What the best ribs in town is to the Jacksonville area restaurants, Chicken Rigatoni is to Central New York restaurants. They vote for the restaurant that serves the best Chicken Riggies. The variations of this meal are endless. Mario’s Italian American Restaurant features cooking just like home and has two locations in Jacksonville Beach on A1A. Mario’s is typical of the type of restaurant that would participate in a Chicken Riggie contest in Central New York. However, as of yet they do not feature this dish, maybe with customer demand.
Rachel Ray is from the Albany, New York area which is about an hour’s drive east of Central New York. Her husband is a musician and was playing in the Utica/Rome area and discovered for himself this fabulous Central New York pasta dish at a local restaurant. He told his wife about the rigatoni meal and Rachel’s version is documented or her web site.
Cena means dinner in Italian and supper means dinner in English. Dinner is the main meal of the day and is usually eaten in the evening. Sunday dinner may be eaten in the afternoon and is dinner because the family partakes of the biggest meal of the day. The term supper is used instead of dinner when the main meal of the day is in the evening and is a lighter meal. Chicken Rigatoni is not for supper, it is for dinner as it certainly is not a light meal. What’s for cena? Chicken Riggies in a pink cream sauce...Buon Appetite!
Tips:
Penne pasta may be used in place of rigatoni
For guests who prefer a little hot:
To turn up the heat toss in 3-4 cherry peppers to final mix;
May also quarter, serve on the table in small dish for guests to use
Or place hot red pepper on the table
*Do not save the flour and black pepper mix to use again if any is left over once it has been in contact with the chicken
Save 1cup of tomato sauce and freeze to use for this recipe
Olive oil may be used instead of butter for browning veggies and chicken
Olive oil was used in the pictured presentation of this recipe
Salt and black pepper as well hot pepper may be increased to suit personal taste
Recipe:
1 ½ # boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 ½” chunks
1 cup white onions sliced
1 lg green bell pepper sliced
1 lg red bell pepper sliced
One 8 ounce pkg sliced mushrooms
½ tsp salt
1 pint heavy cream
1 cup of tomato sauce
2 cups of Swanson’s low salt chicken broth
1 cup Lindsey select black olives
1 cup Lindsey select green olives (not Spanish olives)
1 pound Barilla rigatoni pasta
1/2 cup butter or olive oil in two ¼ cup uses
1/3 cup flour
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated or shredded Romano cheese
Using a large 3.5 quart sauce pan sauté veggies on medium heat in ¼ cup butter and sprinkle with ½ tsp salt, cook until translucent then remove from pan when water has cooked off and veggies begin to brown; while vegetables are cooking in a separate bowl toss and coat chicken pieces in flour and pepper mix; when veggies are removed from pan add second ¼ cup butter then brown chicken until almost cooked; while chicken is browning place chicken broth, heavy cream and tomato sauce in large bowl and blend well; when chicken is browned and begins to sizzle add broth mix to chicken and stir; return veggies to pan and mix; cover and bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for 20-30 minutes; in the last 5-10 minutes of cooking add olives and tilt cover slightly to allow cream sauce to cook down
While sauce is cooking boil pasta to el dente; place cooked pasta in large serving bowl; mix in the cream sauce with vegetables and chicken, top with Romano cheese and serve; makes 4-6 servings
Questions or comments email Karen to address kmak46@comcast.net or use comment button attached to articles.
Assisting in this article: Sandra Climek
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