RCP: Poulet au Paprika

I'm on a Laura Calder kick this week. I made this tonight - sort of a French slant on Chicken Paprikash. I used smoked paprika which gave it a little extra oomph. I also couldn't find whole legs, just all drumsticks or all thighs, so I went with 2 thighs per person. Served with spatzle and corn. I also used duck fat to brown the chicken, and crème fraîche for the sauce.

You can watch the video at http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Main/Chicken/recipe.html?dishID=10335

Poulet au Paprika
Yield: 4

Ingredients
4 chicken legs, split between thigh and drumstick
1 pinch Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon bacon drippings or oil (or duck fat)
1 red pepper, cut into roughly 2-inch/5 cm julienne
1 onion, sliced
half of a small fennel bulb, finely chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon high-quality hot or sweet Hungarian paprika
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup white wine
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons sour cream or crème fraîche
a squeeze of lemon juice, to taste (optional)

Directions
1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the fat in a sauté pan and, working in batches, brown the meat on all sides. Remove. Drain off all but a tablespoon of fat from the pan. Lower the heat and add the julienned pepper, onion, fennel (if using), and paprika. Cook until soft, but not coloured, about 12 minutes, adding the garlic for the final minute. Deglaze the pan with the wine. Add the tomatoes and bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper. Put the chicken back in. Cover the pan, and cook, turning the meat occasionally, until tender, about 30 minutes.

2. Remove the chicken to a serving platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Turn up the heat under the sauce and boil down to sauce consistency. Turn off the heat, stir through the cream, check the seasonings (including the paprika, adding more if you like), then pour over the chicken, and serve.

Thanks for posting this Ted. I copied it to my recipe files. In another thread, someone else commented about not finding leg quarters. I often find them locally on sale for $.49 / lb. Usually I marinate them in a locally made sauce (Chiavetta's) and cook them on the grill.

Very reminiscent of the one in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” with a few extras thrown in. Technique is the same.

Very reminiscent of the one in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” with a few extras thrown in. Technique is the same.

Forgive me, but haven't you forgotten the other authors? I really find it dreadful that Beck and Bertholle's contributions have been sidelined. I don't want to deny that Mrs Child made a contribution, but Beck & Bertholle were the driving force in the book.

What recipe were you thinking of, by the way? I make their Supremes de Volaille à l'Archiduc quite often and there's a world of difference between that and the recipe as quoted.

Sorry I forgot B&B Ian. That is the recipe I was referring to. Sorry you didn't see the similarity.

Regards, Carl

Sorry I forgot B&B Ian. That is the recipe I was referring to. Sorry you didn't see the similarity.

Well... the similarity (IMO for what it's worth) is that both recipes use paprika and both use cream. Just about everything else is different. Chicken breast cooked for 8 minutes in a casserole in a little onion and paprika till JUST cooked, is not really the same as legs simmered for 30 minutes, with various flavouring vegetables. The texture of the meat is different the mouthfeel is different and the style of the dish is different.

It's rather as if I were to say that scaloppini ala marsala was very like osso bucco.

By the way, the Archiduc recipe is one that I've successfully (except that like a twit, I managed to burn the onion/paprika/stock reduction the last time I tried it) adapted to sous vide cooking. You make the sauce in advance, using a little chicken stock to substitute for not cooking the chicken with the onion, butter and paprika under a cartouche in a casserole, and then you nap the fillets with that sauce, having seasoned them lightly with salt, pepper, lemon and paprika and cooked around 1½ hours sous vide as Baldwin suggests at 64°C. Smashing, and keeps the beautifully moist tenderness of the fillet perfectly.

By the way, the Archiduc recipe is one that I've successfully (except that like a twit, I managed to burn the onion/paprika/stock reduction the last time I tried it) adapted to sous vide cooking. You make the sauce in advance, using a little chicken stock to substitute for not cooking the chicken with the onion, butter and paprika under a cartouche in a casserole, and then you nap the fillets with that sauce, having seasoned them lightly with salt, pepper, lemon and paprika and cooked around 1½ hours sous vide as Baldwin suggests at 64°C. Smashing, and keeps the beautifully moist tenderness of the fillet perfectly.

We can agree on that. We have also modified it. Cooking the way Julia, B & B recommend ends up with burnt paprika, so we add it later.

[Jenise]

Sounds good. I'm long on sour cream and was wondering what to do with it. This would be the kind of ticket I was looking for.