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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 pork paprikash served with homemade nokedli.

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 itis 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.

Overhead Hungarian pork paprikash served with homemade nokedli.

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 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 use 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 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.

Close-up pork paprikash with a fresh parsley garnish.

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 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.

Overhead Hungarian pork paprikash served in its cooking pan.

Equipment Used

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

  • Stovetop
  • 30cm or 12″ frying pan.
  • Chipping board.
  • Kitchen knife.
  • Small mixing bowl.
  • Weighing scales and or measuring cups and spoons.
  • Grater.
  • Stirring and serving spoons.
Hungarian pork paprikash in a paprika-rich sauce served with nokedli.
Yield: 2 Servings

Hungarian Pork Paprikash Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes

A Hungarian paprikash is a simple and delicious dish, this pork paprikas or sertéspaprikás cooks in a shade over 30 minutes and it will become a midweek family favourite.

Ingredients

  • 350g (12 oz) Pork , I use pork from the top end of the loin with a bit of fat
  • 100g (½ Cup) Onion
  • 30g (2 Tbsp) Butter or Lard
  • 1 Tomato
  • 125g (½ Cup) Full Fat Sour Cream
  • 1 Tsp Flour
  • 3 Tbsp Sweet Hungarian Paprika
  • ⅛ Tsp Cumin
  • ½ Tsp Salt
  • ½ Tsp Black Pepper
  • 75ml (⅓ Cup) Water

Instructions

  1. Cut the pork into a 2cm-3cm dice.
  2. Grate the onion.
  3. Chop the tomato into 1cm cubes.
  4. Heat a 30cm or 12" frying pan over a medium heat and when it is hot add the butter.
  5. When the butter melts add the grated onion and cook for 5-7 minutes.
  6. Season the pork with salt, pepper and cumin.
  7. Add the seasoned pork and stir and cook until all of the pork turns white, we are not aiming to sear and brown.
  8. Remove from the heat and add the paprika and stir to coat.
  9. Add the diced tomato stir and return to a low heat and cook for 3-4 minutes to bring things back to temperature.
  10. Mix the sour cream with the flour in a small mixing bowl and add it to the frying pan along with the water, then stir to form a sauce.
  11. Gently simmer for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally, adding a little more liquid if the sauce thickens too much.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

2

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 637Total Fat: 41gSaturated Fat: 19gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 16gCholesterol: 209mgSodium: 790mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 5gSugar: 7gProtein: 51g

Calorific details are provided by a third-party application and are to be used as indicative figures only.

Did you make this recipe?

If you made this recipe, I'd love to see what you did and what I can do better, share a picture with me on Instagram and tag me @krumplibrian and tell me how it went!

Christine

Friday 9th of February 2024

First of all, there is no cumin in true authentic paprikas. So where did you come up with adding cumin along with tomato that both are not indigenous to eastern Europe. I am Hungarian and make chicken paprikas all the time which brings me back to my childhood in NJ and New England. I think you need to rethink your recipe.

Brian Jones

Friday 9th of February 2024

Oh Christine... there is quite a lot to unpack here!

First and foremost, I am a cook, things appear in my recipes because I want them to be there and I like them, if you are after historic recipes you should try and find them!

Moving on, I never claimed that this recipe was either a "true or authentic" paprikás recipe, in fact, the very first sentence clearly states that it is MY recipe.

As for "indigenous"... I do hope that you have written to all of those fake "Hungarian" websites pointing out that Paprika is not indigenous to Europe, or maybe in your mind, the fact that it was introduced 30 years before the tomato makes it "indigenous"? Whilst we are playing silly games, it would also be remiss of me (and maybe a little childish) not to point out that the chicken you use in your csirkepaprikás is also not "indigenous" to Europe!

Both kömény (caraway) and rómaikömény (cumin) are readily available in Hungary, and I'm not talking in large multicultural hubs, but in my local store in a tiny village (population 180) out on the Alföld.

Tomatoes, well what can I say, they were good enough for Károly Gundel, what on earth would he know about Hungarian food? They also feature in a significant number of paprikás recipes when you search online in the Hungarian language!

Gundel opts to use caraway, I prefer cumin in a shift away from the sweet and anise flavour to a more earthy and rounder flavour, and guess why I do this? Because I am a cook and I prefer it!

So as you can see a great deal of thought, experience, consideration and time has gone into my paprikás recipe and no re-thinking is required, you are perfectly entitled to make it and like it or not like it as you see fit. This recipe is developed and made with love by a British cook who chose to spend a quarter of his life living in the Hungarian countryside!

Maybe you should rethink your online behaviour and maybe skip over things that you don't like rather than trying to be a gatekeeper of feint memories and misplaced logic.

Brian

Jeff McCall

Tuesday 27th of June 2023

I've just made this,used greek yoghurt (didn't have sour cream)and added a TSP of tomato sauce. Excellent recipe,really nice and added to my recipe keeper Thank you.👍

Brian Jones

Friday 30th of June 2023

Glad you liked it Jeff, I'm always happy to inspire a tasty meal!

helen oriti

Wednesday 26th of October 2022

I have always made my pork paprikash without following a recipe. but tonite I thought I'd look up a recipe and follow. The dish came out delicious, better than ever. Only substitution I made was to add mushrooms when I tossed in the fresh tomato. The color, consistency of the gravy was outstanding.

Thank you so very much

Brian Jones

Saturday 5th of November 2022

Thanks for taking the time to write to me Helen, so glad you enjoyed this wee snippet from my time living in Hungary :)

Brian

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