Catatouille...or...Baby Kitty Cooks Hungarian Chicken Paprika

 Finally! The day we have been waiting for has arrived here at the Plate Addicts! Baby Kitty has completed his studies and received his Grand Diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu Paris! Now he feels ready to follow in the footsteps of his idol…Julia Child…and begin his own cooking show which he has aptly titled…Catatouille! lol (Thanks for the suggestion from Kat at Emptynester)



He was understandably excited when I came home from Goodwill hunting with this fabulous Schlemmertopf  cooker that I showed you in my last post! It’s a wonderful glazed clay roaster that was made in 1980 in West Germany (Now you know it’s old! lol) and, to all appearances, it had never even been used! Quite the bargain at $3.53! Ahhhmmm…Baby Kitty reminds me that I digress. Sorry!
 

I had never used a clay cooker before, so I asked to serve as the sous-chef to our expert Baby Kitty. In preparation, I did some studying and discovered the owner’s manual on line which included directions for handling the cooker and some fabulous recipes. It seems that extra precautions must be taken to prevent any sudden change in temperature or the cooker will break. Other than that, it’s easy! You just layer in the ingredients much like you would with a crock pot. We decided to try our luck at Hungarian Chicken Paprika.
 

I must say that it was worth the effort of taking special care of the cooker! The result was simply wonderful! The chicken was so tender, juicy and flavorful! And the dish browns right there in the cooker, even with the lid on…fabulous! Here’s the recipe that I found in the owner’s manual:

Hungarian Chicken Paprika
3-1/2 to 4 pounds frying chicken, cut in serving pieces
2 large onions, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1-1/2 tablespoon Hungarian paprika
Salt and pepper
4 medium potatoes, cut as for French frying (We cut them in rounds instead)
1 cup sour cream –optional (Optional? Are you kidding? Yum!...although we did use low fat!)
4 pieces of bacon, sliced
Soak lid of Glazed Schlemmertopf.
Put bacon, onions and green pepper into the Schlemmertopf.
Add the salted and peppered chicken pieces, sprinkle with paprika.
Cover and bake at 425F for 20 minutes. (We have a gas oven, so we added 10 minutes at 250F first.)
Add potatoes and bake for another 60 minutes.
Remove Schlemmertopf from oven, add sour cream, cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
Serve with crusty French bread.

This was one of the best chicken dishes I have ever had…hands down! Great job, Baby Kitty! I have to add that I don’t cook as often as I used to now that I am an emptynester, so I hope we will cook more often now that we have our Schlemmertopf!
 

Thanks for dropping by for the inaugural episode of Catatouille! We are excited to join our hostess with the mostest, Michael Lee at Designs by Gollum, for Foodie Friday! Please be sure to head on over to her fabulous blog to see what she has cooking and to find a list of this week’s participants! See you next time! A la prochaine!