Like many newcomers to Central New York State, Carlos Moran was puzzled when he first saw “chicken riggies” on a restaurant menu.
“I asked the server, ‘What is chicken riggies?’” says the California native, confessing that he initially mispronounced the name “ree-gees,” like the Bee Gees, the popular 1970s musical group.
The server quickly set him straight. Here in New York’s Mohawk Valley, riggies (rhymes with piggies) is short for rigatoni. And chicken riggies, in particular, refers to the pasta and poultry cooked together in a creamy, spicy, pink-tinted tomato sauce. It is a regional specialty, endemic to Oneida County, a long-standing Italian-American enclave, but somewhat rarely found outside of the I-90 corridor.
Little did Moran know this cutesy named, local pasta dish would soon be his key to success. “This is happy food,” says Moran, now the owner of that restaurant, Teddy’s in Rome, NY, which has since become a destination for chicken riggies fans. A sign at the entrance reads: “I love you more than chicken riggies (but please don’t make me choose).”
As New World food adaptations go, chicken riggies are a relatively modern creation. Italian immigrants began moving to the area over a century ago. Chicken riggies have been around for only a few decades.
“This is something we never had growing up,” says Mary Kiernan, an associate professor in the Food Studies Program at Syracuse University. “I’m from Central New York and my father was first-generation Italian-American and I didn’t know what chicken riggies were until I came back to the area as an adult.”
The exact origins are unclear, with conflicting anecdotal accounts about which cook gets credit for first combining the common elements of chicken, rigatoni, cheese, tomato, and, most importantly, hot cherry peppers, which give the dish its distinctive kick. The former Chesterfield restaurant in downtown Utica claimed to be the first to put chicken riggies on the menu in 1989; its modern incarnation, Chesterfield’s Tavolo, still advertises the “original” recipe.
“Riggies is a very creative dish, if you break it down,” says Kiernan, noting that every ingredient is readily on hand in a typical Italian restaurant. “All these pieces and parts of the chicken riggie recipe could easily have come from other parts of whatever was left from the night before, and it just turned out great.”
Restaurants from Albany to Buffalo now serve their own versions, some adding less common ingredients like mushrooms, olives, and heavy cream.
Kiernan says one of the hallmarks of a well-made bowl of riggies is a good balance between the creamy, the tomato, and especially the hot cherry pepper flavors. “Sometimes the cherry peppers can be too big,” she says. “You want it to be evenly tasted throughout the dish. You don’t want one bite to be chicken and cream sauce and then on the next bite, ‘Whoa, this is rocket hot!’”
Some ill-fated variations even try swapping in a different hot pepper. “I would be so disappointed if you gave me chicken riggies and you gave me jalapeños,” Kiernan says. “You need to stay true to what the recipe is.”
For Moran, discovering chicken riggies came at an opportune time. In 2005, fans of the local foodstuff began planning for the area’s first “Riggiefest,” a charity contest to determine which restaurant serves the best chicken riggies around.
Award-winning chicken riggies from Teddy's Riggies.
The chef had just left his fine-dining job at the Alexander Hamilton Hotel in Clinton, NY, and stumbled upon Teddy’s, a casual restaurant in nearby Rome, decorated with kitschy teddy bears and portraits of one-time U.S. President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. Then known more for diner fare like burgers and sandwiches, the restaurant also served a fairly basic rendition of chicken riggies. As it happened, the restaurant was looking to hire a kitchen manager.
Moran decided to put his culinary chops to use, taking the job, refining the restaurant’s riggie recipe, and entering the contest.
The Mexican-born, California-raised cook seemed an unlikely challenger in a field of pasta pros from more traditional Italian-American restaurants, but the judges at Utica Memorial Auditorium liked his version the best, awarding Teddy’s the top prize. “Some of the restaurant owners said we were lucky,” notes Moran. Yet, Teddy’s also won the next year, and the year after that. In 2008, organizers announced that Teddy’s would be inducted into the “Riggiefest Hall of Fame,” thereby clearing the way for a new winner.
“Since then, it’s been the No. 1 seller on my menu,” Moran says of his contest-winning riggies. His recipe incorporates white wine and leans heavily on a homemade Alfredo sauce mixed with tomato. He also likes to add a splash of liquid from the jar of pickled hot cherry peppers. “The cherry peppers are what makes it,” he says. “You’ve got to put the juice in it.”
In a normal week, Moran says the restaurant expends about 100 to 125 gallons of sauce on the riggies, which are now also available in sausage and buffalo chicken varieties.
“Why is it so popular? To be honest with you, I have no idea. We are very popular when it comes to the chicken riggies. That’s what matters.”