Chicken Paprikash

Have you ever sat in front of the telly and heard mention some dish that you have never heard before and looked it up. Well it happens to me all the time, seeing as I've always got the telly on whilst writing articles for the blog, housework and looking for film and TV work.

I am a bit of a sci fi film and TV nut, not enough to go to conventions, but I do like watching them and Star Trek is one of my favourites. My favourite being Star Trek: Voyager with the wonderfully camp captain, Captain Janeway, who was always hammy but gave a more thoughtful role as a captain. Whilst watching an episode she mentions that she loves Chicken Paprikash and wondered what that was as I'd never heard of it before.

After a bit of searching on the internet it didn't take long to find that is was a Hungarian dish and I found some basic recipes and you'll never guess what it contains, yep, chicken and paprika – I wonder if that is were it gets it's name from well duh shows how slow am I.

It's not the healthiest of dishes but I made two versions, one with sour cream and the other with yoghurt. I wanted to see if I could make a healthier version without losing the flavour and I used Greek yoghurt as it has the same sourness as the cream. Both were very tasty and would have been happy to have been served either of them. The sour cream version was smoother, but the yoghurt version was lighter. So you could do either version depending on how healthy you prefer your food.

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 50g/2oz unsalted butter
• 900g/2lbs pounds of chicken pieces, preferably thighs and legs
• 2 large onion – cut Asian style
• ¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp sweet paprika, preferably Hungarian
• 1 tsp hot paprika or cayenne
• 250ml/8floz/1 cup chicken stock
• 120ml4floz/½ cup sour cream or plain yoghurt (preferably Greek)
• (serves 4)

Place the butter and oil into a pan and turn up the heat. Add the chicken in stages to brown. Once brown remove and add another batch until you have browned all the chicken.

Once completed, turn down the heat and add the onions and gently cook for 7 minutes.

Add the black pepper, both paprika's and stir into the onions and gently fry for a couple of minutes.

Pour in the chicken stock and stir into the onions and spices and then add the browned chicken and stir again.

Place a lid on the pan and leave to cook for a about 25 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

Turn down the heat to the lowest level and add the sour cream or yoghurt and stir until the cream/yoghurt is completely stirred in.

cream version

yoghurt version

Serve with white or brown rice, noodles or dumplings