I love one-pot meals. There is less mess, less cleanup, and often less cost. That last identifier is especially important as we are not only dealing with inflation and the Trump tariff taxes, but now we are facing increasing gas prices due to the war in the Middle East. We can’t catch a break.

My mom would make an awesome chicken paprikash using her Presto stove-top pressure cooker. She would serve it on a bed of Spaetzle that she made from scratch. I remember her making the dough, then rolling it into pencil-sized ropes. The dough ropes were kept on a cutting board, which she would balance over a pot of boiling, salted water. Using a knife, she would cut off 1″ segments of the dough into the boiling water to make Spaetzle dumplings. The paprikash would be served over the Spaetzle. It was delicious.

My mom made most of her regular dishes without a recipe, so I can’t duplicate her wonderful paprikash. However, there are many similar recipes for paprikash, which is a stew seasoned with paprika. Today, we will be exploring one, but with a twist. I don’t have all of the ingredients for a traditional recipe, so I’m going to do a lot of substitutions. Being able to substitute one ingredient for a similar one is an important step in saving money, as you can use up ingredients you already have. This also prevents you from going to the grocery store, which helps curb impulse purchases. Because of my substitutions, I can’t really call the dish that I’m making a true paprikash; it is paprikash-like. However, it will still be delicious.

I’ll list my ingredients as I go rather than using an ingredient list, since I’ll be flying by the seat of my pants. Remember, the goal of home cooking is to make good-tasting food, so let your creative juices flow! You are not a clone, so you don’t have to clone every recipe!

I think in-bone chicken thighs, or legs and thighs, work best. However, I had these boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the freezer, so I used them. I seasoned them with a little season salt, but you could use whatever you have on hand.

I set my electric pressure cooker to sauté and heated some oil. I then lightly browned the chicken on both sides. I did this in batches to avoid overcrowding the chicken. As the pieces browned, I removed them from the pot.

With the chicken removed, I added one chopped onion (two would have been better, but I only had one) and a heaping teaspoon of jarred garlic. I sauted these vegetables until the onions became more translucent.

I then added 1 T of tomato paste, plus around 3 T of sweet paprika, and stirred the mixture for about 30 seconds to “bloom” the spices. I added 1 cup of chicken broth (I used 1 cup of water with some Better Than Bouillon) and returned the chicken to the Instant Pot.

I cancelled the saute function, sealed the pot, and set it on pressure cook for 15 minutes. I then did a natural release for around 10 minutes before releasing the pressure and opening the pot.

I was too lazy to make Spaetzel and had about 1/3 of a package of noodles, so I boiled them up. In reality, I needed more noodles (likely around 1/2 of a bag), but this is what I had.

When the noodles were done, I drained them and added some butter and poppy seeds. The poppy seeds were totally unnecessary, but I thought that they added a nice touch. The noodles will be a base to pour the paprikash on.

I only had around 1/2 C of sour cream, so I added some cream and mixed it all up. I could have used only sour cream (around 1 cup), or sour cream with some milk, or whatever. However, some sour cream is a must for this recipe.

After the pressure cooker’s rest period, I released the steam and opened it. I canceled the pressure cooker function and placed the pot back on “saute” to get the paprikash boiling. I added a little of the hot paprikash to my sour cream/cream mixture and then poured the mixture back into the pot, stirring constantly.

I tend to like thicker stews, so I mixed a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch in a small amount of cold water and then drizzled it into the boiling stew, mixing constantly. This thickened the paprikash almost instantly.

Since the chicken was not on the bone, it turned into more of a shred than nice whole pieces. That’s OK.

I had all of this spinach that was starting to go soft, and I didn’t want to waste it, so I wilted it into the stew. That is absolutely not a paprikash thing, but as a home cook, I can do what I want as long as it isn’t too far afield.

I then adjusted my seasonings, mostly by adding a little salt and pepper. Dinner was served!

Here it is all served up. Honestly, it was delicious! My wife and I were the only ones home, so there is a huge amount left. Three of us will eat it for dinner today.

I wanted to do today’s blog to illustrate how easy it is to substitute what you have on hand and still wind up with a delicious final product. The trick is to stay within the recipe’s theme. In this case, meat, sour cream, and paprika were required. However, I used boneless chicken instead of in-bone chicken, stretched the sour cream with some cream, and used one onion instead of two.

Additionally, I didn’t make spaetzle; instead, I used noodles. I could have used pasta, rice, or even mashed potatoes. All of the above were similar enough that my final product remained paprikash-like. Lastly, spinach goes well with most soups or stews as it is pretty neutral, yet adds a ton of nutrition.

If you are starting your “make-from-scratch” journey, don’t think that you have to follow every recipe exactly; you just need to follow the “theme” of the recipe. What makes a beef stew a stew? What makes a chicken soup a soup? What makes a tuna casserole a casserole? Once you understand the theme, feel free to do a little substitution. For instance, you need tuna and noodles to make a tuna casserole, but after that, you have many other substitution options.

Happy substituting!

Mike