UNIVERSITY CITY (WPVI) — Today we’re making a pasta dish that’s made its way from a small town in upstate New York to Philadelphia.
If you’ve never had chicken riggies, you will find them on the menu at Corio, a new Italian spot that just opened in University City in April.
Head Chef David Feola says he wanted the menu at Corio to be approachable Italian comfort food.
“We do pizzas, pastas, some sandwiches,” he says. “At lunch, we do a play on a vitello tonnato and short rib sandwich. There’s a tonnato sauce on the bottom, which is a really thick mayonnaise, tuna and anchovy-based sauce.”
And after rigorous pizza research and development, Feola created a pie he says is somewhere between New York style and Neapolitan.
Their chicken riggies is a dish from Feola’s childhood, so he says there was no question he was also putting it on the menu.
“It’s very specific to the area I grew up in,” says Head Chef David Feola. “It’s originally from Utica, New York and once you get about 15-20 miles in any direction, nobody knows what it is.”
Chicken riggies is short for chicken and rigatoni. It’s one of those “if you know, you know” pasta dishes.
“Every now and then someone will come in and say: ‘How do you know about chicken riggies?’ It’s exciting for me to serve it to people, because it’s my favorite pasta dish,” he says.
Besides chicken and rigatoni, chicken riggies has mushrooms, black olives and two kinds of peppers: roasted red peppers and cherry peppers. You know we like the heat in Philly!
We start with chicken thighs, seasoned with salt and pepper and pan fried.
Once that’s seared, take the chicken out of the pan and add mushrooms, all those peppers and the chicken riggie sauce.
Feola says the secret is that the sauce has to stick.
“It’s not a saucy sauce,” he says. “It’s very tight. I want it to be that there’s almost nothing left on the plate by the time you’re done.”
His sauce is a labor of love, but he says you can easily freestyle yours.
Top the sauce with the ingredient that adds a little drama: black olives.
Finally, the diced chicken goes back into the sauce, add your cooked riggies and the good stuff – grated parmigiano reggiano, heavy cream and a few leaves of chopped basil.
In Utica, chicken riggies are life – and lore.
“Every restaurant has their own,” Feola says. “Every year there’s a competition and everyone can enter as amateurs. They do it at the Utica Zoo. It takes over the entire zoo.”
Now, the chicken riggies are ours.
Chicken Riggies Recipe from Corio
Ingredients:
– 1 can of San Marzano tomatoes
– 1 Spanish or yellow onion, diced large
– 1 head of peeled garlic
– 1 bunch basil
– Extra virgin olive oil
– 1 chicken thigh per dish
– 1 cup per portion of rigatoni
– 1/2 cup of button mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
– 1/4 cup chicken stock
– 4 ounces tomato sauce
– 1/4 cup sliced black olives
– 1/4 cup roasted red peppers, cut into 1 inch cubes
– 1/3 cup julienned cherry peppers
– 2 tablespoons butter
– 3 or 4 tablespoons heavy cream
– 1/3 cup grated Parmesan, plus more to finish
– 5 extra basil leaves, chopped
Directions to make the sauce:
1. Place diced onion and peeled garlic into a pot and add extra virgin olive oil, just enough to cover.
2. On medium heat, cook until garlic and onion are tender and then blend together with a hand immersion blender.
3. While the onions and garlic are cooking, open the can of tomatoes and blend using a hand immersion blender.
4. Combine blended garlic and onions with blended tomatoes.
5. Place on high heat and bring up to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
6. Let the sauce reduce until all the water from the tomatoes has cooked out.
Note: The sauce will become very thick and become a darker shade of red. This recipe will also make more than you need for a single portion. The leftover sauce freezes well for next time!
Directions to make the chicken:
1. Season one chicken thigh with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.
2. Over high heat, sear the chicken thigh until golden brown on one side, flip and finish cooking in the oven at 375 degrees for 8-12 minutes.
3. Once cooked, cool and cut into 1 inch cubes
Assembling the Chicken Riggies:
1. Place a sauté pan over high heat and add olive oil, sear button mushrooms until golden brown.
2. Deglaze with chicken stock and reduce by half.
3. Add the red sauce, olives, chicken and both peppers.
4. In a separate pot, drop your rigatoni in salted water and cook until al dente.
5. Once pasta is cooked, add to your pan along with butter, heavy cream, Parmesan and chopped basil.
6. Let reduce slightly
7. Place in a bowl and garnish with more fresh grated Parmesan.
Enjoy!
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