Hungarian Beef, Pork, Chicken Stew - Pörkölt
Posted By: Delish368495
Pro Chef Or Baker? No
Is This Recipe In Your Cookbook? Yes
Origin: Hungary
Local Name: Pörkölt
Primary Ingredients: Beef or Pork or Chicken, Paprika
Primary Spices: Paprika
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 2 Hours
Skill Level: 1
Categories: Stew, Beef, Pork, Chicken
Intro By Creator: This is a very tasty and versatile stew. Served with spaetzle, rice, noodles or mashed potatoes.
Creator's Notes & Tips
The core ingredients are the meat, onion, tomatoes, paprika and garlic. Sour cream and flour are used as a thickener. You actually don’t need to add anything else, and you can use beef, pork or chicken. We always add bacon for flavor… just a personal preference.
This recipe calls for mushrooms and peas, but you you can add whatever vegetables you like. Just make sure that they are firm. Peppers, carrots, etc.
Generally it’s not advised that you use canned veggies. They tend to turn into mush.
Cut the meat into 1/4 slices so they’ll be very tender. The beef version, it’s best to let it simmer on low for about 1 hour… the meat will be like butter! The pork version, a little less, and the chicken version is done pretty well right away as soon as the chicken is cooked, and that’s fast.
The recipe below will easily provide 6-8 generous servings. We serve it with spaetzle, but that’s just a preference. You can serve it with broad noodles (just NOT spaghetti, since it doesn’t have the surface area for the sauce), any kind of rice or with mashed potatoes.
In general, to make things easier, prep the meat and the vegetables in advance, then it comes together faster.
How To Make It Delishier
Ingredients
Beef Pörkölt
- 1 1/2 lbs meat with all the fat trimmed off, and sliced (cross grain!) into max 1/4 inch thick slices
- 2 large tomatoes – skinned and cubed (drop into hot water to skin fast)
- 4 large cloves of garlic – crushed
- 4 tbsp of grape seed oil (can use vegetable oil)
- 2 tbs + 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 lb bacon, fried and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (NOT maple or flavored bacon)
- 2 cups frozen green peas or mixed vegetables – frozen or fresh. NOT canned
- 1/2 lb cremini or white mushrooms – fresh not canned, sliced thick
- Liquid smoke – 3-4 drops (optional)
- 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1/4 tsp pepper (black or white) or to taste
- 3 cups water
- 4 tbsp flour for the thickener
- 8 tbsp water for the thickener
- 5 tbsp sour cream for the thickener
- Wash the meat, trim the fat and slice into max 1/4 inch thick slices and set aside.
- Slice the bacon and fry it. Not overdone, and set aside
- Prep the vegetables – slice the mushrooms, skin the tomatoes and cube them. If you drop the tomatoes into boiling water for a minute the skins will come off easily. Measure out the peas. Set the veggies aside.
- In a large flat bottomed skilled, add the oil and fry the meat until it’s just browned – and most of the juices have been boiled off. Set aside.
- In the same skillet, leaving what’s left from frying the meat in the pan, add a couple of tbsp of oil to the pan and saute the onions. Once they’re glassy, add the crushed garlic, stir, then add the tomatoes, paprika, stir, then add the meat and the bacon. Stir for one minute, then add the 3 cups of water, salt and pepper and the liquid smoke. It’ll look quite “soupy”.
- Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to med-low and let simmer for about an hour.
- If you want to skim off the fat, then lay a paper towel on top and lift off the fat. A couple of sheets will do.
- Taste it and check the tenderness of the meat. Add more salt, pepper, paprika, etc., to “fine tune” the flavor to your liking.
- Add the vegetables – mushrooms and peas and let simmer for another 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are cooked, but not overcooked.
- In a small bowl, mix the water, flour, sour cream with a whisk until slightly foamy and there are no clumps.
- Slowly pour the thickener into the pan, stirring constantly until fully mixed in. Let simmer for another 5-10 minutes on low.
- Serve with spaetzle, rice, flat or spiral noodles or with mashed potatoes and a salad.
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