Chicken Paprikash With Spaetzle

Submitted by Mark Kovach

"A famous Hungarian dish with the trimmings (dumplings!)."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 5mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 4-8

ingredients

• Chicken

• 1 -3 lb chicken parts
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons butter (your choice) or 2 tablespoons margarine (your choice)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 4 -6 cups water
• chicken bouillon cube (not necessary with large amt of chicken) (optional)
• 1 (8 -16 ounce) container sour cream

• Spaetzle

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 -6 eggs
• salt and pepper

directions

1. OK let's be Hungarian.
2. Firstly we don't call the dumplings "spaetzle" but I can't spell the word that Grandma always used so I've borrowed the German term. (I've since learned how to spell Nokedli.).
3. Start by heating the oil in a large pot and browning your chicken parts.
4. Remove the chicken and add the butter or margarine to the pot.
5. Sauté the onion in the melted butter until transparent.
6. Add paprika, chicken, and water, bring to a boil then reduce to simmer for 45 minutes. (NOTE: I've learned over the years that using a 32 oz box of broth adds a lot of flavor to the dish.).
7. Chicken should be very tender and about to fall off bones.
8. Remove chicken to bowl.
9. Add enough fresh water to pot to bring back to original level.
10. Check flavor of broth.
11. If flavor is weak add enough bullion to produce a well flavored broth. (SKIP this step if you used broth.).
12. Bring broth to boil.
13. Combine flour, salt, and pepper with eggs (the more eggs the richer the batter but two is OK) to form a thick batter.
14. Now comes the tricky (and boring) part.
15. Drop batter in boiling broth in 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon amounts until all batter is in pot and cooked.
16. Spaetzle is cooked when it floats on surface.
17. You may need to remove some to get it all in the pot.
18. With all spaetzle cooked and in pot you now add your sour cream to broth. The amount is individual according to how creamy you wish the sauce to become (and how much water you started with).
19. At this point I usually add about three tablespoons of flour mixed with one cup of water to thicken the broth. Sorry I omitted this step in the original submission.
20. The sauce and spaetzle is the best part of this dish so be sure to make enough! They will be coming back for seconds on that part of the dish.
21. One of the most surprising things about this dish is it actually tastes better the second day. Sooo if you are making it for a special dinner prepare it the day before and simply reheat it one half hour before serving.

Reviews

[BelleCoquine]

I've traveled to Hungary and many other areas of Western Europe and Spaetzle dumplings were my favorite thing ever! My grandmother also made Paprikash quite often, but usually simply used egg noodles. Putting the two together was lovely for me!<br/>I, too, added chicken broth to give it a heartier taste, and also tweaked the recipe by adding more onion and some garlic powder, as I felt it gave it a bit of a hearty boost. Other than that, the recipe was very on point, and it brought me back to those wonderful times exploring Europe and eating the wonderful food. I did the 6 eggs in the Spaetzle, but found it a little thick still, so I added about 4 tbsp of chicken broth and it made for a batter that was just right in my book. I love recipes like this that you can customize, and make it perfect for any tastebuds! I also want to thank you for a recipe that wasn't too difficult or way too time consuming either. It really is a fabulous dish and I will be making it again!

 

[Merlot]

This is heaven! Very similar to the Chicken Paprikas that I make, except I usually add a dollop of sour cream directly on the chicken when serving, rather than mixing it in the broth. I really like it this way too, it gives the broth more substance. My broth was a little weak so I added a small can of College Brand Chicken Broth to perk it up before I added the sour cream. Thanks Mark, for a wonderful meal. Brings back memories of those wonderful meals at Grandmas.

 

[wandering1976]

My Nana was hungarian and used to make this dish for us often. She always called the noodles "Nokelata" (she pronounced it nookalattha). Maybe your grandma used the word Nokedli (I've seen that used too but Nokelata is how my Nana said it). She also called this recipe as a whole "Chicken Fricassee" but not sure if they're exactly the same thing. Either way, FANTASTIC original, traditional, Hungarian recipe. Thanks so much for reconnecting me with my ancestry!! :)

 

[DeborahSu]

The spaetzel are wonderful. I never made 'em before, but used 6 eggs plus the sour cream suggested by a reviewer. My colander has small holes and I couldn't see sitting there with a spoon for so MANY little noodles, so I put the batter in a quart-sized storage bag, cut one of the corners off, and squeezed the batter into the broth. It worked! And I did need to fish out the first half before the second half could reach the liquid. Maybe because I only had regular paprika instead of smoked, the flavor of the broth was VERY bland, but with a very nice flavor. I did add some extra paprika, but I'll try 3T next time. I'll also salt and pepper the chicken before browning.

 

[NVirginian]

This is the EXACT recipe of my mother's but she never wrote it down! I called her on the phone once when I had moved a few states away and so I wrote it down for her. The one change she made after years of making it was to add a tablespoon or 2 of sour cream to the spaetzle. It makes them lighter and tastier I promise. This is by far my favorite comfort food and my most requested meal for my birthday dinner from my mom when I was a kid. Thanx for the recipe!