You can’t make me any happier than to serve me a nice piece of grilled chicken, royally drizzled with home made stroganoff sauce. A few Parmesan cottage potatoes on the side and I’m a happy camper.

What I like most about it -aside from the fact it’s a rich, flavorful sauce filled with vegetables- is how you can add or subtract anything you like. Sometimes I add mushrooms, a few drops of Worcestershire’s and/or tobasco. You can play with the ingredients, add extra garlic or extra bell peppers. Once I even spiked it with vodka, that turned out amazing! It also works beautifully with a little leftover red wine, I must say.

But I always start out with this, so I’ll go first and will let you take it from there.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup chicken or beef broth
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tbsp paprika powder
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
2 tsp tomato paste
2 tbsp sour cream
1 medium onion
1 garlic clove
pepper
salt

Optional: 1/4 tsp chili powder
Optional: 1 tsp dried parsley

 
Directions:

You can leave the skin on if you like, but I always peel my bell peppers with a simple vegetable peeler. Finely chop them.

I’m an onion addict, so I went for a medium onion. If you’re not, you can go for 1/2 an onion. The quickest way to chop an onion is by simply cutting it in half, make vertical slices (1) followed by one horizontal slice halfway through the onion (2). Turn it around and make thin slices (3 & 4). It works pretty fast that way.

Grate, chop or press the garlic. You can use 1 or 2 cloves. I only used 1, don’t like the garlic to be too overpowering. At least not in this sauce.

Put 2 heaping tbsp flour in a bowl, followed by 1 tbsp paprika powder and 1 tsp curry powder. Give it a good stir.

I recently posted my latest ‘new find’, a liquid light/diet butter. Imagine my surprise when this one showed up as well. Another version only this one has Omega 3 & 6 added to it as well! They’re simply popping up everywhere. Are they trying to tell us we’re heavy or something? Use 2 tbsp butter or margarine. Your pick.

Lightly sautee the onions. I gave them 3 minutes.

After 3 minutes I lowered the heat, added the bell peppers and garlic and cooked for 6 more minutes while stirring occasionally. Make sure the onions don’t brown.

Sprinkle the flour mixture on top of the vegetables and coat them. Give it 2 minutes and keep an eye on it, move the veggies around every now and then.

After 2 minutes add two tsp tomato paste and cook for 2 more minutes. This will slightly reduce the acidity of the tomato paste. It’s gonna look more like a lump now. That’s ok! Don’t be scared, just follow my lead (and we’ll both end up nowhere:)

Now, bit by bit, pour in the broth, keep stirring well.

I used about 1 1/2 cups. Just start with 1 cup and see if it needs more. Keep the broth nearby in case your sauce needs thinning. Add a really good pinch of pepper. I’ve also added 1/4 tsp chili powder – the original recipe doesn’t call for it, but I like the flavor it gives. You can add salt after simmering, which is much safer, but I went for 1/4 tsp salt and that was the perfect amount. Simmer the sauce for 10 to 15 minutes.

All that’s left now is to add salt (if you didn’t add it prior to simmering) and 1 heaping tbsp sour cream. Stir in the sour cream. I love how rich just 1 tbsp sour cream makes the sauce look! Now if the sauce is too coarse for you, you can always puree half of it.

Garnish with an additional tbsp sour cream, a little dried or fresh parsley and some bell pepper slices.