Chicken paprika #4
This is a minor update to Chicken paprika #3, scaling it up to make 4 servings, frozen. Much to my surprise, it freezes well and that saves a lot of effort making it for dinner over Chicken paprika #2 which I made as a single serving.
- 20 oz. chicken breast, cut into at least 4 pieces
- 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic, minced
- 8 oz. chicken broth
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp. Hungarian sweet paprika
- 1 tbsp. Hungarian hot paprika
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- olive oil
- 1 tbsp. butter
I started with a 1.87 lb. (30 oz) package of chicken breast. I used 20.4 oz., two breasts, cut in half to make 4 servings.
Vacuum sealed and froze the remaining 5.7 oz. breast raw for a future meal.
Mise en place (partial).
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add olive oil to a sauté pan (with a lid) and cook the chicken until lightly browned.
Flip the chicken, add a the onion and garlic. Add the 1 tbsp. butter. Cook until seared on both sides.
Add the paprika. Add 8 oz. chicken broth. Stir, cover, and cook for 6 to 14 minutes over medium-low heat until the interior temperature of the chicken is 160°F. Chicken breast tenders take 6 minutes; thick breasts take 14 minutes (or even longer).
Remove the chicken from the pan.
Reduce the chicken broth by half.
Add the 1/2 cup sour cream. Could probably use a whole 8 oz. (by weight) container instead so each serving will have more sauce.
Let the chicken and sauce cool a bit.
Add the chicken and sauce to a chamber vacuum sealer bag. Vacuum seal and freeze.
Reheating
Reheat in the sous vide at 140°F. 30 minutes from refrigerator temperature or 60 minutes from frozen. The chicken is fully cooked already, so this is just to reheat it.
Transfer to a sauté pan to cook for a few minutes. Plate the chicken. Stir the sauce some more. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.
Serve with rice and broccoli. Add sauce as desired.
Reheating from refrigerated work great; it's nice to be able to make it earlier in the day and just reheat it for serving.
Reheating from frozen
I was skeptical, but this worked great! I reheated the vacuum sealed package for 30 minutes at 150°F from frozen, then transferred to a sauté pan to finish the sauce. It was delicious, basically as good as it was originally.
2024-07-23
This time I made it with 22.2 oz. of chicken leg and thigh (previously frozen) instead of breast.
Also diced the chicken before cooking. This made it faster to cook, as well as making it easier to divide and eat. With half of a yellow onion and 2 cloves of garlic.
And the rest of the ingredients:
I possibly should have used a larger pan, but this worked out fine.
Cooked covered for 8 minutes.
Separated out the chicken from the liquid so I could reduce the liquid. I put the chicken, around 3.6 oz. to 3.8 oz. per serving, directly into its vacuum sealer bag.
Reduced the chicken broth.
Added 8 oz. sour cream. I made the sauce a little thinner this time to make it easier to reheat, and also so each serving would have enough.
This made about 12 oz., of sauce, which I then added to each vacuum sealer bag and let cool.
Vacuum sealed 4 servings, froze 3.
Served with rice and broccoli.