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More Than a Recipe: Megan’s Mom’s Hungarian Chicken Paprikas Dumplings

Megan Luybli
December 1st, 2025

Every time I walk into my mom’s kitchen and I hear the hiss of the pressure cooker, I knew we were about to get an incredible meal. For me, it isn’t truly fall or winter without my mom’s chicken paprikas, served with slices of warm homemade bread perfect for soaking up every last bit.

What Is Hungarian Chicken Paprikas?

Chicken paprikas is a traditional Hungarian dish made with tender chicken simmered in a sauce of onions, paprika, and sour cream, usually served with homemade dumplings to soak up every drop. It’s rich, comforting, and colorful—the kind of meal that warms you from the inside out.

A Labor of Love

This dish is a labor of love. My mom goes all out and makes everything from scratch- the dumplings, the bread…it’s an all day affair. That’s why it’s so special to me. This is a meal that is a hug in a bowl. It’s a piece of our Hungarian heritage carried forward, one recipe at a time. She always makes enough for everyone to leave with a container of leftovers, stretching that comfort across the week.

Memories Around the Table

Some of my favorite memories are tied to this dish. When my brother and I were in elementary school, my mom would bring in a huge pot of chicken paprikas for teacher appreciation week. Without fail, the teachers would rave about it and line up for seconds—it became its own little tradition. Looking back, I realize it wasn’t just the taste they loved, but the way the dish carried warmth and care in every bite.

How to Make Chicken Paprikas Dumplings

Here’s everything you need to know about how to make chicken paprikas dumplings:

Ingredients:

3-4 split Chicken Breasts
Chicken Broth
1-2 Large Onions, diced
16 oz Sour Cream
Paprika (enough to give dish an orange color)
Better than Bouillon Roasted Chicken
1-2 heaping large tablespoons of All Purpose Flour

Directions:

In a pressure cooker add chicken breasts (skin off) and max amount of water for your cooker. Once pressure cooker starts to rock, cook chicken for 20 minutes.
While chicken is cooking, in a large bowl add diced onion, pint of sour cream and one to two large, heaping tablespoons of flour (I use the largest tablespoon I have which is usually a metal serving spoon that goes with my silverware set). Mix together well to get all of the lumps out of the flour. Add paprika and mix again.
When the chicken is done cooking, strain the broth and add one ladle at a time, mixing between each broth addition, until all of the broth is mixed in with the sour cream, onion, flour and paprika mixture.
Pour into pot and cook on low heat.
While broth mixture is cooking, make dumplings.

Dumpling Recipe (I double this)

Once dumplings are mixed, put dough on a stiff cutting board and, with the tip of a regular (not a measuring) teaspoon from a silverware set, grab a small piece of dough and drop into a big pot of boiling water. Do this until all dough is gone. Dumplings only need to boil for a about 10 minutes as they will finish cooking in the paprikas broth. Rinse dumplings before adding to paprikas broth.
Once dumplings and broth are combined, add Roasted Chicken Better Than Bullion to taste.
Take chicken off of bone in bite sized pieces and add to paprikas broth. Cook on low until onions are soft and flavors are to your liking. This may take a few hours. Broth will thicken from the dumplings.

Note: This dish is usually best hot the next day as flavors combine while refrigerated.

More Than Just a Recipe

Chicken paprikas will always be more than just a recipe to me. It’s a thread that ties me to my mom, my family, and our Hungarian roots.

Food has the power to do that. It nourishes our bodies, yes, but it also tells stories, preserves culture, and creates memories we carry for a lifetime. Maybe for you it’s not chicken paprikas—it might be your grandmother’s pie, a holiday dish your family can’t celebrate without, or even a simple meal a loved one always made for you.

Whatever it is, I hope you’ll make it soon, not just for the taste, but for the comfort and connection it brings. Because the best meals are never just about the food—they’re about love served at the table.

Megan Luybli( Founder & Director of A Soft Place to Land )

Megan is a weight inclusive registered dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. She is the founder and director of A Soft Place to Land, a multidisciplinary group practice based in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania that specializes in eating disorders, chronic dieting, and body image care. She is fiercely on a mission to be a loud advocate for ethical care of every BODY. Megan’s goal is to provide a weight inclusive and trauma informed safe space with an emphasis on social justice, fat liberation, self-exploration, and compassion. When she’s not taking down the patriarchy, you can find her spending time with her dogs outside, gardening, and painting plant pots!