We've been experimenting with chicken lately and stumbled upon a recipe in a 10 year old Good Housekeeping for chicken paprikash, a Hungarian dish. The printed recipe actually called for roasting a whole chicken; we chose to use pieces. What we love about this recipe is that not only does it make a great chicken dish, it doesn't require any odd, special ingredients, just paprika, onions, sour cream, butter, chicken broth and chicken. Although in this recipe the chicken is cooked in the oven, you could easily cook it on the stove top.

By the way, several people have written in asking about using boneless, skinless chicken breasts in our chicken recipes. Unless the recipe actually calls for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, we don't recommend it. But that's simply because we prefer the flavor you get from the skin, the goodness of the marrow from the bones, and the richer flavor you get from the dark meat in thighs and legs. We almost always buy whole chickens, and have the butcher cut them up for us, or we do it ourselves. Wing tips and backs get frozen for making chicken stock. That said, if you want to use boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, by all means do so. Recipes are just guidelines, a basis for experimentation.

Chicken Paprikash Recipe
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Ingredients

1 whole chicken (about 3 1/2 pounds), cut into 8 pieces
1 Tbsp butter, softened
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 large onions, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp sour cream
Method

1 Preheat oven to 450°F. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Mix butter with garlic. Use fingertips to spread mixture underneath the skin on the breasts and thighs.

2 In a small roasting pan, stir onions with paprika, salt, and 1/4 cup of water. Arrange chicken pieces in the pan. Cook chicken for about 10 minutes on 450°F, then lower the heat to 375°F and continue to cook an additional 30 minutes. Chicken is done when the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 175°F (use a meat thermometer), and the juices run clear when the thickest part of thigh is pierced with a knife. Note that breasts cook faster than the thighs, so you may want to take those out if done first, and let the thighs cook a few minutes longer.

3 Remove chicken pieces to a platter and let sit for 10 minutes. You may want to cut away the meat from the bones, and cut the chicken pieces into smaller pieces (entirely optional). Skim and discard fat from onion mixture in the pan. Add chicken broth to the onions. Placing the roasting pan on a stovetop burner, bring to boiling over medium heat, stirring to loosen the browned bits. Stir in sour cream. Serve chicken with onions spooned over it.

Serves 4.