Mary Berry Paprika Chicken

Mary Berry’s paprika chicken is pan-browned chicken breasts baked in a crème fraîche sauce with two tablespoons of mild paprika. It serves six at 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6 for 15–20 minutes, and the sauce needs just two minutes on the hob.

Her recipe in Mary Berry at Home calls this “a quick and easy supper dish for the family, but distinguished enough to serve for a dinner party.” The sauce is nothing more than crème fraîche poured into the hot frying pan to pick up all the browned bits from the chicken.

The step that makes the sauce work is deglazing. Berry pours crème fraîche into the pan and heats it “until just bubbling, while stirring and scraping the base and sides.” Those browned bits from the chicken are where all the flavour lives.

Mary Berry Paprika Chicken

Recipe by Pinch PerfectCourse: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Calories

420

kcal

Total time

35

minutes

A stovetop-to-oven supper from Mary Berry at Home that turns six chicken breasts into a dinner party dish with a two-minute pan sauce.

Ingredients

• 50g (2oz) butter

• 1 mild onion, thinly sliced

• 6 chicken breasts, without skin or bone

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 2 good tablespoons mild paprika

• 1 × 200g carton full-fat crème fraîche

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, to garnish

Directions

• Set the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6. You will need a shallow ovenproof dish large enough to hold the chicken in one layer.
• Heat half the butter in a large frying pan. As soon as the foam starts to subside, stir in the onion, then cover and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes, or until softened but not coloured. Spread the onion in the base of the ovenproof dish.
• Melt the remaining butter in the pan. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, then add to the pan, turning each one to coat it in the hot butter. Brown over a moderate heat for 5 minutes before turning the chicken pieces and cooking for a further 5 minutes. Sprinkle with paprika.
• Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and arrange on top of the onion in the dish. Now return the frying pan to the heat and pour in the crème fraîche to deglaze the pan. Heat until just bubbling, while stirring and scraping the base and sides of the pan. Check and season with salt and pepper.
• Pour the sauce over the chicken and cover the dish with foil. Transfer to the oven to cook for 15–20 minutes. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve.

Notes

• Calories: Butter (50g): 358. Onion (150g): 60. Chicken breasts (900g): 1,485. Paprika (12g): 34. Crème fraîche (200g): 600. Total: 2,537 ÷ 6 = 423 → rounded to 420 kcal per serving.

FAQs

Why does Berry brown the chicken for a full 10 minutes?

She gives the chicken five minutes per side over a moderate heat, which is longer than most pan-searing recipes. The goal isn’t to cook it through, since the oven does that. The browning builds colour and creates the fond on the pan base that becomes the sauce.

If you rush this step, the pan stays clean and the deglazing produces a thin, pale sauce with no depth. I give each side the full five minutes Berry asks for. The crème fraîche comes off the pan a rich golden colour instead of white.

Can I use chicken thighs instead of breasts?

Berry uses skinless, boneless breasts here, but her Marsala Mediterranean Chicken Thighs in Mary Berry Everyday (2017) follows a similar pan-to-oven method with thighs instead. Thighs take longer to cook through because they’re thicker and denser, so add 5–10 minutes to the oven time and check with a skewer.

Bone-in thighs with the skin on would brown better and give a richer sauce from the rendered fat. Berry uses skin-on thighs in that Marsala recipe and crisps them first over high heat for 3–4 minutes per side before they go into the sauce.

How far ahead can I make paprika chicken?

Berry gives both a Prepare Ahead and a Freeze note for this recipe. For the fridge, she says to complete the whole dish, “cover with foil, cool quickly and keep in the fridge for up to 24 hours.” Reheat in the oven as directed, allowing about 20 minutes.

For the freezer, Berry says to “put the onion in a freezer container and top with the pan-fried chicken and sauce.” It keeps for up to 2 months. Berry warns to “expect some fat to come out of the dish when thawed and reheated” and suggests mopping it with kitchen paper.

Can I cut the calories in the sauce?

Berry answers this herself in her headnote. She says to “substitute chicken stock for half the crème fraîche and thicken the sauce with 1 teaspoon of cornflour.” Gently boil the lightened sauce for 2–3 minutes before pouring over the chicken.

I’ve tried this lighter version and it works, though the sauce is thinner and less glossy. The cornflour thickens it but doesn’t replicate the richness of full-fat crème fraîche. For a dinner party I’d use the full amount.

Is this the same as chicken stroganoff?

It’s close. Berry’s pork stroganoff adds mushrooms, lemon juice and keeps everything on the hob instead of moving to the oven. This paprika chicken has no mushrooms and finishes in the oven, which gives the breasts a gentler cook.

The sauce base is the same: paprika plus crème fraîche deglazing a hot pan. If you added 300g of halved button mushrooms and a tablespoon of lemon juice, you’d have Berry’s chicken stroganoff method applied to whole breasts.

What do you serve with paprika chicken?

Berry doesn’t specify a side in the recipe, but the sauce pools in the dish and needs something to soak it up. Boiled basmati rice is the natural choice, and it’s what she serves with her Pork Stroganoff which uses the same paprika and crème fraîche sauce base.

Mashed potato works well if you want something more filling for a winter supper. I’d avoid roast potatoes or chips because they fight the sauce instead of absorbing it. A green salad on the side keeps the plate balanced without adding heaviness.