{"id":3073,"date":"2017-11-13T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=3073"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:58:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:58:50","slug":"chicken-paprikash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/13\/chicken-paprikash\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicken Paprikash (Chicken with Paprika-Sour Cream Sauce)"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 13, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

I really don\u2019t remember my Slovak grandmother doing much cooking. By the time I was old enough to pay attention to who was cooking, she was mostly just making the occasional pot of soup.<\/p>\n

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My Grandmother<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My grandparents owned a semi-detached house and Uncle Frankie and Aunt Mary lived next door. Although they had separate front porches, they shared a back porch. Going back and forth was easy.<\/p>\n

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Aunt Mary kept my grandparents well-supplied with food. My Aunt Ann pitched in from time to time as well.<\/p>\n

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My Grandfather<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My grandparents were really keen on soup. I guess when you\u2019re raising a family of seven sons through the Great Depression and its aftermath, on a steelworker\u2019s income, preparing filling and budget-friendly food becomes a necessity.<\/p>\n

After the early 1960s when my Uncle Gusty moved back to the United States from Japan with his wife and their children, all seven of my grandparents\u2019 sons lived in Johnstown with their wives and children. Most of us would visit on Sunday afternoons arriving sometime after lunch and leaving before dinner.<\/p>\n

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My Grandfather and Father in the late 1960s. I used to wear the tie my dad is wearing to high school. I still have it! My father insisted that I tie a Full Windsor. Now I know where he got his preference!<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Very frequently a large pot of soup would appear for anyone who needed a little something to hold him or her over till dinner. Often it would be potato soup or sour mushroom soup (made with dried mushrooms and spiked with a little vinegar). My father talked longingly about a sour cabbage soup called kissel which nobody was making any longer.<\/p>\n

Other than soup, baba (sometimes written bubba)<\/a>, and sweets at the holidays, I don\u2019t remember eating much at my grandparents\u2019 house though I do remember my grandfather and my uncles consuming a fair amount of beer, and, on special holidays, shots of whiskey.<\/p>\n

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Me with my Grandparents in 1976<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of the Slovak food that I ate was at home or at one of my uncle and aunt\u2019s houses.<\/p>\n

Chicken Paprikash is considered a Hungarian dish but it was common on the Slovak side of my family.\u00a0 My grandfather was born in 1890 in a small town, Nitrianske Sucany, not too far from Bratislava, in what is now Slovakia.\u00a0 My grandmother was born a few years later.\u00a0 In 1909 when my grandfather came to America, he left what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire.\u00a0 Slovakia did not exist as a country.\u00a0 Food diffuses with cultural contact (think about the popularity of Spam in both Hawaii and Korea which can be traced to the presence of the US military).\u00a0 I suspect that’s how Chicken Paprikash became something made by my Slovak grandparents.<\/p>\n

My version of Chicken Paprikash is a combination of my mother\u2019s and my Aunt Ann\u2019s. When I went to look up the recipe to make in preparation for this blog I discovered that I had never written it down! Luckily I remembered just how to do it.<\/p>\n

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Chicken Paprikash<\/h2>\n
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Using bone-in chicken with skin improves the flavor of the final dish. Flabby skin from braised chicken is not appetizing, however, so remove it near the end of cooking before putting the chicken in the finished sauce. Since paprika is the major flavor in this dish be sure to use fresh, high-quality paprika, preferably Hungarian. Sweet paprika was the norm in my family, not hot, and certainly not smoked which would totally change the flavor. You can use whatever chicken parts you prefer but I think the texture of slowly braised thighs is superior. Serve the chicken with buttered noodles or mashed potatoes, both of which go really well with the sour-cream-enhanced sauce.<\/div>\n
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Prep Time <\/span>20 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Cook Time <\/span>2 hours<\/span><\/span> hrs<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time <\/span>2 hours<\/span><\/span> hrs<\/span> 20 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
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Servings: <\/span>6<\/span> people<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ingredients
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