Mm, mm good! - #MFRWauthor 52-week blog challenge

Last week MFRW blog challenge authors posted on their favorite holiday dishes. This week, we stick with the culinary theme: the best dish I cook. It's a toss-up.

When I married, my culinary skills could best be described as an ability to burn water. Over the last 30 years, I've improved. I no longer detest cooking and can even find some pleasure in it. My palate has expanded and I've learned, more or less, what seasonings go well together. For instance, pork goes well with rosemary or tarragon. Dill weed  and lemon work beautifully with just about any fish. Garlic goes with just about everything. And so forth. I'm no contender for Master Chef, but my cooking doesn't suck.

I do make one entree that my husband and I particularly enjoy during cold weather: chicken paprikash. I deviate from the traditional recipe, but it's still sinfully easy and really tasty and can best be described as a heart attack on a plate. It ain't pretty, but who cares? Here goes:

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg (about 1-1/2 lbs.) boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces. (You can use chicken breasts, but thighs are better.)
• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup paprika (I prefer Hungarian paprika)
• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup sour cream
• 8 oz. fresh mushrooms (white button or portabello), sliced (optional)
• 1 small can sliced or chopped black olives (optional)
• 1 pkg wide egg noodles
• 1 medium cabbage (and more butter)
• Salt and pepper

Put water on to boil for the noodles. Cook the noodles while you work on the rest.

Melt the butter on medium heat in a large skillet. Add onions and paprika. Stir. When onions have softened a bit, add chopped chicken and sliced mushrooms. Stir, being sure chicken is thoroughly coated, then reduce to medium low or low. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Cover and let the chicken simmer, stirring occasionally. When the chicken is cooked through, reduce heat to its lowest setting and stir in the sour cream.

While the chicken simmers, core the head of cabbage and cut it into quarters or smaller pieces. Put the cabbage in a pot with a little bit of water and a tablespoon or three of butter. Cover tightly and simmer over medium heat for no longer than 10 minutes.

When noodles are tender, drain. Dump them in a large serving bowl or return them to the empty pot. Pour the chicken mixture over the noodles and stir. Serve immediately with the cabbage as a side vegetable. Salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle black olives on top.

Steamed broccoli goes well with this, too. Not only is this good when freshly made, it's wonderful if you eat the leftovers the next day--and you always want leftovers of this dish.