Hungarian Venison Goulash or Pörkölt

4.94 from 15 votes

You will want fresh paprika for this recipe, meaning the stuff that has likely been sitting around in your pantry since the Jurassic Period won't cut it. Paprika needs to be bright red and smell wonderful. And if you don't want angry Hungarians beating down your door, buy Hungarian paprika.

Prep Time30

Cook Time3

Total Time3 30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Hungarian

Servings: people

Author: Hank Shaw

Ingredients

NOKEDLI DUMPLINGS

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, beaten
A little water or milk

GOULASH

1/4 cup lard, bacon fat or sunflower oil
2 pounds venison stew meat, cut into 3 to 4-inch hunks
Salt
5 cups chopped onions
1/4 cup sweet paprika, Hungarian if at all possible
2 teaspoons hot paprika
2 teaspoons caraway seed
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 cups venison or beef stock
1 cup red wine

Instructions

Heat the lard or bacon fat over medium-high heat in a large Dutch oven or stewpot and brown the venison in batches. Salt the venison as it cooks. It will take 20 minutes or so for all the meat to brown. Remove the venison as it browns and set aside.
Add all the onions and caraway seeds and turn the heat to medium. Sauté the onions, stirring often, until they are browned. This will take a solid 30 minutes if you do it right. I cover the pot about halfway in. Add the venison back, then all the other ingredients. Mix well and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over low heat for 2 hours, or until the meat wants to fall apart.
When the meat is ready, make the nokedli dumplings by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl until you have a thick batter. Get a large pot of water boiling and add enough salt to make it salty. Push the batter through a colander with large holes or a spaetzli maker into the boiling water. Boil the nokedli dumplings until they float, then 1 minute more. Drain and set aside.
Use a pair of forks or a potato masher to shred the meat in the pot. Add salt if needed. Serve the goulash alongside the dumplings with some sour cream at the table to mix in.

Notes

Any stew meat from any red meat animal will work. Oh, and don't freak out about the huge amount of onions. They cook down.

Nutrition