Creamy paprika chicken with the Thermomix® stands or falls on a single decision: which paprika powder goes in? A blend of sweet and mildly hot paprika delivers colour and warmth at the same time, so we never need to reach for tomato-paste tricks. We have been cooking this dish regularly for years and know exactly where most recipes go wrong.
For us this is a Sunday dish, when the family sits down together and nobody wants to spend ages chopping. While the sauce comes together in the mixing bowl, 600 g of chicken breast fillets are already taking on colour in the oven. The rice cooks at the same time. One bowl, one oven, one result that tastes like something from your grandmother’s casserole dish.
Creamy Paprika Chicken with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 18 ✓
- 150 g Emmental cheese
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sweet paprika powder rose hot
- 600 g chicken breast fillets
- 2 peppers red and green
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 onion
- 20 g olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 150 g vegetable stock
- 200 g double cream
- 200 g soured cream
- 1000 g water
- 1 tsp salt
- 350 g wild rice
Instructions 0 / 10
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1
Grate the cheese.
Add the Emmental in chunks to the mixing bowl, chop for 5 sec / speed 7 and set aside.
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2
Season the meat.
Mix together the salt and paprika powder, rub thoroughly over the chicken breast fillets and place in a baking dish.
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3
Cut the peppers.
Wash the peppers, halve them, remove the stems and seeds, and cut into strips. Spread the pepper strips over the chicken fillets.
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4
Preheat the oven.
Preheat the oven to 200°C top and bottom heat.
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5
Chop the garlic.
Peel the garlic, peel and halve the onion, add to the mixing bowl, chop for 5 sec / speed 5 and push down with the spatula.
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6
Sweat.
Add the olive oil to the mixing bowl, steam for 3 min / Varoma / speed 1.
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7
Add the sauce ingredients.
Add the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl, mix for 5 sec / speed 4 and cook for 5 min / 100°C / speed 1.
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8
Pour over the bake.
Pour the sauce over the chicken fillets, sprinkle with Emmental and bake for 30 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven.
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9
Weigh in the rice.
Meanwhile, rinse the mixing bowl, add water and salt to the mixing bowl, insert the steamer basket, weigh in the rice and cook for 25 min / Varoma / speed 4.
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10
Serve.
Serve the creamy paprika chicken breast with the rice.
Tip: Instead of rice, tagliatelle or a fresh baguette also go beautifully with this creamy paprika chicken.
Nutrition per serving
Why the paprika blend matters so much
If you season this recipe with sweet paprika only, you get a mild sauce with a beautiful colour but no character. Use only hot paprika and you get warmth in the flavour, but the typical red hue turns flat. The trick is the combination. One heaped tablespoon with roughly two thirds sweet and one third hot covers both jobs at once. Sweet paprika brings the deep red and the fruity sweetness; hot paprika adds a noticeable but not biting heat.
Just as important: paprika powder must never be toasted directly over high heat. The sugars in the powder caramelise within seconds into bitter compounds that no amount of cooking can remove. That is why we rub the fillets with salt and paprika powder first and place them straight into the baking dish. In the mixing bowl, garlic and onion go first into 20 g of olive oil at 3 min / Varoma / speed 1, and the paprika powder only joins later together with the cream and soured cream. This keeps the seasoning rounded and free of any bitter note.
Three adjustments for a creamy sauce without bitterness
- Sauce in the mixing bowl, meat in the oven. While the sauce reduces at 5 min / 100°C / speed 1, the oven heats to 200°C top and bottom heat. Both cooking stages run in parallel.
- Double cream and soured cream in a 1:1 ratio. 200 g double cream and 200 g soured cream produce a sauce that does not split in the oven. Pure cream alone would be too rich; soured cream alone would turn too sharp.
- Freshly grated Emmental. 150 g Emmental in chunks in the mixing bowl, 5 sec / speed 7, done. Freshly grated cheese pulls into better strings in the oven than the pre-grated bag variety.
Three pitfalls we know from our own experience
Mistake 1: Frying the paprika powder with the oil
Many recipes suggest sweating the paprika powder directly with the onion. In the Thermomix® that runs at Varoma speed, around 120°C. At this heat the fine sugars in the powder burn, leaving the sauce tasting scratchy and bitter. Our solution: paprika powder goes in only together with the tomato puree, soy sauce, vegetable stock, double cream and soured cream. Everything then runs at 5 min / 100°C / speed 1, which is hot enough for the flavours to bloom but below the bitterness threshold.
Mistake 2: Putting chicken straight from the fridge into the oven
Cold fillets take longer to cook through and dry out on the outside before the internal temperature of 75°C is reached at the centre. Our solution: take 600 g of chicken breast fillets out of the fridge about 20 minutes before seasoning. While we grate the cheese and mix the powder, the meat comes up to room temperature. The result after 30 minutes in the oven is juicy rather than stringy.
Mistake 3: Cutting the peppers too thin
If you cut the peppers into thin strips, after 30 minutes in the oven you end up with mush rather than vegetables. The pieces lose their bite and their colour. Our solution: halve 2 peppers, one red and one green, deseed them and cut into finger-wide strips. This way they are tender after 30 minutes in the oven but still hold their shape and a slight crunch.
How we vary the recipe at home
- With smoked paprika: Half a teaspoon of Pimentón de la Vera replaces part of the sweet paprika. It gives the sauce a smoky depth that moves it towards a goulash flavour.
- With mushrooms instead of peppers: 300 g chestnut mushrooms, sliced and spread over the fillets with the spatula. Works particularly well in winter when peppers lack flavour.
- With chicken thighs: Use four boned thighs instead of breast fillets. Dark meat dries out less. Increase the baking time to 40 minutes.
- With cream cheese for extra creaminess: Stir 100 g full-fat cream cheese into the sauce and reduce the soured cream to 100 g. This makes the sauce silkier and a little milder.
Side dishes and matching recipes from our collection
The original recipe calls for wild rice as a side dish, cooked in parallel in the steamer basket at 25 min / Varoma / speed 4. If you prefer something more classic, use basmati rice cooked in the Thermomix®. Tagliatelle or fresh baguette for dipping also work well when the sauce turns out particularly generous. If you want to skip the rice altogether, the chicken pairs beautifully with mashed potato made in the Thermomix®. A green salad with a light yoghurt dressing balances the richness of the sauce.
If you enjoy the concept but fancy a red sauce in a different form, we also have a classic goulash with the Thermomix® that shares a similar paprika profile and braising time. A second chicken idea with a creamy sauce is our chicken strips with the Thermomix®, which needs no oven and is on the table in 20 minutes.
Leftovers the next day and freezing
Leftovers keep in the fridge in an airtight container for three days. When reheating, the oven at 150°C works better than the microwave: the meat stays tender and the sauce does not split. Place a small dish of water alongside to keep the sauce creamy.
Freezing works only to a limited extent. Cream and soured cream sauces separate when thawed, leaving the sauce grainy. If you want to freeze it anyway, blend the thawed sauce briefly with a stick blender and add a tablespoon of cold double cream. This brings it back together. The chicken itself freezes without any problems, up to three months is fine.
Here we show you how to skin peppers in the Varoma®, if you prefer to remove the skins for flavour reasons.
What other recipes do differently
Goes well with: Ciabatta.
Most Thermomix® versions rely on chicken breast fillet, sweet paprika powder and pure double cream, often topped up with tomato puree for colour and a little heat from ajvar. We go a step further and show why thigh meat or sliced chicken stays juicier when the pot simmers longer, and when a blend of double cream and soured cream makes the sauce rounder than cream alone. With the paprika powder too, it is worth looking at a combination of mild sweet and a small amount of hot. We cook the rice at the same time in the Varoma, which saves a pot and washing up.
