Pork Paprikash or Hungarian Sertéspaprikás

My Pork Paprikash is a delicious take on a Hungarian Sertéspaprikás, a simple dish featuring juicy pork in a silky, paprika-rich sauce.

Cooking this dish is not just easy, but quick too, with cooking and prep weighing in at a little over 30 minutes, making it a perfect midweek dinner.

Hungarian Paprika Pork

I may be British, but I spent 13 years living in rural Hungary, so I picked up a thing or two about paprikash!

It really is the simplest and loveliest of Hungarian dishes. This Hungarian pork paprikash recipe joins my harcsapaprikás (catfish) recipe and a classic chicken paprikash.

It also shares the paprikash name with my krumpli paprikas. Which is a potato stew that foregoes the addition of sour cream.

Many advocates of food authenticity would like you to believe that there is a ground-zero recipe. A recipe that all others follow!

That is simply not the case in most cuisines. Paprikás, if you like, is a spectrum of recipes.

Paprikash is typified by its paprika-heavy sauce, which is often made silky with sour cream or tejföl, as it is called here.

That sauce is often thickened to a lesser or greater extent by mixing flour into the sour cream.

Pork is a relative rarity in paprikash recipes in Hungary. You are much more likely to find it at home than on restaurant menus.

However, it is not without precedent. In fact, this paprika pork recipe features more than a passing resemblance to a classic Hungarian pork stew called borsos tokany.

That dish goes heavy with black pepper, whereas this dish features the unmistakable influence of sweet Hungarian paprika.

An ingredient that is difficult to believe is a relative newbie to a cuisine that dates back millennia.

Frequently Asked Questions

What sort of paprika should I use?

The most important ingredient in a paprikash is the paprika... the name kinda gives it away.

You should use the best sweet (Édes) Hungarian paprika you can find. If you are buying it online, look for words like 1 Osztály (1st class).

Names like Szeged or Kalocsa are decent indications of good quality; they are both cities in the South of Hungary, famed for paprika production.

You can get spicy Hungarian Paprika, which I occasionally use to add a bit of heat to my paprikash recipes. Go ahead and just add more; you can rarely add too much paprika to a paprikash.

Can I use smoked paprika?

It's your dinner, you can add what you like, but smoked paprika really is not a massive thing in Hungary.

There are shelves and shelves of paprika in large stores, but smoked paprika hides in the international aisle and only appeared after I'd lived in Hungary for nearly a decade!

What cut of pork should I use?

When I lived in Hungary, I always used a cut called Tarja in Hungarian.

It is known as Boston butt in the US, blade collar, or even hand in the UK. I have taken to using meat from the top end of the loin of late. You could even use the shoulder of pork!

Can I use low-fat sour cream?

You can use lower-fat sour cream in this recipe because the flour helps to stabilise it.

However, it still has a greater chance of splitting than full-fat sour cream, and I personally never use it.

Serving Suggestions

Paprikash here in Hungary is more often than not served with nokedli.

A glorious pasta-style dumpling that I simply adore, and a dish that I think deserves to be much more well-known.

Or you could serve it with csusza teszta, a dish that features alongside my catfish paprikash recipe.

It is also often served alongside salty potatoes, which I like to enrich with butter. Butter is often the answer to many kitchen questions, as far as I am concerned.

Although I often serve it alongside crispy fried potatoes, I always serve those with my pork stroganoff. Another dish that is fairly similar to this one.

Equipment Used

I only name-check brands of equipment if I think they make a material difference to a recipe. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section below the recipe.

• Hob/stovetop.
• 30cm or 12" frying pan.
• Chopping board.
• Kitchen knife.
• Small mixing bowl.
• A combination of weighing scales, a measuring jug, measuring cups and spoons.
• Grater.
• Stirring and serving spoons.