CHICKEN PAPRIKASH, pg. 136
I had all but one of the ingredients to make this dish on hand and decided to go for it.
The recipe uses a whole fryer cut up into pieces. I had a bag of skin-on, bone-in thighs and decided to use those instead.
She has you fry off the salt and peppered chicken in a bit of cooking oil- I used sunflower- until golden brown on all sides. I started skin side down until they got crunchy good and then flipped them over. Once browned, you take them out and pour off all but a tablespoon or so of the oil in the pan. Once that’s done, you put in a mess of diced onions and red bell peppers. She has you cook these off with salt and pepper until very soft. She recommends about 20 minutes, but I found my onions and red bell pepper were quite soft at about the 12-15 minute mark. At that stage, you are suppose to add in sliced garlic, tomato paste, rosemary, marjoram, and paprika to the pot. I added in the tomato paste and cooked it off for few minutes you know because I still had some time left on the onion/red bell pepper saute time. 
And then I added in the paprika next to cook it in some oil before adding in all the other ingredients. As I was reading about paprikas dishes, I read that paprika actually benefits from cooking in oil to wake up the spice’s flavor. I did added in the garlic and rosemary next. I didn’t have marjoram so I did a combo of oregano and thyme as I read that marjoram has a similar flavor profile to both of those, but not quite. Given the strong flavors of everything else, I don’t think I missed it too much.
Once all those things have cooked for a minute, you deglaze the pan with white wine. Then you add in chicken stock, lemon zest, sherry vinegar, and some more salt and pepper. Then you nestle the chicken pieces back into the paprika goodness and cook partially covered at a bubbly simmer for just under an hour. Well, she says to cook the dark pieces for 40 minutes and then add in the white pieces and cook for another 25-30 minutes. I didn’t have white pieces so I just cooked my thighs for the total time. About 55 minutes in all.
As the chicken is bubbling away, she has you make a sour cream and lemon juice with S&P sauce to use on the chicken during service. There is an option of putting a shot of pickle juice into the chicken liquid. And she suggests doing this after removing the chicken and using an immersion blender on half the liquid to make a thicker sauce. I didn’t do either. I wanted to try it without and if I make this dish again, I will add the pickle juice. I didn’t use the immersion blender because my sauce was white thick and I preferred some chunks of onion and red bell pepper in the sauce. Again, next time I make this I will do both and compare and contrast to this first version.
I thought this dish was good. I’ve had better paprikash dishes- normally made by restaurants in Europe- so it might just be me. Or it could be that they added in pickle juice and blended a portion of their sauce. We will know more later. Or it could be that they had access to better quality paprika. Although, I think the spices here in Kuwait are pretty fresh and high quality.
Don’t skip the sour cream/lemon juice sauce to eat with this dish. It adds a lot of flavor and helps cut through some of the richness.
First photo is the thighs dolloped with sour cream sauce. The second are the thighs in the pan before service.
