion, about one medium yellow or white onion for each 2 thighs. Layer the onion in the bottom of the crock pot or heavy pot with lid on (e.g. Le Creuset). Place the thighs on top of the onion in one layer. From there, several cooking options are available and seem to result in the same delicious result...

Crockpot on low, 5 to 6 hours

Crockpot on high, 3 to 4 hours

LC in a 250F oven, 3 to 4 hours

LC in a 275F oven, 2 hours

All of this is not critical. You are looking for fall apart tender chicken. However you get there is up to your preferences and time schedule. The onions should be soft. There is often a wide variation of liquid depending upon how much water the onions contain, and that varies a lot. Then you can cook down the onion "gravy" on the top of the stove, thicken it a bit maybe, whatever floats your boat. I like the idea of cooking it down on the top of the stove then adding a big dollop of sour cream.

[Smithy]

So, I ran out of the "Pride of Szedeg" standard paprika during my last paprika cooking experiment, and I've been looking for it ever since. No joy. No squarish red cans to be had, anywhere in Duluth. This leaves me wondering: did it fall off the face of the planet (or at least, this corner of the planet) due to the Hungarian paprika toxin scare? Or did I get it somewhere far away from here, and forget the source?

Is everyone experiencing the same dearth of good Hungarian paprika, or am I just in a bad market? Any other brand recommendations?

[Fritz Brenner]

thanks fifi! I'll be making that soon....

[ronnie_suburban]

Is everyone experiencing the same dearth of good Hungarian paprika, or am I just in a bad market?  Any other brand recommendations?

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Try these, which I believe will both be far fresher than what you can get at the store anyway...

The Spice House (try the exquisite hungarian)

Penzey's Spices

=R=

[fifi]

*bump*

I need to report another revelation. The technique used for the chicken thighs also works for turkey thighs.

I am in a pretty much constant quest for how to make turkey that I actually like. It is just too cheap to pass up. I had purchased four turkey thighs for the purpose of making turkey confit. I got busy with other stuff and didn't have time to fiddle with the confit. I needed to use up the thighs before they headed south so I decided to try the paprika chicken recipe. Like with the chicken, I skinned the thighs. For four thighs I sliced two large onions. (If you are after a lot of onions you could certainly use more.) Whereas four chicken thighs takes about 1/4 cup of paprika, I kind of eyeballed it and doubled it due to the size of the turkey thighs. It came out about right.

Now, the confit recipe came real close to making turkey palpable to me but this is big bird dynamite. This is as good as it gets, maybe even better than deep fried turkey, about the only other way I really like it.

[Abra]

Can't sleep, can't cook in the middle of the night, this thread is driving me mad. As soon as it's decently light I have to run out for chicken. I always have onions, sweet and half-sharp Penzey's, and smoked pimenton, just never thought to combine them this way. I'm dying to be initiated into the club!

[Luckylies]

last night I made lamb chops. coated them with an insane amount of paprika then salt, pepper and some minced garlic. they went into a 425 degree oven for 10 mins and were perfect. tasted incredible! paprika yeah! now I wonder what they would have tasted like with really good paprika...soon, my friends, soon.

[ronnie_suburban]

Inspired by Fifi's post, I cooked up a huge batch of Chickeny chicken last Sunday (bought the enormo-pak of boneless, skinless thighs at Costco) for my family and some friends. Now, the chicken is all gone I'm still sitting on a beautiful, large stash of paprika'd onions. Hungarian Onion Soup? I think so.

=R=

[fifi]

Not so fast, Ronnie. Over on the soup thread I did the same thing. I made soup. Don't do potatoes and peas. I am sure you can come up with something better.

[Kim D]

Chickeny chicken.

I've made this dish with bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Both are great. I've been using the skinless lately because you got to minimize calories somewhere.

I always serve this with mashed potatoes. Sometimes I use cream, sometimes whole milk but always always with lots of butter. When I remember, I add roasted garlic.

But there never seem to be enough onions. Each time I make this dish, I add more onions. The last time I used 3 large Spanish onions (instead of the small yellow every day onions) with one pound of thighs. The only problem was that the onions should have been sliced thinner. But there still didn't seem to be enough. The onions make a great gravy for the mashed potatoes.

I really should make a bigger batch. Leftovers rock, too.

- kim

[eje]

A recipe I ran across a while ago makes a great roast chicken.

Onion, garlic, marjoram, thyme, hungarian paprika, and maybe some orange juice or vinegar to loosen, pureed in a blender. Coat whole Chicken inside and out and under skin with puree, marinate a few hours and roast.

A variation I use for grilling is, onion, garlic, oregano, thyme, Spanish Paprika (Pimenton de la Vera). Marinate butterflied chicken, and grill over indirect heat.

My parents brought back some dulce and picante Pimenton de la Vera from a trip to Spain a few years ago, and I've been addicted ever since. It's great in pasta, Arroz con Pollo, whatever. Sadly, my one experiment so far with paella at home was a greasy messy disaster.

[Smithy]

What's the expected shelf life of paprika? I made a variant of my roast paprika chicken last night, with what seemed like insane amounts of paprika (as in, there is no such thing as "too much" ) combined with some other spices borrowed from a Moroccan recipe. The final result, while tender, seemed bitter . The Moroccan treatment of chicken has been stellar before. My paprika chicken has been stellar before. This time, the paprika/spices blend under the chicken skin seemed, well, gritty and bitter.

So, did I goof somehow with the spices, or has my 6-months-open Pride of Szeged Sweet Paprika gone stale? I see Ronnie Suburban's recommendations upthread for Penzey's and The Spice House...but I'd hate to toss out half a can of good stuff if it wasn't the culprit.

Edited May 16, 2005 by Smithy (log)

[ronnie_suburban]

What's the expected shelf life of paprika?  I made a variant of my roast paprika chicken last night, with what seemed like insane amounts of paprika (as in, there is no such thing as "too much"  ) combined with some other spices borrowed from a Moroccan recipe.  The final result, while tender, seemed bitter    .  The Moroccan treatment of chicken has been stellar before.  My paprika chicken has been stellar before.  This time, the paprika/spices blend under the chicken skin seemed, well, gritty and bitter.

So, did I goof somehow with the spices, or has my 6-months-open Pride of Szeged Sweet Paprika gone stale?  I see Ronnie Suburban's recommendations upthread for Penzey's and The Spice House...but I'd hate to toss out half a can of good stuff if it wasn't the culprit.

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Hmmm . . . I can't say I've ever experienced the bitterness you describe. I doubt it had anything to do with the shelf life of the paprika (6-12 months, depending on how "new" it was when you purchased it) because that can I used when I first made chickeny chicken had been sitting around for a fairly long time from what I remember. That isn't to say that it wasn't the paprika which was bitter, only that the age of it probably is irrelevant.

I wish I could be a better sleuth on something like this. Not that it will help me diagnose it any better, but what other spices did you use?

=R=

[Smithy]

I wish I could be a better sleuth on something like this.  Not that it will help me diagnose it any better, but what other spices did you use?

=R=

←

Turmeric, garlic, saffron, salt and cumin, with the ubiquitous onions under and around the chicken. I didn't use lemon, and next time I think I will. There was some fresh cilantro thrown in with the whole thing, but since it wasn't under the skin I doubt it was the culprit.

Maybe the can was "off" at the outset. I think this may be the same flavor I dislike in my husband's chili, when he dumps half a jar of old cheapo chili powder into the mix. Still... I wouldn't have expected it with this brand of paprika, and I don't think it was very long ago that I used it with great success.

Edited to correct the seasonings. (If only it were so easy to do so with the cookery!)

Edited May 17, 2005 by Smithy (log)

[k43]

Little bugs LOVE paprika. They seem to materialize inside the can. If you have a can over 6 months old, ***always*** take a glance inside, or, better yet, pour some out on a plate to check for signs of infestation.

[ronnie_suburban]

I wish I could be a better sleuth on something like this.  Not that it will help me diagnose it any better, but what other spices did you use?

=R=

←

Turmeric, garlic, saffron, salt and cumin, with the ubiquitous onions under and around the chicken. I didn't use lemon, and next time I think I will. There was some fresh cilantro thrown in with the whole thing, but since it wasn't under the skin I doubt it was the culprit.

Maybe the can was "off" at the outset. I think this may be the same flavor I dislike in my husband's chili, when he dumps half a jar of old cheapo chili powder into the mix. Still... I wouldn't have expected it with this brand of paprika, and I don't think it was very long ago that I used it with great success.

Edited to correct the seasonings. (If only it were so easy to do so with the cookery!)

←

FWIW, I have experienced bitterness issues in the past (with other dishes) that I was pretty sure related to the onions I used. I'm not saying that was necessarily the case with your latest outcome but it might have been. I'm really at a loss to explain it.

=R=

[AK@Spicehouse]

Bitterness in Paprika is usually from crappy Papika. Aster point needs to be higher, freshness is key, and quite possibly the hungarian paprika was smoked or bittersweet Paprika at that.. Sweet Hungarian, or Sweet Spanish can't get bitter on its own, it needs a litle help to get bad... Email an address and I will send you guys some Paprika that will change your outlook on the crapola that Penzey's sells..

I wish I could be a better sleuth on something like this.  Not that it will help me diagnose it any better, but what other spices did you use?

=R=

←

Turmeric, garlic, saffron, salt and cumin, with the ubiquitous onions under and around the chicken. I didn't use lemon, and next time I think I will. There was some fresh cilantro thrown in with the whole thing, but since it wasn't under the skin I doubt it was the culprit.

Maybe the can was "off" at the outset. I think this may be the same flavor I dislike in my husband's chili, when he dumps half a jar of old cheapo chili powder into the mix. Still... I wouldn't have expected it with this brand of paprika, and I don't think it was very long ago that I used it with great success.

Edited to correct the seasonings. (If only it were so easy to do so with the cookery!)

←

FWIW, I have experienced bitterness issues in the past (with other dishes) that I was pretty sure related to the onions I used. I'm not saying that was necessarily the case with your latest outcome but it might have been. I'm really at a loss to explain it.

=R=

←

[k43]

AK -

I'd be interest in some of your paprika. Are you the Spice House at Spice House? If not, where? (Googling is difficult, since most places with "spice" in the name are porn.)

[AK@Spicehouse]

We are the original Spice House at Spice House International

Send an email !!!

AK -

I'd be interest in some of your paprika.  Are you the Spice House at Spice House?  If not, where?  (Googling is difficult, since most places with "spice" in the name are porn.)

←

Edited May 19, 2005 by AK@Spicehouse (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Today I received my first order of smoked paprika and I am so incredibly impressed!

the purchase Sweet Smoked Paprika ... Pimentón Dulce ... fantastic color and taste!

Tonight, I sauteed some turkey cutlets in a paprika butter which I made with freshly minced garlic .. divine ... but feel that I didn't use enough of the paprika ... however, the house smells distinctly Spanish now ...

[John DePaula]

Oh, I just love this stuff. Nothing at all like the "paprika" that I grew up with in the Deep South!

[fifi]

I have a "tragic" story that came out in the end.

I had just received my Penzey's order and dug around in the box to find my smoked paprika. There were eight boneless skinless chicken thighs in my fridge that needed using and two big yellow onions in the bin. The weather was gray and cold (for here, anyway) and paprika chicken was now on the menu. What better way to judge the Penzey's paprika.

I had sliced the onions and they were particularly potent. My eyes are still tearing when the phone rings. My son is calling from Chicago in a jambalaya crisis while preparing for a Mardis Gras party. I continue working on the paprika chicken while we are discussing the finer points of his recipe. I go back to the box, dig out the baggie of paprika and proceed to measure the quarter cup into the bag with the chicken to coat it. Still talking jambalaya. I decide that the thighs need a bit more paprika and go back to add that. Now I see the label. I had grabbed the ancho powder!!!

Oh crap. Now what? I decided to forge ahead. I did the chicken as usual and tasted it. Not bad but it needs something. I removed the chicken, cooked the onions down a bit on top of the stove. Then I got to work with the Bamix. I now have a pretty good onion sauce but not quite there yet. I added some Penzey's garlic powder about a teaspoon of ground cumin and about a teaspoon of Mexican oregano. A bit more cumin. Getting there. Ah Ha! I spy a small carton of sour cream and added that. The sauce is looking good. I put large chunks of the chicken back into the sauce and warmed it gently. Oh man, this is good.

Served over noodles, what do I have here? Southwest Chicken Stroganoff? Is that the most ridiculous "fusion" recipe that you have ever heard of, or what? In fact, it is so good, I am going to write it up and I'll do it again. Sometimes screw-ups are a good thing.

[Smithy]

Served over noodles, what do I have here? Southwest Chicken Stroganoff? Is that the most ridiculous "fusion" recipe that you have ever heard of, or what? In fact, it is so good, I am going to write it up and I'll do it again. Sometimes screw-ups are a good thing.

←

I think you should call it Pollo Paprikash. Sounds great!

[ronnie_suburban]

Sounds excellent, Fifi. Nice save!

=R=

[Pallee]

Inspired by this thread, I've made paprika trout stuffed with vermicelli noodles adapted from "Moroccan Modern". It gets rave reviews. First you make a marinade with the juice of one lemon, chopped garlic, a chopped bunch each of cilantro and flat leaf parsley, 1 T smoked paprika, 1 T half sharp paprika, 1 T sweet paprika (or whatever your preference or what's on hand) 1 t each salt and pepper and 3/4 cup olive oil. Last night I added ginger, corriander, turmeric, cumin, and cayenne. Bone out your trout and put about half the marinade on it and chill while you do the rest.

To make the stuffing, take 4 oz. vermicelli and soften in boiling water for a minute and drain. Chop half an onion and saute with the rest of the marinade. I added 3/4# of chopped shrimp and about 1/2# sliced mushrooms. Add the noodles, stir well. My trout was small, so I put the stuffing in the bottom of my baking dish, with the trout skin side up on top. Cover with foil and bake about 20 minutes, until the fish is done and the stuffing hot. YUM!