Monday, March 17, 2014

From the Forest Park Cook book: Phyllis Orland's Chicken Paprika

Forest Park has had several birthday celebrations.  A hundred years since the area was settled (1856 to 1956), a hundred years since the town was founded as Harlem (1884 to 1984), and a hundred years since incorporating under the new name of Forest Park (1907 to 2007) were all milestones.  Unfortunately I did not live in town when any of this was celebrated, but as a member of the Historical Society of Forest Park I do have access to their archives, which includes a Centennial Cookbook, released in 1984.

I recognized names from the community such as Mohr, Marunde, and Orland. Phyllis T.M. Orland, MD was the spouse of Frank Orland, the founding President of the Historical Society of Forest Park. According to Diane Hansen Grah, Executive Director of the HSFP, "Phyllis was a pediatrician for over 40 years and worked out of an apartment adjacent to their home mostly and performed house calls.  She also was the head of the Pediatric Dept. at Macneal Hospital in Berwyn for many years.  Frank was a dentist and pioneered the use of flouride at a time when it was controversial and testing needed to happen."


She and her husband also raised 4 children. Huzzah, Phyllis. On top of that, she had many contributions to the cook book, including today's entry of Chicken Paprika. This was a charmingly simple recipe, and the end result was delicious if not particularly attractive. I'm looking forward to trying more of her recipes from the Centennial Cookbook, including Grandmother Orland's Christmas Cookies, which boast of a Swabian origin. As a Swabian gal myself, I can't wait.

Not a particularly pretty dish
There was so much onion. The collateral damage was huge. My husband's trust. My mascara. But I got it done. I made modifications to the original right off the bat, suspecting that we'd want more spice than Dr. Orland, and I'm glad we did. This is totally a dish you can pull off on a weeknight, especially if you did the anti-foodie thing we did and used boneless, skinless chicken instead of the chicken pieces called for.

2014 Chicken Paprika

Phyllis Orland's original available at the HSFP archives :)

2 lbs. chicken tenders

1 large yellow onion, diced finely
1.5 cups water
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon hungarian hot paprika
8 oz sour cream
2.5 tablespoons flour
dash cayenne pepper
1/4 cup butter

Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the onion and stir occasionally until soft and fairly brown. Remove the onion and add the chicken pieces in batches so as not to crowd the pan, browning well on each side. Add back to the pan the onion, chicken, paprika, cayenne, a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1.5 cups water. Simmer for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and tender. While the chicken cooks, add the flour to the sour cream and stir to combine. Set aside.


Remove the chicken and turn the heat down to low. Taste the broth for salt and adjust accordingly. Add the sour cream-flour mixture and whisk to combine. Add the chicken back to the pot and stir to combine. Keep the flame low and cook for 5 minutes, watching carefully to prevent boiling (boiling will curdle the sour cream).


Phyllis recommends serving with dumplings, which if she is Swabian, I suspect means spaetzle (Aldi! Represent!), which is what we did. We also tried it over mashed potatoes.

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