Chicken Paprikash in Instant Pot or pressure cooker

Today I will be making a very famous and traditional Hungarian comfort food called Chicken Paprikash. 

What is Chicken Paprikash? Chicken Paprikash is a chicken cooked in a sauce loaded with paprika and sourcream. It is a very comforting dish and an easy practical dinner. Since I am a big fan of pressure cooking, I will make this dish in Instant Pot which will save me about 30 minutes of cooking time compared to the traditional method. Paprikash could be served with egg noodles, mashed potatoes, dumplings or rice. 

Since the recipe called for a lot of paprika, hence the name,  it is key to use quality and fresh paprika ( don’t use the one you had in a spice rack for the past 3 years ). 

Can you make this dish spicy? It is not traditional, but sure, why not, add some hot and smoked paprika as well if you like.  

Step #1

Dice onions and mince garlic.  

Tip#1 

Onion cutting technique:

• Cut stem side of the onion 

• Cut the onion in half, slicing downwards through the root, then peel.

• Lay the onion half flat, slicing horizontally ( leave the root intact ) 

• Cut 5-6 vertical slices into each half ( leave the root intact ) 

• And finally, slice across these cuts to dice.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. 

Tip#2

I recommend seasoning on wax paper, it is a lot easier to clean up. 

Turn on Instant Pot to Saute mode, add a little bit of oil and brown chicken on both sides. 

Tip#3:

Use high heat oil such as avocado or canola oil.  Also, always start with skin side down, it will give you a crisper sear. Sear for 3-4 minutes on each side. Also, don’t overcrowd the pot, sear it in multiple batches. 

Take out the chicken in a separate plate, add a little more oil if needed and saute onions for 3-4 minutes or until translucent, then stir in garlic and tomato paste and cook for another minute. 

Tip#4

After sauteing and before pressure cooking, we always need to deglaze the instant pot. Add ½ cup of chicken broth ( or other liquid ) and using a silicon or wooden spatula scrape everything from the bottom. This step will help to avoid the burn message on the Instant Pot. 

Now, you can turn off saute mode. 

Step #2

Add paprika. Make sure to use fresh high quality paprika since it is the main ingredient of this dish. Ideally try to find sweet Hungarian paprika which has a nice rich sweet pepper flavor. It is not traditional, but I like to make this dish a bit spicy by adding some hot and smoked paprika and even some red pepper flakes ( but this is optional ). 

Now, add chicken broth and place chicken back into the pot. Close the lid and set Instant Pot to 15 minutes on high pressure.  Once cook time ends, allow natural release for 10 minutes, then remove remaining pressure and open up the lid. 

Step #3 

Take the chicken out to the serving plate. Taste the sauce to see if it needs more salt or pepper. Now, we need to thicken the sauce. 

Mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water, mix it well and add it to the Instant Pot. turn on Saute mode and let it simmer for about 3-5 minutes or until sauce thickens. 

Tip#5

Cornstarch has twice the thickening power than flour and doesn’t have a distinctive taste. As a result, with cornstarch you will need to simmer the sauce for less time then with flour. 

Turn off saute mode and stir in 1 cup of room temperature sour cream right before serving. 

You can serve it with egg noodles or mashed potatoes. I found these noodles in Trader Joe’s which kind of look like Hungarian dumplings. 

I hope you like this recipe!