Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Braised Paprika Chicken

I gave this a shot last night and it turned out really tasty. I braised it in a dutch oven on the stove, but I imagine it would work just as well oven-braised or in a good-sized crock pot.

1 3-4 pound chicken (or chicken parts)
2 medium onions, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green bell pepper diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp sweet paprika
Crushed or whole dried chiles, to taste
1 tsp marjoram
1 to 1-1/2 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock, or water)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp flour
Salt

Cut up the chicken, remove the skin, and season with salt and pepper. In large pot or dutch oven, saute the onions over medium-high heat in some butter and oil. Sprinkle a pinch of sugar over them to help them caramelize a bit. Cook until golden. Stir in the bell peppers, tomato paste, paprika and chiles and let it cook for a minute or two. Add the chicken and gently stir it a bit. Sprinkle the marjoram in and then add the stock. Cover tightly, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for an hour or so, until chicken is tender.

In a bowl, whisk up the sour cream, flour and a teaspoon (or more, or less, to taste) of salt. Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside. Add the sour cream mixture to the pot and stir it in. Raise the heat a bit and simmer until thickened. Return the chicken to the pot, cover, and cook for another couple of minutes.

It seems a recipe that's ripe for variation. Mushrooms would work well in it. Carrots. Maybe some cauliflower thrown in 15 minutes from the end.

Mashed potatoes seemed the perfect accompaniment to me, but boiled potatoes or rice or orzo or couscous would probably work just as well. :)

2 comments:

Mugsy said...

This sounds ridiculously good. Might have to hand it over to the chef.

DiploWhat said...

sounds good except that sour cream is very hard to find here and very expensive when you do. =(