Remember the old Sesame Street episodes when they said “Today’s show was brought to you by the letter ….” Well, today’s dinner was brought to you by the letter “P.” P is for Poulet (chicken). P is for Potatoes. And P is for PAPRIKA. I am thinking this dish is mostly Spanish, but I guess it could also be Mexican. I wish P could also be for Chorizo since that is the other star of this dish. But alas, that just doesn’t match.
Everything in the recipe is bathed in the beautiful red powder of Paprika. I think Paprika is the one spice that the more you put in the better things taste. It just gets sweeter the more you add. I don’t think you can ever have too much paprika.
That reminds me of a story when I was little. My Aunt Rita showed us kids a huge bottle of paprika and told us that Hungarians like to use a lot of it. That’s why the bottle is so large. Being ¼ Hungarian, I think that’s why I love to use paprika myself. It comes in sweet, hot, and smoked varieties. I mostly use the sweet or smoked type. Hot to me seems a little odd tasting. It just imparts such a great flavor on anything from eggs, to stuffed cabbage, to potatoes. And what would Chicken Paprikash be without Paprika? Just plain old chicken!
Here I liberally doused my chicken thighs with the star of today’s show—Paprika. Then browned them in a little olive oil. Then sautéed about two onions in the remaining oil. Added some chopped up Chorizo, jalapenos, and tomatoes. Then finished the whole thing off in the oven for about one hour.
I served it with roast potatoes, which I made with fingerling potatoes, salt, olive oil, and yes of course– Paprika!
