Print the recipe page!  chicken riggies

Forgive me if I’d never heard of “riggies” before, but apparently those of you in Utica, New York have where this dish even has it’s own festival!

This particular recipe is based off a Cook’s Country take on it.  (Btw, I’m guessing the name “riggies” is short for rigatoni?)  Anyway, thanks be to the “riggies”!  It cooperates perfectly as a shelf stable meal and makes a very flavorful dish.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

3/4 cup freeze dried onion flakes (rehydrated using 1/3 cup water) –or– one medium onion, chopped

2 (12.5 oz.) cans chicken, drained

1 (10.2 oz.) jar hot cherry peppers, chopped fine, plus reserved cherry pepper brine (*see note)

1-2 TBS olive oil

salt and pepper

2 (4 oz.) cans mushrooms (*or there about, the original recipe calls for 10 oz.)

1 (12 oz.) jar sweet roasted peppers (*see note)

1 1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1 1/2 tsp. oregano

1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes

3 TBS heavy cream powder mixed with 1/2 cup + 1 TBS water

1 (4.75 oz) jar of pitted kalamata olives, halved lengthwise

1 lb. rigatoni

1 1/4 cups grated Romano cheese

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Instructions:

Begin by adding water to the onion flakes to rehydrate.  Separately, pour cherry pepper brine over the drained chicken, setting aside to “marinate”.  Chop the peppers, both the cherry peppers as well as the roasted red peppers.  Begin boiling a pot of water (about 2 quarts) for the rigatoni.  Lastly, mix together the heavy cream powder and water and set aside.

Heat 1-2 TBS of oil in a skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Saute the chopped cherry peppers with the garlic powder and oregano until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add the tomatoes, cream and 1/2 tsp. each of salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, stirring occasionally until sauce is very thick, about 10 minutes.  While simmering, boil rigatoni (in salted water) also for about 10 minutes.  Once the sauce has reduced, stir in vegetables, 2-3 TBS of pepper brine for flavor to the sauce as well as the (mostly drained) chicken.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water.  Add the pasta and reserved water (as needed) to the sauce.  Toss in the 1 1/4 cups of grated Romano cheese and serve.

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Prep time:  1) rehydrate the onions 2)”marinate” the chicken using the pepper brine 3) chop both jars of peppers 4) begin a pot of water boiling for the pasta 5) mix together the “cream”.

I can’t resist…just look at these peppers!  Seriously, when would you ever get to see a yellow vegetable like this eating usual food storage?  While playing a small roll in this recipe, I think it would be amazing to have these to pull out if fresh veggies hadn’t been available in a while, even if just to look at.

Saute the chopped cherry peppers along with the garlic powder and oregano.

Add the tomatoes, cream and salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer for 10 minutes, uncovered.

Meanwhile you should be cooking your pasta…

Once the sauce is reduced, add in 2-3 TBS of pepper brine and all the other vegetables.  Btw, I completely forgot to add the onions until the very end.  Drain the onions and add those here too.

Now (gently) add the chicken.

And the pasta.  Add in some of the reserved cooking water if the sauce is looking too thick.

And finally the Romano.

Ahhh…time to eat!

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Notes:

• After reading the test tasting results for the roasted red peppers (from this post), I’d go with Dunbar’s brand of roasted peppers (they’re sold at Walmart).

• In shopping for the cherry peppers I discovered they’re not always obviously labeled as “cherry peppers”.  Check the ingredients if needed.  Also, I wasn’t able to find the “hot” cherry peppers in a jar this size so really, these ones that I bought weren’t very hot.  It was better for my group anyway though.