Chicken Paprikash With Buttered Egg Noodles

Hungarian chicken paprikash delivers on all the winter staple fronts: It’s hearty, it’s warming, and if you add egg noodles, mashed potatoes, spaetzle (mini German dumplings), or spaetzle's Hungarian cousin, nokedli, it’s a complete meal. The process for making it is simple, but there are a few things to keep in mind. Before you do anything else, take the sour cream out of the refrigerator—letting it come to room temperature will help it blend seamlessly into the hot tomato sauce later. Second: Use an oven-safe skillet (or Dutch oven) large enough to hold everything once combined. And third, sear the chicken thighs in batches so that they have plenty of room to develop the color and flavor required to make the dish truly outstanding.

Using bone-in chicken instead of boneless allows you to skip the store-bought chicken broth, which means you can nestle the thighs back into the tomatoey braise while keeping the skin exposed for maximum crispiness. Depending on your local market, you’ll have a range of paprikas to choose from. It’d be wise to make this Hungarian dish with any bottle labeled “Hungarian paprika.” But even then, you have the choice of hot paprika or sweet. If you’re not familiar with the brand, best to start with sweet paprika before going full tilt with any others. Spanish smoked paprika, or pimentón, would bring a completely different profile, but that’s not a bad thing if you’d care to experiment. Whatever you use, be sure it’s fresh, and sauté it briefly to revive the flavor.

Once the pieces of chicken are cooked, it’s time for the sour cream—mix a small amount of sauce into a bowl with the sour cream to temper it, then add it to the skillet. Put the chicken back in the pan so it gets a coating in the creamy sauce, garnish with parsley, and serve.