This recipe contains a lot of paprika, but the rich, sweet and spicy flavors in this rustic Hungarian chicken dish with a creamy pepper sauce may pleasantly surprise you.
If you can’t find Hungarian noodles, any egg noodle or spaetzle will work well.
Slow cooker chicken paprikash with Hungarian noodles
- 2 pounds of chicken drumsticks and thighs (3 hind quarters cut apart)
- Salt and black pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 large onion, sliced thinly
- 1 large red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped
- 1 cup mushrooms, washed, dried, sliced
- ¼ cup Hungarian paprika
- 1 cup water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 12 ounces Hungarian noodles
Serves 4
Set a rack in the topmost position of the oven and turn the broiler to high. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper.
Place the chicken, skin-side up, on one end of the baking sheet. Spread the peppers, onion and mushrooms on the other end of the baking sheet.
Bake for about 10 minutes. Stir the vegetables every couple minutes and flip the chicken midway through. Take the tray out of the oven when the chicken skin is sizzling and the vegetables are soft and blackened in places.
Transfer the chicken, vegetables and any accumulated juices into a crockpot. Add the paprika, water, salt and 1 tablespoon of butter.Cover and turn on high for 4 to 6 hours or low for 8 to 10 hours. Before serving, carefully move the chicken to a cutting board to debone. Look carefully in the crockpot and remove any tiny bones from the stew.
Whisk together the sour cream and flour until there are no lumps of flour.
Boil the noodles in a pot of salted water. Drain. Toss with 1 tablespoon butter and set aside.
Temper the sour cream by adding some of the chicken-cooking liquid, a spoonful at a time, to the cream mixture, stirring after each addition. You want to slowly raise the temperature of the sour cream until it’s very warm. Once the sour cream is tempered, you can pour it all back into the pot and stir to combine. Don’t let the sauce boil once you’ve added the sour cream mixture.
Place one or two pieces of chicken over a heap of noodles on each plate. Ladle sauce over top and serve.
Aleksandra Till is the founder-owner of Homegrown Foods, a meal-planning, prep and delivery service, serving the Twin Cities. Learn more at eatgoodathome.com.