At this time of the year we all look forward to spending time with our families and friends that we don’t see too often – this is why we need to a few recipes that can be made well in advance and allow us that precious time. Romanian Paprika Chicken always seems to taste better the next day and for those of you that have to work throughout the season, it’s the perfect option. At Christmas pork is usually the preferred meat in Romania but we’ve taken the liberty to sneak in a little chicken, just for variation. The recipe can be doubled or even tripled and easily made a day (or even two) in advance.

Ingredients.

• 1 large chicken, jointed (or use 2 large chicken legs and 2 breasts, halved)
• salt
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 tbsp hot paprika
• 1 tbsp flour
• 285ml fresh home made  chicken stock
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 2 red pepperoni, de-seeded and cut into strips
• 4 large ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 250ml sour cream

Method

• Rub the chicken pieces well with the salt.
• Heat the oil and butter in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and brown the chicken on all sides, remove from the saucepan and set aside.
• Add the onions and garlic to the same saucepan and sweat until just translucent, add the sweet and hot paprika and the flour and stir until well mixed – take care not to burn it (paprika can burn in a heartbeat).
• Now, pour in the stock and stir well, return the chicken pieces to the saucepan, adding a bit more stock if the mixture seems a tad dry and then add half of the chopped parsley and bring to a simmer.
• Pop in the red pepperoni strips, reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes and simmer over low/medium heat for an hour.
• As soon as the chicken is cooked, remove the saucepan from the heat, stir in the rest of the parsley and the sour cream.
• Check and correct the seasoning and serve.