Chicken Paprikash, Take Two

Part of the reason we bought the hot paprika at the Souks in Dubai was because I feel like I see a lot of recipes that call for it, but it's not necessarily easy to find back home, so I wanted to bring some back to play with!  Funny thing is, when I searched for recipes calling for Hot Paprika the first one that I found was mine - go figure!  Rather than try something different, I decided that I'd give Chicken Paprikash a second go-around.

Chicken Paprikash

With the chicken paprikash being of Eastern European decent, I decided to serve it with spaetzle - turns out there is a pretty delicious box version!

The Ingredients

The Necessities (adapted from Eating Well):

3-3 1/2 pounds bone-in chicken pieces (I used a combination of thighs and legs)

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 tablespoon butter

4 cups finely diced onions

Pinch of sugar

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons sweet paprika

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley, dill and/or chives

To begin, I removed the skin from the chicken (sort of gross) and generously seasoned them with salt and pepper.

Chicken!

Meanwhile, I had some olive oil heating in the dutch oven, and once it reached a medium heat I braised the chicken, being sure to do it in small batches so as to not overcrowd the oven.  I made sure I also rotated them so that they cooked on all sides.  When they were all set, I set them aside for later.

Braising Chicken

I added the chopped onions to the dutch oven (with the left over brown bits from the chicken) and let them cook so that they were nice and soft - about 13 minutes.  I had to stir them frequently to prevent any sticking.

Onions

I then went ahead and added the real flavor of the dish, including the star: hot paprika!

Such a great color!

Tomato paste, red pepper flakes, mushrooms, 

All Stirred Up

Once all the spices were good and mixed, I added the chicken back in and nestled it into the onion/spice/mushroom mixture.  I sprinkled the marjoram over top, added the chicken broth and covered the pot with a tight fitting lid, allowing it all to simmer for about 50 minutes until the chicken was nice and tender.

About to simmer...

When there was about 10 left until the chicken was done, I combined the sour cream, flour and salt in a small bowl until the mixture was smooth.

Pre Mixture

After the 50 minutes were up, the contents of the pot looked delicious!

Good Stuff!

The tender chicken - all shrunk up!

The chicken came out and the sour cream mixture went in.  I let it simmer until the sauce coated a spoon - about 4 minutes - at which point the chicken went back in over heat for another couple of minutes.

With the sour cream mixture

The plating was easy from here.  I spooned out some spaetzle, topped it with a piece chicken and covered it with the delicious paprika sauce!

Dinner is served!

This dish was definitely better the second time around with the hot paprika!  The spice added a lot of flavor and depth to the dish and really proved how quality ingredients can affect a dish.  Of course, our condo smelled like this dish for the next 5 days....

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the other cup of hot paprika I have on hand!

Any suggestions for using hot paprika?