Gourmet Goulash

A leaner spin on classic goulash that swaps beef for ground chicken breast and keeps the paprika front and center where it belongs. A full tablespoon of paprika goes into the tomato sauce along with Worcestershire, garlic, and brown sugar, building a sweet-savory-smoky sauce that simmers with the chicken for 20 minutes.

The brown sugar isn’t just sweetness. It rounds out the acidity of the tomato sauce and gives the finished dish a subtle depth that straight tomato can’t achieve on its own.

Onions and bell peppers cook with the ground chicken until soft, then the sauce goes in and everything melds under a covered skillet. Tossed with egg noodles at the end, it’s a one-bowl weeknight dinner.

Kitchen Tips

• Break up the ground chicken thoroughly as it cooks. Large clumps mean uneven sauce distribution.
• Use no-salt-added tomato sauce as called for, since the recipe already has 1 ½ teaspoons of salt. Regular tomato sauce would make this too salty.
• Let it simmer the full 20 minutes covered. That time lets the paprika bloom and the flavors concentrate.
• Egg noodle substitutes (like yolk-free noodles) keep this lighter, but regular egg noodles work fine if that’s what you have.

Variations

• Use smoked paprika instead of regular for a deeper, smokier flavor.
• Stir in a dollop of sour cream at the end for a more traditional Hungarian-style finish.
• Add a can of drained kidney beans for extra protein and heartiness.