Easy Hungarian Chicken Paprikash with Egg Noodles
Growing up, my grandma’s Hungarian chicken paprikash with dumplings recipe was my absolute favorite meal ever. Its deep paprika flavor paired with pillowy dumplings gave my soul a hug! To this day, this dish is in my top 5 favorite meals to enjoy, especially with the sentimental value it holds for me.
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My grandma was a first-generation Hungarian American. She knew how to stretch a dollar, and she knew how to get a delicious dinner on the table fast. And she was always more than happy to make her Hungarian chicken paprikash with dumplings for me because she knew how much I loved it. Although she’s no longer with us, I still enjoy making it for my friends and family to help carry her love and memory forward.
However, I don’t always have the time or energy to make the dish how she used to make it. Although the handmade dumplings that traditionally go along with this dish are next-level delicious, they’re definitely time consuming. So, I spent years trying to make a quicker, easier version of her Hungarian chicken paprikash recipe that I could easily whip up on a weeknight for a one-pot dinner, and that still gave me that taste and feeling of the dish from my childhood.
The recipe you see here on this page is my labor of love, and I’m so excited to share it with you. It’s the result of years of me recipe testing, slightly tweaking ingredients, and adjusting the process to remain true to my family’s recipe while keeping it as simple and as quick as possible.
Tips for making this easy comfort food recipe – Hungarian chicken paprikash in a pressure cooker
Because this recipe doesn’t have a long ingredient list, using quality ingredients is important. You can certainly use the ingredients you might already have on hand, but selecting quality ingredients will improve the quality of the dish. Even with selecting quality ingredients, this recipe is still less than $5 per serving, so it’s a great value and a great way to stretch your money.
The ingredients that are most important to pay attention to quality are:
- Chicken thighs: Use boneless skinless chicken thighs for this recipe. And, because I’m always trying to watch my sodium intake, I prefer to use air-chilled chicken thighs, as they have less retained sodium and less retained water than water-chilled chicken thighs.
- Chicken broth: Use a low-sodium chicken broth for this recipe. Choose one with limited, quality ingredients that you enjoy the taste of, since the chicken broth makes up such a large proportion of this recipe.
- Paprika: If your grocery store has authentic sweet Hungarian paprika, it will make a world of difference in this dish. However, regular paprika that isn’t smoked or hot is okay, too.
The biggest gamechanger for me when creating this recipe was finding a pressure cooker with a proper capacity that had a sauté feature with multiple temperature settings. I’ve used many, many pressure cookers, and my absolute favorite is the Ninja Foodi 6.5 quart 14-in-1 pressure cooker. The inner pot of this pressure cooker is ceramic-coated, nonstick, and my favorite – it’s PFOA-free and PTFE-free. Plus the sauté feature has five…five!…temperature settings to help you better control your cooking. And, the inner pot is dishwasher safe, making this appliance truly a dream and a perfect match for this one-pot recipe with insanely easy cleanup.
I hope this recipe will bring you and your family comfort and joy!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means that – at no extra cost to you – I might earn a commission if you purchase something through my links. Additionally, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I never recommend anything that I don’t personally use, that I haven’t gifted to friends or family, or that I haven’t heavily researched. Please see my full disclosure statement here for further information. Thank you for supporting me & my blog!
Equipment
- 1 Pressure cooker Ensure the pressure cooker has a sauté function
Ingredients
- 2 lb chicken thighs (boneless, skinless)
- 2 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin)
- 8 tbsp paprika (regular paprika – not hot or smoked paprika)
- 6 tbsp onion powder
- 4 tsp salt (Kosher salt)
- ½ tsp ground white pepper
- 64 oz chicken broth (low sodium)
- 16 oz sour cream
- 12 oz egg noodles (medium width)
Instructions
Prep Instructions
- Measure the correct amount of each of the spices (paprika, onion powder, salt, and ground white pepper). Combine all of the spices in a single bowl. Set aside.
- Using a paper towel, pat the chicken thighs dry, and place them on a plate. Set aside. Wash hands.
Cooking Instructions
- Turn the pressure cooker to the sauté function at medium heat. Add the olive oil to the pressure cooker.
- Add the chicken thighs to the pressure cooker. When adding the chicken thighs to the pressure cooker, you should hear a gentle sizzle. If you don't hear the gentle sizzle, remove the chicken thighs and wait a few more seconds for your olive oil to get a little bit hotter (but not too hot – you don't want your olive oil to start smoking). Sear the chicken thighs for 3-4 minutes on each side, until they get a nice golden brown color on each side. During this step, it's important to get a nice sear on the chicken thighs to help lock in the flavor – in a later step, we'll focus on cooking them through.
- Take the sour cream out of the fridge to help remove some of its chill. Set aside. Doing this will help prevent curdling when we add it to the sauce later on in the recipe.
- Once the chicken thighs are nicely seared, turn the pressure cooker sauté function off. Leave the chicken thighs in the pressure cooker. To the pressure cooker, add the chicken broth and bowl of spices. Stir well, being sure to incorporate the spices into the broth and to scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pressure cooker pot. *Important note: make sure that this step does not overfill your pressure cooker beyond its max fill line. If it does, adjust this recipe to ensure it safely fits inside your pressure cooker without going over your pressure cooker's max capacity fill line.
- Close the pressure cooker lid. Ensure the vent on the lid of the pressure cooker is set to "seal". Set the pressure cooker to cook on high for 10 minutes. After the cooking cycle is complete, do a 15-minute natural pressure release – meaning, let the pressure cooker release some of the pressure on its own for 15 minutes after the cooking cycle is complete, instead of doing a manual pressure release. A manual pressure release is done by using an oven mitt to move the pressure vent on the lid from the "seal" to the "vent" position. Doing a 15-minute natural pressure release will help ensure the chicken thighs are juicy and easily pull apart. After a 15-minute natural pressure release, do a manual pressure release. *Important note: Make sure to cover your hands with an oven mitt when doing the manual pressure release, as the steam that comes out of the vent on the lid of the pressure cooker will be extremely hot and will cause burns.
- Open the pressure cooker lid. Using a slotted spoon, remove the chicken thighs from the pressure cooker, and place them onto a plate. Using a meat thermometer, ensure the chicken thighs have an internal temperature of 165℉ to ensure they're safely cooked through. Set aside. Leave the chicken broth and spices inside the pressure cooker.
- Add a few (3-4) ladles of the hot chicken broth to a medium bowl. Set aside to help cool it down a little bit. We'll use this later on in the recipe to help gently add our sour cream to the sauce without it curdling. Sour cream does not like extremely hot temperatures. If you add cold sour cream to a hot liquid, it will curdle.
- Turn the pressure cooker to the sauté function at medium heat. Once the chicken broth and spices are boiling, add the egg noodles to the chicken broth and spices. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the egg noodles are al dente according to the egg noodle package's cooking instructions. Turn off the pressure cooker sauté function.
- Add the sour cream to the medium bowl with the chicken broth we set aside earlier in the recipe. Using a whisk, combine the sour cream and the chicken broth.
- Add the sour cream and chicken broth mixture and the pulled-apart chicken thighs back into the pressure cooker pot along with the broth and cooked egg noodles. Using a ladle or cooking spoon, stir to combine.
- Serve and enjoy! Be sure to refrigerate leftovers immediately and eat within 2-3 days.
Nutrition
