Chicken Paprika

1 large cooked chicken
4 T paprika
3 T cooking oil
2 onions sliced
2 green peppers, chopped
1/2 lb sliced mushrooms
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 c chicken broth
salt and pepper
2 c sour cream
2 T cornstarch

Remove the chicken meat from the skin, bones, and carcass. (Save the skin and bones to make stock.) Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces.

In a dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the paprika and fry for a minute. Add the onions, peppers, mushrooms, and garlic. Fry for five minutes or so until the vegetables are soft. Stir occasionally.

Add the chicken and chicken broth. Cover the pot, and simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally.

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with some of the cooking liquid. Slowly stir into the pot, and cook until the liquid is thickened. Remove the pot from the heat. Slowly stir in the sour cream. Serve over noodles or rice.

Braised Root Vegetables and More

You can adapt this just about anyway you want

2 T olive oil
2 med turnips, julienned
1 med potato, julienned
2 parsnips, peeled and thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/4 c liquid (stock, water, juice, wine)

Prepare the vegetables, and heat a covered dutch oven or soup pot over low-medium heat. When the dutch oven is heated, add the oil, and immediately start throwing vegetables in the pot. Stir the vegetables with a metal spatula to coat them. Salt and pepper the vegetables to taste (1/4 - 1/2 t salt, and 1/2 t pepper to begin with) and let them cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1/4 c liquid to the pot and cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid. Turn the heat to low, and continue braising for 10 minutes.