Chicken paprikash (Hungarian: paprikás csirke or csirkepaprikás) or paprika chicken is a popular Hungarian cuisine dish of Hungarian origin and one of the most famous variations on the paprikás preparations common to Hungarian tables. The name is derived from paprika, a spice commonly used in the country’s cuisine. The meat is typically simmered for an extended period in a sauce that begins with a roux infused with paprika.

The dish can be prepared using édes nemes (sweet) or csípős nemes (spicy) paprika; either adds a rosy color as well as flavor. Sometimes olive oil, sweet red or yellow peppers, and a small amount of tomato paste are used. The dish bears a "family resemblance" to goulash, another paprika dish.

The dish is traditionally served with "dumpling-like boiled egg noodles" (nokedli), a broad noodle similar to the German spätzle. Other common side dishes include tagliatelle, rice, or millet.

In the 19th century, pörkölt became a widespread dish among peasants on the Great Hungarian Plain. In addition to the pörkölt made from beef and mutton consumed by shepherds, stews prepared from poultry meat also became popular, reflecting the adaptation of the dish to household circumstances. Initially, the dish had an everyday role among peasants, similar to that among shepherds. In the families of serf farmers in Hatvan in the 1840s, the most common forms of meat dishes were "pörkölt hús" and "paprikás hús", which were prepared not only from beef but also from mutton and poultry.

Paprika was mentioned under many different names in old Hungarian sources, such as "törökbors" (Turkish pepper), "vörösbors" (red pepper), "spanyol bors" (Spanish pepper), "tatárkabors" (Tatar pepper), and "pogány bors" (pagan pepper).

French traveler and sociologist Pierre Guillaume Frédéric Le Play described the meat dishes of a serf farmer from Hatvan in his work Les ouvriers européens (1855):

"They mostly eat meat prepared as a national dish called paprikás hus; this consists of various meats or poultry, cooked with the fat of smoked or unsmoked bacon, seasoned with onions, salt and red pepper (paprika), from which the dish takes its name; the whole is fried for a long time until the juice thickens. Among other meat dishes we should also mention gulyas hus (the shepherds’ ragout), whose thin broth is used to flavor bread; and porkelt hus, which is cooked into a thick sauce and eaten cold and set."

During the Reform Era, Hungarian nobility, eager to defend their privileges, emphasized national unity and identity not only through language and dress, but also by elevating simple shepherds’ dishes of the Great Plain.