Pepper & Paprika Chicken Thighs
If you’ve ever read any of my recipes before, you won’t be surprised to see that I’m using chicken thighs, especially with the bone in.
Bone in chicken thighs hold so much flavour, and in my experience, never go dry during cooking.
I use them bone in, in recipes such as this, or bone out, if I’m needing small pieces of chicken for stews or stir fries etc.
And then there are my other favourite ingredients, paprika and Vegeta.
Paprika is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers. It can come in a range of flavours from mild and sweet, to hot and spicy.
I use it to add both flavour and colour to my dishes, depending on which type of taste I’m looking for and whether I want a smoky edge, because it comes in smoke flavour too.
Vegeta, well, this is a Croatian pantry staple and is so full of great things once you get your hands on it, I know you’ll love it too – See Tip Box
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
What You Need
8 Chicken Thighs – Skin on & Bone in – See Tip Box
6 Sundried Tomatoes – Roughly chopped into medium pieces – See Tip Box
500ml Chicken stock made with 2 Chicken Stock Cubes
4 tsp Paprika
3 tbsp Tomato Puree
3 Fresh Tomatoes – Roughly Chopped into Large Pieces
2 Large Shallots – Peeled and chopped into very small pieces
2 tbsp Plain Flour
2 Red Peppers – Stalk and seeds removes and sliced into strips
1 Pack Radishes – Washed, dried and sliced
1 Bunch Fresh Parsley – Roughly chopped
1 tsp Vegeta – See Tip Box
Vegetable Oil to Cook
Sour Cream or Greek Yoghurt to Serve – Optional
Malden Sea Salt & Bleck Pepper to Taste
Leave the chicken along for the skin to brown
How It’s Done
Put some vegetable oil into a wide heavy bottomed pan and let it heat up on a medium heat
Use paper towels to pat dry the chicken thighs skin.
Lay the chicken thighs in the hot oil, skin side down and let them cook on a medium heat until the skin is a golden brown and the fat under the skin is rendered out – Be Patient. This could take up to 15 minutes
Leave them alone, let them take their time to become golden – See Tip Box
Once the skin is golden and crisp, remove each of the chicken thighs to a plate and
Add the chopped shallots to the chicken fat and let them cook on a medium heat until the shallots are soft and translucent.
Add the flour, paprika, give it a mix and let it cook for 1 minutes.
Cook the flour and paprika for a minute
Slowly pour in the stock, while whisking all the time until the sauce thickens up a little
Add the sliced peppers, the sliced radishes and sundried tomatoes to the pan and give it a good mix up.
Return the chicken thighs back to the pan, making sure the skin is up.
Put the lid on the pot and on a low to medium heat, let them cook for around an hour, checking a couple of times, to gently give the sauce a stir, just to make sure there is enough liquid in the pan and the chicken isn’t sticking – See Tip Box
Sit the chicken in the sauce , skin side up
Once the chicken is piping hot in the centre, and the sauce has reduced a little, add the chopped parsley and give it a mix.
Give the sauce a taste and if you need to add more pepper or salt, do it now and give it another mix up – See Tip Box
Sprinkle some extra chopped parsley over the top for serving.
Tip Box
Chicken – 1) Why Bone in Chicken Thighs? – Chicken thighs with the bone in are so full of flavour that I never use the white meat if the chicken breast. Chicken thighs never dry out during cooking, unlike how easy it is for chicken breasts to go dry. Keeping the bones in the thighs while cooking also adds more flavour, so if you’re a chicken thigh novice, give them a try.
2) Browning the chicken skin – Letting the chicken skin cook does a couple of great things. Not only does it make it nicer to eat the skin, it also melts away that layer of skin which sits just under neath it. Rendering the layer of fat also means that the chicken also give up flavour and that flavour can be used to cook other things, such as the shallots in this recipe.
3) Sticking – The chicken shouldn’t stick when it cooks with the lid on, so when checking on it while it cooks, don’t move it about too much when you give the sauce a mix up.
Sundried Tomatoes – Sundried tomatoes are little pieces of intense flavour so using them for more than salads is something I do all the time. Add them to sauces for not just an intense tomato flavour but a kick of umami too.
Vegeta – Vegeta is Croatian brand of savoury seasoning made with dehydrated vegetables, spices, and MSG. It's a popular all-purpose seasoning, often used in soups, stews, and other savoury dishes, and is considered a staple in Eastern European cuisine. It’s now really easy to get in supermarkets and if you can’t find it, I know it’s selling in amazon – Here’s the link.
Salt – Vegeta has salt, so when thinking about adding salt to the dish, make sure you taste, taste and taste again before you do.
Big chunks of bread to mop up the sauce.
