Hungry Hungerian

Here's another tasty dish from Simply Recipes. SR has a great service, when the website is updated with new recipes and postings, you can get an email sent to your in-box. Well, this recipe came through the other day and it sounded great and very easy to make!

Chicken Paprikash**
Serves 4

1 whole chicken (about 3 1/2 pounds), cut into 8 pieces
1 Tbsp butter, softened
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 large onions, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Mix butter with garlic. Use fingertips to spread mixture underneath the skin on the breasts and thighs.

2. In a small roasting pan, stir onions with paprika, salt, and 1/4 cup of water. Arrange chicken pieces in the pan. Cook chicken for about 10 minutes on 450°F, then lower the heat to 375°F and continue to cook an additional 30 minutes. Chicken is done when the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 175°F (use a meat thermometer), and the juices run clear when the thickest part of thigh is pierced with a knife. Note that breasts cook faster than the thighs, so you may want to take those out if done first, and let the thighs cook a few minutes longer.

3. Remove chicken pieces to a platter and let sit for 10 minutes. You may want to cut away the meat from the bones, and cut the chicken pieces into smaller pieces (entirely optional). Skim and discard fat from onion mixture in the pan. Add chicken broth to the onions. Placing the roasting pan on a stovetop burner, bring to boiling over medium heat, stirring to loosen the browned bits. Stir in sour cream. Serve chicken with onions spooned over it.

Hey, it's my new bowl that I picked up at the outlets this weekend! At this point the skin on the chicken is really crispy and tasty!

Here's the sauce reducing!

Here's the chicken with the sauce and a little garnish-chopped parsley. A couple weeks ago I did something I soon fell in love with. I chopped an entire bundle of parsley. Took a paper towel and got it barely wet and lined a small bowl with it. Put in the chopped parsley and covered it tightly. It lasts for about a week that way and you have a little garnish when you need it. Instead of buying parsley each time you go shopping!

I served this with some buttered rice. Really tasty. Make sure to get some extra sauce on the chicken and the rice. After the chicken rested, while the sauce finished, the steam from the cooked chicken and the sauce made the skin on the chicken soggy and kind of icky. I think maybe next time, I'll set the chicken on a plate, not on top of each other, so the steam can escape easier. Then plate the sauce and put the chicken on top, so the sauce doesn't make the crispy deliciousness soggy.

This recipe was really good and I'll make it again at some point. It is very similiar to the chicken with onions and paprika recipe that I made from Julia Child. This sauce has sour cream, that sauce is butter. Both are delicious! I have some ideas for this recipe the next time I make it. I'll share those at that time...you'll have to tune in.

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**Paprikash (paprikás in Hungarian) is a traditional Hungarian stew made with chicken. Paprika is the primary seasoning. It is prepared by first browning chicken pieces and chopped onions in fat (often bacon fat) and then braising the mixture until tender in chicken broth. Sour cream is then added to the broth to make a rich sauce. Paprikash is usually served over egg noodles.