Hungarian Chicken Paprikash with Dumplings 🇭🇺 — A Classic Comfort Food

Few Hungarian dishes are as comforting and recognizable as Chicken Paprikash, or Paprikás Csirke. Tender chicken is gently simmered in a rich paprika-infused sauce, then finished with sour cream and served with soft homemade dumplings called nokedli.

It’s hearty, creamy, deeply savory, and wonderfully satisfying—the kind of traditional meal that feels right at home around a family dinner table.

A Little Hungarian History

Chicken paprikash is one of Hungary’s best-known traditional dishes. Its defining ingredient is Hungarian paprika, which gives the sauce its beautiful color and characteristic sweet, earthy flavor.

The dish belongs to the broader Hungarian tradition of cooking meats with onions and paprika. Sour cream is often added near the end, creating the creamy sauce that makes paprikash so distinctive.

The dumplings, known as nokedli, are small, irregularly shaped egg noodles made from a simple flour-and-egg dough.

Ingredients

For the Chicken Paprikash

• 2½–3 lb chicken thighs or drumsticks
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or lard
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2–3 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small tomato, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1½ cups chicken broth or water
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ¾ cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

For the Nokedli Dumplings

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 large eggs
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½–¾ cup water, as needed