Chicken Riggies and Utica Greens

Home. This is where this dish originates from. I'm originally from upstate NY (near Utica) and this area has its own selection of dishes that you can't find outside about an hour and a half radius from there. These include Halfmoons, Tomato Pie, and this posts Chicken Riggies and Utica Greens. I made these for my friends and their first question: What's a 'riggie'? Answer: a rigatoni, but 'riggies' is pure ecstasy, pair it with greens and you are out cold from a tastebud explosion. They actually have a Riggie-Fest where local restaurants compete to make the best riggies. The pictures may not do justice since I made the dishes at a friends house and had to take the picture the following day, since this is one of the few things I will eat leftovers of. A good thing with the riggies is that if you make a lot of it or have it left over, you can freeze it for later.

Chicken Riggies
1 pack of boneless chicken breasts (about 4 breasts), cubed
1 cup white flour
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup cooking sherry
1 stick of butter
8oz canned mushrooms sliced
12oz can tomato sauce
12oz can chicken stock
8oz heavy cream
10oz can black olives, sliced
2 large green bell peppers, chunked
3 hot cherry peppers, finely sliced (more seeds for heat)
2 tsp garlic, minced
Parmesan cheese, grated
Salt, pepper, dried basil, dried parsley

- Melt butter in LARGE skillet, then add onion and cook until translucent on medium heat

- Coat chicken with flour, s&p, basil, parsley, then add to skillet and cook

- Add cooking sherry, mushrooms, olives, peppers, sauce, stock, garlic

- Stir and simmer for 20-30min (until peppers are soft)

- Add handful of cheese and container of heavy cream, stir and simmer for ~5min (add more cheese if thicker consistency desired)

- Serve atop rigatoni, and only rigatoni to be called true 'Chicken Riggies'

Utica Greens

2 large heads of escarole, chopped in large pieces

1 cup potato, cubed

1/2 cup onion, chopped 

2 clove garlic, minced

6 slices prosciutto, chopped

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup grated romano cheese

1 cup chicken broth

2 long hot italian peppers, seeded and julienned

3 Tbsp olive oil

Salt, pepper, parsley, italian seasonings

- In large skillet, combine 1T olive oil, potato, onion, salt, pepper, parsley, Italian seasonings on medium heat. Toss potatoes and onion to get coated. Leave on for about 10min until potatoes soft

- Clean and rinse escarole twice. Chop in large pieces. Place in skillet with potatoes to get wilted and tender for about 5min

- Remove escarole, potato, onion from skillet and place in bowl set aside for now

- Place remaining olive oil in pan along with the garlic, prosciutto, and hot peppers for about 5min

- Add escarole, potato, onion back into skillet along with the chicken broth tossing it for about 5min

- Gradually add in bread crumbs and cheese, mixing and tossing as added. Turn broiler on to get warm.

- Place the greens in casserole pan and cover lightly with bread crumbs and grated cheese. Place in broiler for about 5min or until crumbs/cheese gets toasted. Serve hot.

CHEF NOTES
- I could not find escarole in the south at all, so I used a combination of collard greens, endive and turnip greens.