Comfort food Transylvanian (/Hungarian) style.
Paprika is the star of the show, giving this mild creamy dish a sweet, warming flavour.
Serve it with orzo or rice, add lots of spinach for feel-good value and sprinkle a generous amount of parsley on top.
This is the kind of food I have grown up on, meaning I’ll always be fond of this recipe, but I’m also yet to find someone that doesn’t enjoy it.
If you are vegan or veggie, check out the sweet potato and chickpea goulash recipe here. It has a similar flavour profile but is fully vegan.
Ingredients to feed 2 (generously, but you’ll want a big portion, trust me)
2 chicken breasts, cubed
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of good quality, ideally Hungarian, paprika
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 large red pepper, cut into 1” cubes
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
200ml of passata or 1/2 tin of chopped tomato
200g of spinach
150ml of creme fraiche (go full fat, it’s better)
2 tsp of plain flour
a large handful of parsley leaves, roughly chopped
rapeseed oil to cook
sea salt and black pepper to season
90g of orzo or 60g of rice per person, cooked to packet instructions
Method:
Heat a tablespoon of oil on a medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the onion, pop a lid on the pan and cook for 5 minutes, until softened.
Turn the heat up to medium-high, add the chicken, season with black pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Add the paprika, smoked paprika and a large pinch of salt, stir well and cook for a minute.
Add the pepper and garlic, passata and a good splash of water (around 75ml), bring to boil, season again with salt and pepper then turn the heat down to low, pop a lid on the pan and let it cook for 15 minutes.
Use this time to cook the rice or orzo.
Take the lid off the pan with the chicken, stir well, increase the heat to medium and stir in the spinach. This will likely need to be done in batches.
Cook for a further 10 minutes to slightly thicken the sauce.
Take the pan off the heat.
Stir 2 teaspoons of flour into the creme fraiche, stirring until the flour is smooth. This will stop the creme fraiche from splitting.
Add the creme fraiche to the pan, stir well, season again with sea salt and black pepper and return to a medium heat to heat through. You don’t want to boil it, just ensure that it’s hot.
The sauce should be thick and creamy.
Ladle the sauce over rice or orzo and sprinkle a generous amount of chopped parsley on top.