I had never heard of chicken riggies until I was watching Rachael Ray a few weeks ago. Apparently they're a huge thing in upstate New York, and different areas each have their own take on the dish. From what I gather, "riggies" means rigatoni; so, what all of the versions have in common is that they're a similar chicken rigatoni dish. While the Rachael Ray version didn't sound that great to me, I decided to browse the internet and find some other versions and see what I could do to tweak it to make it my own.

I can't say how authentic it is, but we both really liked it. It reminded both of us a bit of a spicy chicken cacciatore with pasta. We hope you enjoy it, too!

Excuse the bad photo, please!

Chicken Riggies
Serves 4
Prep Time - 10 min
Cook Time - 25 min

INGREDIENTS
1 lb rigatoni
3 TBSP olive oil
3 TBSP butter
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 shallots, diced
2 chicken breast halves, cubed
salt and pepper to taste
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1 Poblano pepper, chopped
1 (28 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained slightly
3 TBSP dry sherry
3/4 - 1 cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS
Cook pasta to al dente. Drain & set aside.

Melt butter & heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and shallots and saute until almost soft, then add peppers and chicken, season with salt and pepper. Saute for 8-10 minutes, or until chicken is almost cooked through.

Reduce heat to low and add tomato sauce and sherry and simmer about 10 minutes. Stir in cream and simmer for 10 minutes more. Toss all with hot, cooked pasta and serve.