This was one of my all-time favorites - my mother's version. This is not that version. I had to go play around. This is the recipe, as written, from the "Az Ínyesmester Szakácskönyve" (The Gourmand's Cookbook) by Magyar Elek in 1932.

I saw that this contained pork pörkölt instead of ground pork and it was a must try for me. The recipe directs you to cut the pork into much smaller cubes. The result is like a ragu.

You page through these old cookbooks and there are some crazy recipes. I found palacsintás paprikás csirke, which is not Hortobágyi húsos palacsinta, but not far off. There's a chocolate covered, walnut and rum filled palacsinta -- flambeed -- which is not Gundel palacsinta. Many other things that I want to try.

I'm not sure I'm a fan of this pörkölt version (yet). The familiar flavors of my favorite aren't quite there. I need more sour cream. Also, man, it's hard for me to get the seasoning right. I thought the pörkölt was salty and I also salted the rice and the cabbage, but it still wasn't enough.

Marha pörkölt tarhonyával
Beef pörkölt with tarhonya

By one definition of pörkölt and paprikás, pörkölt is made by putting only meat into a pot and letting it stew in its own juices first. Later, you add onions and then paprika.
Paprikás, then is made by sauteing onions, then adding paprika off heat and the meat, and then you stew it.

My personal, original definition is that pörkölt is what I just described and paprikás adds habarás (sour cream and flour).

Still, I've found that adding the meat first and letting it stew in its own juices seems to bring out more meat flavor. In fact, I think I'll use less paprika and let the paprika be an undertone.

In both cases, I let the water cook down, brown the meat, then add a small amount more water. Repeat that a few times until the meat is nicely caramelized then add a bit more water, cover and finish. This is why I believe you can only make pörkölt in a pot.
What I did in this case is saute the onions, using the same technique, alternating small amounts of water and browning until it cooks down and develops a light tan color - not dark and sweet like caramelized onions. Just with a bit of depth of flavor. It's like an onion risotto. Pörkölt is like a meat risotto! Then I add tomatoes and paprika, both peeled.

Finally I combined the lecsó base and the meat and let it stew, covered until the meat was tender. I added the paprika to the lecsó and then some to the meat during the final stew.
I made green bean főzelék for the leftovers the next day.