Chicken paprikash and the popular Hungarian pasta “nokedli” are best friends and very often served together.  Nokedli is made from a home made noodle dough (think of  a very thick pancake batter) that is pushed through a special tool with holes into boiling water. The pasta droplets are cooked for a few minutes before strained and served.  The authentic Hungarian nokedli pasta maker can be tricky to find abroad but I managed to get “German spaetzle maker” online in the UK, which is similar and I used it for this recipe.

Chicken Paprikash, ingredients for 4 people:

• 100ml sunflower or vegetable oil
• 4 pieces of chicken, something with bone preferred, works well with chicken tights, leave the skin on
• 2 medium onions finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of Hungarian paprika powder
• 1 tomato diced
• 1 bell pepper or similar sliced
• 1 teaspoon of tomato paste
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 200ml water
• 200ml sour cream
• couple of springs of flat leaf parsley
• salt, black pepper

How to make:

1. Quickly sear and lightly brown the chicken pieces on all sides in very hot oil, set aside
2. gently saute the onions and garlic in some oil, till soft and translucent
3. sprinkle the paprika powder onto the onions, mix, add the chicken pieces and cover well with the paprika onions.
4. Pour in the water, season with salt and pepper, cover the pan with a lid, bring to the boil and cook for 20 minutes, not too vigorously.
5. At this point add the chopped tomato, bell pepper, tomato paste, bay leaf and gently simmer for a further 20 minutes.
6. Mix the sour cream with a heaped dessert spoon of flour add to the cooking paprikash and stir till the cooking liquid slightly thickens. (For a lump free result work a little of the hot cooking liquid into the sour cream mixture first, to dilute and even out the temperature between the two, then add the mixture to the hot simmering dish while stirring continuosly.)

Nokedli – Ingredients for 4 people:

• 200g wheat flour
• 2 large eggs
• 120ml water
• big pinch of salt
• water for cooking

How to make

1. Mix the ingredients in a bowl, with a wooden spoon or use an electric mixer with dough hooks.
2. Meanwhile boil a big pan of lightly salted water.
3. Put some noodle dough into the  nokedli/spaetzle maker, see images below, and move it back and forth to push through the little pasta droplets into the boiling water.
4. When the little dumplings swim to the surface of the water they are most likely ready, fish them out with a slotted spoon and keep warm.

Serve the noodles with chicken paprikash decorate with a bit more sour cream and freshly chopped parsley. The garlicky sweet cucumber salad is an excellent compliment to this dish – my recipe here.

Egészségedre! Bon Apetit!