Ingredients
Wicked Hot Sauce:
- 1/2 can chipotle pepper in adobe sauce
- 10 serrano chiles, stemmed, rough chop
- 3/4 cup hot pepper oil (chili oil)
Chicken:
- 3/4 cup olive oil plus 3 to 4 tablespoons
- 1 red onion, small dice
- 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh garlic
- 1 tablespoon dry basil
- 1 tablespoon dry oregano
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
- 1 teaspoon black pepper, plus more for sprinkling
- 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
- 1 green bell pepper, small dice
- 1 red bell pepper, small dice
- 1 yellow bell pepper, small dice
- 8 cups favorite tomato sauce
- 6 cups heavy cream
- 2 cups grated Romano
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 to 1 1/2 pounds dried rigatoni noodles
- 2 pounds chicken breast, cut into strips
- Shredded locatelli cheese, or favorite grated cheese, for serving
- 4 scallions, fine dice (retain for final garnish)
Directions
For the hot sauce: In a blender, carefully blenderize the chipotle peppers, serrano chiles and pepper oil. This stuff is hot! Be careful with splatter! Reserve.
For the chicken: In a large braiser or saucepot, warm 3/4 cup of the olive oil over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the onions, garlic, basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, cayenne and red pepper flakes. Stir well and cook until the onions are translucent.
Stir the fresh chopped bell peppers into the onion mixture. Stir to coat. Add the reserved hot sauce. Continue cooking for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato sauce, heavy cream, Romano and sugar. Whisk well!
Lower the heat until the sauce slightly bubbles, and stir well. Turn the heat to low or off while sauteing the chicken strips and cooking the rigatoni noodles.
When the sauce is nearing doneness, cook the rigatoni noodles according to package directions. I like to pre-cook my pasta for sauteed pasta dishes such as this. Pre-cooking rigatoni to near doneness, straining and holding at room temperature, or completely chilling down if holding for several hours or more and then dunking in hot, boiling water prior to sauteing works well.
For the chicken saute, heat a large saute pan with the remaining olive oil. First, sprinkle the chicken strips with 1 teaspoon salt (more or less), and add to the hot olive oil, one layer at a time. Do not overcrowd the pan. Cook in batches if necessary. Add a dash of black pepper if desired. Flip and shake the chicken pieces around in the hot pan to sear all sides. Cook until opaque and lightly brown, about 4 minutes. Set aside.
Toss the tomato sauce and chicken in a large bowl in half-batches, or altogether. Pour onto a serving platter or individual pasta bowls. Garnish with locatelli cheese and reserved fresh scallions.
Notes
This recipe was provided by a chef, restaurant or culinary professional and may have been scaled down from a bulk recipe. The Food Network Kitchens chefs have not tested this recipe, in the proportions indicated, and therefore, we cannot make any representation as to the results.
Photo: Wicked Chicken Riggies Recipe


















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By TJ724
on April 22, 2013
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This dish was delicious! The sauce to pasta/chicken ratio is way off, so we halved the sauce recipe and we still had enough for three whole meals. We also cut the recipe for the wicked sauce by a third and it was plenty spicy.
By Dramaticoncha
Saint Paul, MN
on March 04, 2013
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This recipe, if made correctly, is delicious, but it does have some problems. When they made this on triple D they threw a jalapeno in the tomato sauce part with the rest of the bell peppers. It's not listed here, but it's plenty hot without it. You need to make the hot sauce separate from the sauce. I ONLY USED TWO TSPS OF THE HOT SAUCE IN THE TOMATO SAUCE! The tomato sauce it spicy to begin with so after I added the hot sauce it was really hot, but it's ok because you are going to add nearly equal parts cream and parm to it so it gets way less hot after that. I put the rest of the hot sauce in ice cube trays and froze it into little cubes to add to salsa and sauces later. The tomato sauce before the cream was like 8 cups finished, so I split it into four ziploc bags with two cups in each one. Then when I needed a bag I just added one and a half cups of cream, and a quarter cup of Parmesan to it. It's enough to generously coat a 1 pound bag of pasta.
By sheamus5
on February 09, 2013
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This recipe kicks butt. Sauce a plenty though, could reduce by 1/2 and still have enough. Not sure why anyone would find it inedible, unless they made a mistake along the way in making it. Very similar sauce to that of green mills desert fire pasta.
Read all 8 reviews