Everybody else has been recipe blogging, so I thought I'd join in the fun, courtesy of my wife, who shares her late grandmother's recipe for potted Hungarian chicken aka Chicken Paprikash.

This will actually be referenced in a fun upcoming Electronic House newsletter, incidentally:

Grandma's Chicken (potted Hungarian chicken aka Chicken Paprikash)

Chicken
Salt, pepper, garlic, Hungarian paprika
1 onion chopped
Oil
Chicken broth

Take a cut up chicken and clean it however you do - picking off the yucky
parts. Pat dry. Sprinkle with salt, and pepper. Rub with some crushed garlic (I can't eat garlic, so I leave this out and it's fine). Then sprinkle with LOTS of
Hungarian sweet paprika. Turn over and do the same to the other side.

Heat oil in a large frying pan that has a cover. OK--here's the thing. To the best of my knowledge, the reason my grandmother's chicken tastes better than anyone else's is because she used a terrible thin old frying pan that burned everything. I don't have a really cheap pan (although I'm thinking of buying one on ebay) but it's not all that great. But in any event I use a high heat, which I normally would not use to brown things.

Add the onion and brown it a little. Don't wait for that to burn - it will have time to burn later. Then add the chicken pieces. They need to all touch the bottom of the pan--if you have too much chicken, use two pans, but the chicken must be in one layer. Put the chicken in skin side down (for the pieces that have skin) and NOW you forget what you're doing. Talk to your guests, have a glass of sherry--somehow you must manage to burn the chicken and the onions somewhat. There's a point between normal browned, and charcoal where the chick is a deep deep reddish brown, and it's past what you would normally think of as "browned chicken and onions".

Turn the chicken over, and while you have each piece out of the pan to turn it--scrape the burnt stuff with a wooden or plastic spoon. Now burn the other side. Again pick up the pieces, scrap the burned stuff up, put the pieces back skin up, and add about a cup of soup--give or take. She never measured and I don't either. Turn the heat to low, cover the pan and cook 30 minutes. The chicken should be very well done and come off the bone easily.

This is best served with Kasha

Kasha
Buckwheat groats, buckwheat or Kasha - all the same thing - best is "Whole
Granulation"
Onion
Mushrooms
Oil
Chicken stock

Don't follow the directions on the box - that stuff about eggs is crazy.

Saute up some onions finely chopped and some sliced mushrooms. About 1/3 cup onions, 3/4 cup mushrooms. or not - if you don't like mushrooms. It's not
important. Use a sauce pan or frying pan with lid.

Boil 2 cups broth in a cup in the microwave or a separate pot.

Add I cup Kasha to the pan with the onions and mushrooms, and stir around to
get the grains coated with a little oil.

Add the boiling water - cover and simmer 10 minutes. - Serve with anything
that has gravy.

Update (11/9/04): Welcome EH newsletter readers!