This is a nice comfort food that is great to have on a cold day. Different recipes have differing opinions on whether to leave the bone and/or the skin on or not. I personally like the bone removed as I prefer not eating things with bones with a fork and knife, and this is not what I would call finger food. However, I do like the crispy skin. Therefore, I tend to buy chicken thighs with the bone and skin on, but remove the bone and save it for chicken stock. However, boneless and skinless chicken thighs work just as well in this recipe as do ones with the bone and/or skin.
This recipe goes well with a double portion of Potato Puree, or on top of noodles or rice. If not putting on top of something, you may want to thicken the sauce more as described in the steps below. Another thickening option is to add a tablespoon or two of flour with the tomato paste before adding the chicken stock, which can also help to sop up some of the grease. However, if it does not make much of a difference to not use flour, I tend to avoid it so people in my family with gluten allergies can eat it.
Timings
Prep: 7 minutes (more if deboning the thighs)
Cook: 20 minutes
Wait: 40 minutes
Total: 1 hour 7 minutes
Ingredients
- 1T avocado or other neutral oil
- 4 bone-in, skin on chicken thighs, (optionally deboned)
- 1t kosher salt
- 1/2t pepper
- 1/2 (about 1C) yellow onion, sliced thinly
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
- 2 (about 2C or one 15oz can) plum or other tomato seeded, (or drained if using canned), and diced in about 1/2in cubes
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1t salt
- 1T tomato paste
- 1/4t smoked paprika
- 2T sweet Hungarian (or other non-smoked) paprika
- 1C chicken stock
- 1/3C sour cream (room temperature)
- 2T heavy cream
Steps
- (Optional) Remove the bone from the thighs, sprinkle the thighs with kosher salt, and place on a wire rack on a sheet pan and leave uncovered, skin side up in the fridge for 4 – 12 hours.
- Sprinkle the kosher salt and pepper on all sides of the chicken thighs if not already added in the previous optional step.
- Heat 1T oil over medium high heat until simmering. Pat the chicken dray and sear skin side down about 5 minutes or until the skin is nicely browned and releases from the pan. Flip and cook 3 more minutes.
- Remove chicken and set aside. Drain excess grease from the pan leaving about 1T.
- Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and salt, and cook about 5 minutes or until softened.
- Add the tomato paste and stir about 1 minute.
- Add the chicken stock, and smoked and sweet paprika, and stir to combine.
- Add the chicken and any juices from the chicken to the pan, bring to a low simmer, cover and cook 30 minutes.
- Remove chicken and put on a plate. If you want to skim fat off the top of the liquid then this is the best time to do so.
- Mix the sour cream and heavy cream in a bowl. Whisk in about 1C of the sauce in the pan about 2T at a time. This is to help bring the cream up to temperature and not curdle.
- Add the sour cream mixture back to the pan, and simmer to reduce, about 10 minutes.
- Taste for seasoning, and adjust as desired. If the sauce is too thin, then mix 1T corn starch and 2T cold water in a bowl, then whisk into the sauce 1T at a time letting it warm and thicken. Repeat as desired.
- Add the chicken back into the pan to warm it up, about 2 minutes.
References