Chicken Paprikash for the Soul
A recipe with many layers of nostalgia
Sara,
It goes without saying that I loved your guide to London and it made me feel many things. Mainly excitement for try the foods and but also some fear of the Old Rosie and vape selection. We’ve also discussed that one night will just have to be a “Cooking Night” since we don’t get them together very often 😢. Looking forward to our reunion in May brought me right back to our first time cooking together in 2012!
Day one of college, we met in the dorms and despite being from two different places - West Virginia and New York City - we immediately bonded over our love of cooking and rap music. We made a promise to do something to combine these two as soon as possible. Of course, because you are you, within a few weeks you made it happen! Since you were writing Yale Epicurean, your assignment to cook and write about an international dish would be the perfect setting. Soon we found ourselves in the under equipped dorm kitchen with rap blasting and some cooking to do. You dug up the piece recently for me… and damn it’s just the sweetest thing that brought me right back. Forgive me, I pulled out a few quotes from it below in italics.
I knew I’d have us make a true Fan Favorite MVP of Hungarian foods: Csirkepaprikás aka Chicken Paprikash. Best served with Nokedli, a spaetzle like dumpling.. I called my mom (in Budapest, Hungary), who called my grandma (in Janoshaza, Hungary), and coalesced around a recommended recipe. I was introducing my new friend to Hungarian cuisine - I had to come correct.
As she deftly drops dumpling dough into a pot of boiling water, Sabrina Bleich frets that she is not going to do justice to one of her grandma’s classic Hungarian recipes. To me it seems like her fears are unfounded—the chicken thighs simmering with sautéed onions in a paprika sauce smell amazing and the tiny dumplings, called nokedli, have surfaced from the depths of the pot and are cooked to perfection. However, the more the half-Hungarian, half-Israeli freshman tells me about her grandma the more I understand what big shoes she has to fill.
Sara, you were the best sous chef and just captured not only the recipe with so much love but also the specific vibe of Hungarian cooking. As I was sweating to impress you with your homemade Hungarian meal and not disappoint my ancestors, you darted back and forth to your notes to make sure you captured every little aside and cooking tip. To be able to share such a beloved food, and memories of a family and childhood so far away, felt incredibly special. By the end, I felt not only at ease but that we had made a pretty damn good plate of food.
She uses neither recipes nor measuring cups when she cooks anything. Rather, she relies on her intuition in the same way that her mother did and her mother’s mother did before her. The results, according to Bleich, are amazing. She tells me stories of family friends clamoring for the dish, and when I take my first bite it is easy to understand why. The combination of the tender nokedli, juicy chicken, and creamy, spiced sauce is irresistible, and after tasting the result of our efforts Bleich declares with a smile that her grandma would be proud.
Sharing a slightly edited version of the OG recipe you published below. I’ve made the dish many times since so have a few upgrades and shortcuts. Sara, if you make it again sometime soon, make sure to 1) be playing Best Rap Songs of 2012 and 2) that you share it with someone you love.
Chicken Paprikash and Nokedli
For the Chicken Paprikash
2 to 2 ½ pounds of chicken pieces (thighs and legs)
Salt
3 Tablespoons butter
3 large yellow onions
Black pepper (to taste)
2 heaping tablespoons of sweet paprika (preferably Hungarian)
1 teaspoon of hot paprika or cayenne pepper
1 cup chicken broth
½ cup sour cream & much more for serving
For the Nokedli
2 eggs
½ teaspoon of salt
¾ cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
Salt the chicken pieces well and let them sit while you slice the onions. Cut the onions lengthwise from top to root into thin slices. Heat a large sauté pan or pot over medium-high heat and melt the butter. When the butter is melted and hot, pat the chicken pieces dry with a paper towel. Place them skin-side down in the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes until browned. Turn them over and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
Add the sliced onions to the pan and cook until they are soft and lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Stir in the paprika and black pepper. Add the chicken broth and then put the chicken pieces back in, nestling them among the onions. Cover and cook on a low simmer for 20-25 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken pieces and desired doneness).
While the chicken is cooking, make the nokedli. Fill a large pot with salted water and bring to a boil. In a mixing bowl combine eggs, salt, and water and beat well with a whisk. Add flour, a little bit at a time, until a soft, gooey dough forms (the consistency should be slightly thicker than batter). Let the dough rest for 10 minutes, and then mix again.
If you have a spaetzle maker, it adds some ease. If you don't, the side of a teaspoon can be used to drop small amounts of dough into the boiling water. After they float to the surface of the water, give the dumplings about a minute more of cooking time. Then remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon. Place in a colander and rinse with cold water. Repeat until all the dough has been used, and set the finished nokedli aside.
When the chicken is cooked through, remove the pan from the heat. Take the chicken out of the pan and mix in the sour cream.
A running letter between long distance friends who love to eat
Do you miss your best friend? Are really hungry you right now? If the answer to either of these is yes, you know what to do.