Tender chicken in a velvety sour cream-paprika sauce — Czechia's lighter cousin of the Hungarian classic, served with bread dumplings.
Czech chicken paprikash differs subtly from the Hungarian original: less smoky, more sour cream, served with bread dumplings instead of pasta. Cooked in a single pot, chicken pieces are simmered with onion, paprika and stock, then enriched at the end with sour cream and a touch of flour. It is the dish of weeknight family dinners across Bohemia.
Serves 4
Heat butter and oil in a heavy casserole. Salt chicken and brown skin-side down 6 min until golden. Flip 4 min. Remove.
Add onions to the pot. Reduce heat to medium. Cook 15 min stirring often until deeply caramelised.
Off heat — add all paprikas, tomato paste, bay leaves. Stir well. Paprika scorches if added on direct high heat.
Return to medium heat. Add bell pepper. Pour in stock, scraping bottom. Return chicken.
Cover and simmer 30 min. Chicken should be cooked through and tender.
Whisk flour into sour cream until smooth. Spoon a few tablespoons of hot sauce into the cream slowly to temper, then stir back into pot.
Simmer 5 min on low (don't boil — sour cream may split). Adjust salt.
Serve over bread dumplings or noodles. Top with chopped parsley.
Always add paprika OFF the heat — it scorches into bitterness on direct flame.
The onions must be deeply caramelised — that's the foundation of every paprika dish.
Pork paprikash (vepřový paprikáš) — substitute pork shoulder, increase cook time to 75 min
Add 200g mushrooms in step 4
Vegetarian: replace chicken with 800g large potato chunks + 200g mushrooms
Refrigerate 4 days. Reheat gently — sour cream sauces split if boiled hard.
Paprikash entered Bohemian kitchens via the Habsburg Empire's Hungarian regions in the 19th century. The Czech version evolved with more sour cream and the substitution of bread dumplings for the Hungarian galuska (egg pasta). It became standard family dinner fare.
Crème fraîche or full-fat Greek yoghurt work. Light sour cream will split.
Mixing hot sauce into cold cream gradually prevents the proteins from seizing into curds.
Per serving · 4 servings total
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