Chicken Paprika With Dumplings

photo taken by Diana Schnuth, on October 12, 2012, CC licensing

There are two versions of Chicken paprika. Obviously the version with sour cream is not kosher, so I will share with you this recipe I picked up in Arad. The idea here is that you cook the poultry and onions smothered in paprika and small quantities of liquid, which are gradually absorbed and complemented by a tomato sauce rather than the Hungarian soured cream sauce. Don’t even think of serving this without the dumplings.

Ingredients:
- 1 chicken, around 3 lbs.
- 1 large onion
- 2 oz. olive oil
- 1 tablespoons mild paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon hot paprika
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 good tablespoon of tomato paste
- 5 ounces chicken stock

Galushka Dumplings:
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 2 large egg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 pt or 1200 ml chicken stock (or water if you insist)

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop the onion really fine. Cut the chicken into 4 pieces, and pat them dry with paper towels (wet chicken doesn’t brown nicely), then sauté over medium high heat until the pieces are golden (around 10 minutes, both sides).

Remove with a slotted spoon and sprinkle with salt. Put the onions in the frying pan, reduce heat and cook until they are soft and start to decompose. Take the pan away from the flame and let it cool for 2 minutes or so. Now mix in both paprika powders (paprika burns).

Return the chicken to pan; let it sit on the onions.

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock. Stir in the tomato paste. When it starts to boil, pour it over the chicken and place it, uncovered, in the middle of the oven for around 30 minutes. Every ten minutes or so, turn the chicken, or simply spoon the sauce over the chicken pieces. The sauce should be nice and thick. During the last five minutes, stir in your dumplings.

Galushka Dumplings
These small dumplings go with any dish you make in the paprika style—veal or beef stews, or chicken, of course. And you can prepare them while the chicken is happily absorbing the stock and tomato paste in the recipe above.

Mix the flour, egg and salt into a thick dough. Take about a half tsp of the mixture at a time and drop into a slow boiling pan of chicken stock for around 4 or 5 minutes. They are done when they are firm and have plumped a bit from the cooking. Drop them into a colander as they are finished, and sprinkle them with parsley if you wish.

Serves: 4

 
Sephardic or Askhenazi
Askhenazi