Chicken Paprikash recipe and how I make it step by step!

I love cooking and feeding my 2 men, my son and my husband. It is just important to eat well in general, and tasty food makes it more exciting and we love healthy too.

I just don't over do it with the low fat or zero fat trends as my son being a toddler and developing his brain every day needs all different types of fat in his food and really, coming from a Czech background, we have no understanding for fat free milk or dairy for example and we love butter, just like the French or the Italians their olive oil...I suppose. I hope it would suffice to say that nobody in my family is overweight despite our diet filled with some tasty fats!

I believe that everyting should be in moderation, we drink homogenized milk and eat mediterranean yoghurts and I am a size 2 or 0 in North America (:

Now the more fun part, my son is 2,5 yrs old and eats everything I give him - a dream for a mother who loves to cook as much as I do. He eats all vegetables and different spices, he loves Indian food as well as Italian or Greek or Czech and he will try anyting and that despite the fact that he eats slow, and has been only breast fed till 14 monts and would not take any solids till then, he is in short a difficult eater since a baby when it comes to chewing and swallowing. That goes to show, that your child will eat everything you will give them if you don't back down. But there is a whole book about that strategy...I am also reading it now, it is called "Bringing up BeBe" by Pamela Druckerman. I love it as it agrees with my Europen roots and it confirms my believes about how to educate my child. With food I certainly did it well, as he has an acquired international taste and for breakfast he wouldn't hesitate to eat sardines or harring...Don't you love that? Sometimes I give him soft Polish cheese spread with chocolate-hazelnut spread on top by this Belgium chocolate maker in town and despite that ...he does eat sardines another day. He loves it all! I may sound very determined here but I am a bit upset with the handout i got from the children's hospital about how i should lay food in front of him but never tell him "you must eat this or eat" because i would emotionally abuse him and possibly damage him for life etc. and when I asked them how can I trust this study and recommendation they are giving and if they can support it with facts, they couldn't tell me so! They only could tell me that based on that there are kids who only eat certain things like all yellow foods((: but that is all right according to them, just keep offering other types...well how is that supporting healthy eating habits? And what about the poor nutrition the kid is getting? Crazy if you ask me and annoying.
Yes I know this is supposed to be about a lovely recipe and not my ranting about kids' bad eating! Sorry! I think the book may open some parents' eyes though.

Now to this delicious CHICKEN PAPRIKASH recipe that I have made my own and we all just enjoyed it for dinner, I hope you like it too!

Have a lovely week, ciao Zaneta

Step ONE: Slice 2 ONIONS into thin strips and likewise 2 RED BELL PEPPERS.

Continue by frying them in a steel skillet on medium high heat with 1 tbsp CANOLA OIL and 1 tbsp unsalted BUTTER until the onions turn golden brown, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionaly.

Step TWO: Cut 8 CHICKEN THIGHS (boneless & skinless) or if you prefer (3 large) chicken breasts instead into bite-size pieces and add them to the skillet, add oil if needed and fry for few minutes, browning the chicken well.

Here they are ...browning, for about 5 minutes on medium heat.

Step THREE: Cut 3 MEDIUM size TOMATOES and add them to the skillet too.

Step FOUR: Put all the spices in the skillet as well: 3-4 dried BAY LEAVES, 1 tbsp HUNGARIAN PAPRIKA, SALT & ground PEPPER to taste, 1 tbsp (or more) SUGAR.

All spices and tomatoes are in the skillet...stir it and cover with a lid, cooking on low for about 10 minutes stirring occasionaly. We want to cook the tomatoes well, so they are nice and soft and give our dish a lovely flavour when combined with some salt and sugar, as that is essential when cooking tomatoes in my opinion.

As you may see, we uncover it and tomatoes look very well cooked and we have lots more liquid in our skillet from all the vegetables and meat that cooked COVERED on low heat for a while. If you don't have enough liquid just add some broth, but it is not a desired outcome (:

Step FIVE: In a small bowl, wisk 1/2 cup of CREAM with 1 tbsp of all-purpose FLOUR and when the texture is smooth, stir it into the skillet. Add 1 tbsp of squeezed LEMON juice as well as 1/2 cup of SOUR CREAM. Gently stir into the skillet and keep cooking on low heat with a lid on for just a few minutes until the sauce thickens.

What a lovely sauce, right?

Dobrou chut in Czech or Bon Appetit in Frech...it was a nice meal, hope you like it too.