Chicken Riggies Pasta
08 NOVEMBER 2018
chicken riggies pasta
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Looking for a new way to spice up your weekly dinner routine? Chicken Riggies pasta recipe will certainly do that for you!
Loaded with bell and spicy peppers, mushrooms, black olives, chicken — tossed in a creamy tomato sauce — this rigatoni-based pasta is full of flavor and packed with nutrition.
This dish is native to the Utica area of Central New York, and can be found in restaurants across Upstate New York. It’s savory, spicy, salty, and slightly sweet — it has something for everyone!
CHICKEN RIGGIES: The Prep Work
Most of your active time will be spent prepping the ingredients. You can chop up everything, but I like to julienne the bell peppers, dice the hot cherry peppers and jalapeños, chop the onion, half the black olives, and mince the garlic.
Make sure to seed your peppers well to keep the heat level at something manageable by all enjoying the dish. You can use different spicy peppers if you have a preference.
I happened to find these at a local farmers’ market, so I chose to cook with these. It may be easier to use jarred hot peppers like peppadews, that are already de-seeded and ready to chop up.
Julienned bell peppers / Diced hot cherry and jalepeno peppers
Sliced babybella mushrooms
Chopped white onion
Halved black olives
Minced garlic cloves
CHICKEN RIGGIES: One Pot Pasta
I seasoned my chicken breasts, and got them cooking in a large pot, with a bit of butter and oil. Once the chicken breasts got some color, I added some of the ingredients previously prepped – peppers, mushrooms, and onions. After a few minutes, in goes the garlic.
Once the vegetables have slightly softened, add the CHICKEN BROTH, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Give the pot a good stir over, and bring to a boil. Add spices, sugar, salt and pepper. Reduce to a simmer and cover, for about 10 minutes.
While all of this is working, cook the rigatoni pasta noodles until al dente, drain, and toss with a little olive oil to prevent from sticking together.
At this point, you need to add the dairy. You have a few options depending on how true to the traditional recipe you’d like to stay (heavy cream) or how healthy you’d like to try and make it. A combination of any of these may be ideal (listed from worst to best in health factor):
- heavy cream
- half ‘n half
- whole milk
- evaporated milk
- low fat evaporated milk
- ALMOND MILK/COCONUT CREAMER
You’ll also want to pull the chicken out, slice up, and return back to the pot, along with the sliced black olives.
If you don’t use cream, you may need cornstarch to thicken it up. Make sure you mix corn starch with warm water, and then add to the chicken riggies pasta.
Season to taste, and make sure sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Finally, add cooked rigatoni pasta to pot, or if you intend to have left-overs, keep separate and spoon chicken riggies mixture over pasta to keep noodles from breaking and getting too soft.
As usual, this pasta goes great with a sprinkle of Parmigiana / Parmesan cheese!
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 8 servings | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 40 minutes |
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Spicy, savory, salty, and slightly sweet chicken riggies is a pasta recipe you'll want in your back pocket. It's got a little something for everyone!
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- 3 Tbl butter
- 2 Tbl extra virgin olive oil
- 12 oz babybella mushrooms, sliced
- 1 small green bell pepper, julienned
- 1 small red bell pepper, julienned
- 2 jalepenos, diced
- 2-4 oz hot peppers, jarred or fresh, diced
- 1 white or yellow onion, chopped
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2/3 can medium black olives, halved
- 2-3 lbs chicken breasts
- 1 lb rigatoni pasta, cooked and drained
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 6oz can tomato paste
- 1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce
- 1/2 pint heavy cream (or slightly more of healthier alternative)
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp parsley
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- salt and black pepper to taste
- pinch crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- Add butter and oil to large pot, heat to medium, season chicken with salt and pepper, and put in pot. Brown on both sides, about 5 minutes each side, and add onion, peppers, and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Cook another 5 minutes, and add garlic. Cook 2 minutes more.
- Add chicken broth, tomato paste, canned tomato sauce/crushed tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Add spices. Reduce to a simmer, and cover. Cook about 10 minutes.
- Add dairy or dairy alternative. Cook 2 minutes. Pull out chicken breasts and slice. Return to pot along with black olives. Cook another 2-5 minutes and season to taste.
- Add cooked rigatoni pasta to pot, or leave separate and spoon over noodles. Serve!
- If using a thinner alternative to heavy cream, you may need cornstarch to thicken sauce up. Add a small spoonful to a little bowl with a bit of warm water, and stir until dissolved. Then add to sauce at any point after "dairy" is added.
- The longer the chicken riggies sit/rest off the heat, the more the sauce will thicken up.