Chicken Paprikash. Kinda. Sorta. But not really.

I have a sneaking suspicion that when an actual chef goes into the kitchen to make a dish like, oh, say Chicken Paprikash, that:

A) He/She cuts the chicken up into beautiful, symmetrical pieces; OR
B) He/She doesn't accidentally throw the onions - that he/she just cried over while cutting - into the garbage bowl on the counter; OR
C) He/She doesn't forget to buy the damn sour cream; OR
D) He/She doesn't open the spice cabinet to find out that he/she doesn't really have enough paprika left to make what the damned dish is named after; OR

E) ALL OF THE ABOVE.

It's been a roller coaster of a week the past few days. Great family gathering. Disaster of an apple pie. Awesome Coconut Cream Dessert type thing. Major car repair bill.

So when I found a 3.76 pound chicken in the meat section of the grocery store marked down to less than $2, I decided it was time for a good, old-fashioned comforting type of chicken dinner. A whole chicken. Roasted? Cooked slow, definitely. Not too many ingredients. Easy, but filling.

And Chicken Paprikash was slow cooking, short on ingredients, easy and filling. But....well, see A through E above for what I didn't bargain for getting with this dish.

It ended up as a scrumpdidlyumptious meal, though, served over rice. With a very large glass of wine. For comfort. Not to mention for my mental state after balancing the checkbook with the car repairs thrown in.

Kinda Sorta Chicken Paprikash

3 1/2 pound whole chicken, cut into pieces (I froze the back and wings for stock)

• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil


• 2 white onions, chopped kinda big


• 1 red bell pepper, chopped kinda big


• 2 cloves of garlic, minced


• 1 cup chicken stock


• 1 Tbsp paprika


• 2 tsp pepper


• dash of salt


• 1/2 cup half and half

Brown the chicken thighs and breasts in a large oven proof pot. If your pots not ovenproof, you'll just have one more dish to clean later, because you'll have to find something to use in the oven.

Remove chicken from your pot, and set aside. Add the onions, bell pepper and garlic, and sautee for about 4 minutes. Remove these from the pot too. Pour the chicken broth in the pot, and - if you haven't already picked them out and eaten them (not that I would do that) scrape up all the yummy brown things from the bottom of the pan. Add the paprika, salt and pepper and give it a good stir. Pour the flavored broth over the onions and peppers. Put the chicken back in the skillet, and pour the broth, onions and peppers over the chicken. At this point, it didn't look like I had enough liquid - I wanted a lot of sauce later - so I poured another 1/2 cup of chicken broth over the whole she-bang. Put in a 300 degree oven for about an hour, making sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked before you remove it.

Take the chicken out of the pan, and strain out most of the onions and peppers, leaving the brothy heavenliness in the pan. If I had more paprika, I would have added it here. Add the half and half to the broth and stirring constantly, bring to a slow boil on top of the stove, letting it slightly thicken. Add the onions and peppers back in. Put the chicken back in the pot - if you're lucky, some of it has now fallen off the bones and is part of the sauce. Serve over rice.