on the map below, the same location is in very close proximity to the small pokets of hungarian minority populations (in green). in fact, the location of cluj-napoca is, as far as i can tell, right smack in one of the green pockets.

 

 

 

this one was a pleasure to make, and was enjoyed by all. it definitely will be made again and i encourage any interested person to try it, for you will not be disappointed!

 

The ingredients are simple and straightforward, and as all country-peasant dishes end up being, truly a nourishing delight to eat. Here a shot of the goods needed, except for the chicken (and of course, the fat rendered from the chicken) - all prepped and ready:

A note on Paprika: use Hungarian paprika for this dish, not smoked paprika or Spanish pimentón de la Vera; doing so might produce an excellent-tasting dish, but it would give an entirely different flavour profile and not be true to the Hungarian origins of the dish. I recommend authentic Hungarian paprika, and the brand that I really enjoy is called "Pride of Szeged," but even if you can only find plain, old, non-specific PAPRIKA in your grocery aisle, it will work very well.

 

A note on chicken: I prefer chicken leg quarters for this dish. You can make the recipe with the leg quarters as-is, or just drumsticks, or just thighs. They all work just fine. You can also use a whole chicken cut up, but the white meat never seems to incorporate the depth of taste like the dark meat does, and the wings tend to fall apart into bits by the time it is done. 

 

The diced onions will need to be browned in some kind of fat. The best flavor this dish gets is from the rendered fat from the thigh's skin. If you prefer not to use chicken fat, there are options. Butter is the next best thing; use about 1/2 stick and you'll make a delicious dish. You can also use an equivalent amount of olive oil, but it never seems to taste as good as the butter or chicken fat versions. I think it is because the olive oil never quite emulsifies in the sauce as well as the butter or chicken fat does. It's not bad, just not as good as the other two versions. It goes without saying that pork fat (and - in particular - bacon fat) will work extremely well with this traditional Hungarian meal.

 

Let's get started! If you skin your chicken, or if you bought skinless chicken, you do not want to pre-brown it; just set the pieces aside and start rendering the fat from the skin, if you have it. If you choose not to skin your chicken, then begin the dish by browning the chicken pieces in batches to render the fat. Brown the skin over medium heat, gently, until it is brown and cunchy-looking, then set the pieces aside until after you add the V8 juice. Here we are, rendering the chicken fat from the skin:

Since taking the photo above, I've found that this step works better if you cut up the skin into smaller pieces; it also gives you nicer chicken "cracklin's that you can use in otehr dishes or as a topping/garnish for this dish. You want to render the fat at a fairly moderate heat - it's better for the heat to be a little too low, rather than too high, so that you can render the fat without burning the skin, which would ruin a lot of good flavour. Also, some people like to reserve the "cracklings" from the skin when rendering is complete, and serve them as a garnish or as a special treat of their own. This can't be done if the skin is burnt, of course. I chose not to do reserve the cracklings, but did give a few to the pets, and they seemed to like them.

As you can see from this picture, quite a bit of fat is rendered from the skin:

 
The greenish colour, aside from being kind of cool, is simply a result of the yellow fat being in a blue bowl. As you can see, the fat is clear and ready to be used for this dish and, presumably, any other chicken-based dish that you might want to cook in the near future.

Save about 4 or 5 tablespoons of fat and discard the rest; this is plenty for all the onions and garlic. Add it back to the Dutch oven:

alternately, i could have kept the skins on and rendered the fat from the chicken pieces as they browned, but i wanted to leave the skins out of the final dish, hence the removal and rendering of the skins. this step, whether with pork, poultry or any other rendered animal fat, is a hallmark of hungarian cooking. you can skip this step if you like and use butter, olive oil or even canola oil, if you want, but you will miss out on some of the subtle joys and authenticity of this dish, and also a nice, deep layer of goodness. this was the first time i had ever rendered fat from chicken for cooking; it was quite easy and while i am sure it is not nearly as healthy as canola oil, the depth of flavour was amazing. some of the benefits of using the chicken skin for the fat are : A) it is most authentic, B) it is a lot cheaper than butter or olive oil, C) it tastes better, and D) you get all those dark browned bits of chicken skin stuck to the bottom of the pot, that scrape up so nicely as you brown the onions and add so much to the flavor of the final dish.

 

Once most of the fat is removed from the dutch oven, it is heated and then the onions are added. Here we are, sweating them out:

 

 

i read somewhere that in hungarian cooking, the onions are slowly sautéed just to the point where they are on the verge of carmelising, about like this:

This is another step that you want to do rather slowly over moderate heat; the idea is to get the onions just to the point where they release their sugars and add a rich depth and subtle sweetness to a dish. This may take up to 15 or 20 minutes, but is wirth the time invested. Usually, it is a moment or two before they start to turn brown; consequently, it takes a little bit of experience to judge how much cooking of the onions is enough. In Hungary, great pride is taken in slow-carmelisation of onions as the foundation of a good meal, and it is one of the things that will make your Hungarian dining experience a truly authentic one.

a couple-three minutes later, i removed the dutch oven from the heat (this is important, so as not to scorch the garlic and paprika) and added the garlic cloves (which i had forgotten to leave whole and ended up chopping) as well as the salt and pepper:

 

 

it was here that i decided that i probably retained a little too much fat in the dutch oven after rendering, and made a note to use less next time (see note above).

 

i then added half the paprika, stirring to mix well until it turned a nice, brick-red colour and the mess in the pan got stick. This is normal and exactly what you want. You want to be sure to do this off the heat, so as not to scorch the paprika. I then added about four-fifths of the bottle of V8 juice:

 

 

you might be thinking, where did one find v8 juice in 19th-century klausenburgh? i wondered that myself, until i realized that v8 is simply tomatoes, which would have been available at any market or garden, and vegetable stock, which would have been the base of many, many dishes (including this one, presumably), especially once combined with the juices of the chicken to make what is essentially a tomato-infused chicken stock - quite plausible.

 

using the v8 juice as a de-glazing liquid, i returned the dutch oven to the heat and scraped the brown bits of chicken (left over from the rendering) off the bottom. save the last fifth of the bottle of juice, in case you need to thin down the sauce at the end. When everything was stirred well, i added the chicken thighs and legs, settling them into the sauce, and then reduced the heat to low, for simmering.

 

here's how everything looked just as i was putting the heavy lid of the dutch oven down:

 

 

do not peek, stir or otherwise distrub the chicken - just let it cook! after an hour of simmering to cook the chicken pieces, here's the first thing we saw when we lifted the lid:

 

 

check the pieces to make sure tehy are done by inserting a sharp knife into the thickest part of the thigh. the juices should run out clear, not pink or cloudy. if they need more cooking, set the lid back on and let them simmer for another 15 minutes or a half hour. luckily, these were done, so after carefully removing all of the chicken thighs and legs:

 

 

we took a look at the wonderful, rich sauce that was forming.:

 

 

it was a true treasure, but this is hungarian cooking, so there was another step that would ensure a creamy richness to this dish.

 

Put the heat up to medium, and beat the flouor into the sour cream; a wire whisk is the most efficient way, but a wooden spoon will work, also. i've even used a stand mixer, which is ponderous but gives the best results - but in truth, any of these will work. Please do not ever make this with low-fat or fat-free sour cream - it doesn't mix well and there is no comparing the final flavour.

 

After stirring the flour into the sour cream (this is a really bad picture, but it was the best i had):

 

 

we folded the sour cream and flour into the sauce. i immediately realized that i should have mixed the flour in more thoroughly, perhaps with a wire whisk:

 

 

but before long the sour cream melted into creamy richness and the flour incorporated itself into the sauce just fine. You then want to simmer the sauce for a few minutes, in order to cook the flour into the gravy. this is important, so you do not end up tasting raw flour in your final dish.

 

Once that was done, I then added the remaining paprika (which probably could just as easily have been added and incorporated to the sour cream/flour mixture):

 

 

Once the paprika was stirred into the sauce and well-blended, I brought the pot back to a simmer over medium heat and returned the chicken pieces to the dutch oven:

 

 

the picture does not quite do justice to the wonderful, old-world goodness that was bubbling in that pot. the flash brightens the sauce far too much, and the chicken was sinking to the bottom, making it hard to look as good as it really was - but no matter, because the smells were making up for it.

 

After 5 or 10 minutes of simmering, adjust for seasoning (salt, pepper etc.). If the gravy is too thick, use some of the reserved V8 juice in order to thin it out. In our case, it turned out perfectly, so no need.

 

We prepared the plates and served the meal with mashed potatoes. The diced onions are well cooked - but still holding their shape - and they settle at the bottom of the pot, so make sure you scoop deep to get some of those wonderful onions and garlic, too. You can also dot the chicken with some sour cream and sprinkle on a bit of fresh parsley for some pretty garnish, if you choose, but please keep things simple; no manner of gussying up or fancy tricks is going to improve this ur-recipe. It is just right, because of the simplicity of it!

 

 

This is my favourite of the plated pictures, because it shows just how dark, warm and savory the sauce was:

 

 

as i said before, too many times the flash would wash this deep richness out:

 

 

but no worries, this one was a definite keeper!

 

i served this to the beautiful mrs. tas, who actually said she enjoyed it, to my pleasure and surprise - and also to our four children, who all were pretty enthusiastic about it and had no complaints. also, two friends of the boys were over and they also enjoyed this meal. it seems that whenever i am cooking, they show up for supper, which is alright.

 

 

the two mistakes i encountered while making this were that i did not remove more chicken fat after rendering, and that i did not mix the sour cream/flour mixture better before adding to the pot. neither of these errors hurt the dish; however, correcting them will certainly result in a better experience next time.

 

in all, this was definitely a do-again meal and a complete success, reaching back a hundred-and-fifty years or so into the dark hollows of the carpathians and the fascinating heritage that is a mixture of german, transylvanian and hungarian traditions. i would encourage anyone who wants to appreciate true old-world dining to give this simple meal a try.

What would be your side dish ?  Potato ? Rice ? Salad ?

 

I always do light with these type of dishes, as they tend to be heavy-ish, so I would go with crusty bread for sauce dipping, red wine and a  serrated lettuce variety green & magenta  salad, simple with evoo and vinegar Balsamic or rasberry which I like because of its lightness or just a drizzle of lemon juice and the Evoo with a sprinkle of salt  ...

 

For the Vet, perhaps, a baked or boiled potato.

 

Hope the dish is successfully delicious.