Riggies (for Laura, again)

[sweetpea456]

Here is a modified recipe for Chicken Riggies-very very easy, not quite authentic, but easy.

Ingredients: 

• chicken tenders (not breaded or anything, just plain chicken tenders from the meat case) or chicken breasts
• onions, mushrooms, sweet pepper, cherry peppers, garlic
• rigatoni
• black olives-pitted, small
• Paul Newman's Vodka sauce, or any other vodka sauce that's not quite red-it needs to be a bit orange because its creamy
• OR-pasta sauce of your choice and a jar of alfredo sauce of your choice

Steps: 

1. Cut up the chicken tenders into small pieces, sautee in pan with a little olive oil and garlic
    
2. Add your veggies  and mushrooms (sweet peppers and onions should be kept a little big-about quarter size or more), add less cherry peppers than you think you'll need.  Cherry peppers should be cut up, but not too small so folks who dislike them can pick them out.
3. Cook the pasta and drain it.
4. Add the sauce of your choice (if using the alfredo and pasta sauce, mix well till its orange) to the chicken and veggies.  Taste-add more cherry peppers if you want .  Add the olives.  Heat for a couple of minutes.
5. Mix the sauce with the rigatonis. 
6. Serve with garlic bread and greens, and a nice ale or glass of sweet or semi-dry white wine.  MMMMMM.

Real Riggie sauce is made from scratch, using broth, vodka, heavy cream and tomato paste and sauce.  Its really not that hard, but this way is a bit easier.

(The other Utica area specialties are "hats and broccoli" and "tomato pie".  I don't know how to make them, and once I learn, I will post my recipes here...until then, if you're ever around Utica, Napoli's bakery has the best tomato pie-available at Hapanowicz's market, and I believe the best hats I have had is from either Thornberry's or Chesterfields', the latter I don't recall if its open still)