This chicken rigatoni with mushroom dish is the perfect comfort food for winter. A light creamy mushroom sauce with strips of chicken makes a great and quick weeknight meal.
I’m not sure where my love of chicken rigatoni came from but I remember many years ago I used to live in a neighboring town and one of the restaurants had this dish called spicy chicken rigatoni. SOOO GOOD! I’ve tried and tried to replicate that dish over the years and this recipe has come close. This dish isn’t spicy but there is plenty of opportunity to spice it up if you see fit.
Although we don’t eat pasta too often, we can’t help but crave this comfort food during the winter. It’s like eating a bowl of hugs, I just love it. It also brings me back to my younger days.
The Sauce:
The sauce is the big hit in this dish. I’m a huge sauce fan and love to put sauce on everything! This is a simple sauce that combines white wine, butter and cream. You can then add whatever seasonings you want, personally, garlic is my favorite. For the wine, any dry white wine will do but since we also like to drink the wine, we selected a nice sauvignon blanc.
The Pasta:
For the pasta we like finding pasta with simple ingredients or we look for pastas that are high in protein. Chickpea pasta or a veggie pasta can offer a nice alternative. The mushrooms we use are Portobello mushrooms because we like how the mushrooms hold up in the sauce and how it stands out in the dish.
Putting it all together:
In a large stock pot add water with a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Then add the pasta and cook according to directions on the pasta box. stirring occasionally. I always start this first because the water takes so long to boil. You can use a large sauce pan as well if you don’t have a stock pot.
While the water is coming to a boil, prepare the chicken breast by patting the breasts dry with a paper towel, salt and slice into strips. Next, heat the butter and oil on medium heat in a large saucepan or skillet, stirring often so that the butter does not burn. Once the butter is fully melted add the chicken strips. Sauté for 5 minutes, moving the chicken around to make sure the chicken is evenly cooked. Now add the mushrooms and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes until chicken looks white and mushrooms take on a darker color. You can then add wine and place on simmer until the wine has slightly reduced. Finally, slowly add the cream and 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan, the cream makes this dish luxurious and the parmesan helps to thicken the sauce a bit. Stir everything together on simmer for 10 minutes or until liquid had reduced by half.
By this time your pasta should be ready and drained, toss the pasta into your skillet for the sauce to coat the noodles (pro-tip: leave a teeny bit of the pasta water when combining the pasta and the sauce in the skillet, this will help the sauce to attach to the pasta for maximum flavor).
Salt to taste. Optional items are to add are chopped chives and red pepper flakes for color and a little heat. Always add more parmesan. 🙂
Alternative’s we’ve used:
You can quickly change up this dish. Change out the chicken for sausage, or take out the meat all-together. Add harissa sauce to make it spicier or load up veggies in the summer time, we are fans of asparagus and spinach. In a pinch I can use coconut milk instead of the heavy cream. It’s just a great dish that looks fancy but is so easy to make.
Enjoy! For those of you following along on this weeks challenge as part of the Happiness Reset Challenge, click here and this dish offers 45 IU’s of Vitamin D from the mushrooms.
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Chicken Rigatoni With Mushrooms
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
This chicken rigatoni with mushroom dish is the perfect comfort food for winter. A light creamy mushroom sauce with strips of chicken makes a great and quick weeknight meal.
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts (roughly 9 oz)
- 16 oz of sliced Portobello mushrooms
- 1 16 oz box of rigatoni
- 1 cup of white wine
- 4 tablespoons of butter
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 cup of heavy cream
- 1/4 cup of parmesan
- Salt
Instructions
- In a large stock pot add water and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil.
- Add rigatoni pasta and cook according to the directions on the pasta box stirring occasionally.
- Pat dry the chicken breast, salt and slice into strips.
- In a large saucepan, heat butter and oil on medium heat stirring often.
- Once the butter has melted, add chicken and sauté for 5 minutes stirring to evenly cook.
- Add mushrooms and garlic and continue to sauté for 5 minutes.
- After the mushrooms are sautéed, add wine and place on simmer until the wine has slightly reduced.
- Slowly add cream and 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan.
- Stir and simmer for 10 minutes or until liquid had reduced by half.
- Stir in cooked pasta.
- Salt to taste.
- Add chopped chives and red pepper flakes for color and a little heat.
- Add more parmesan.
Notes
Leave a teeny bit of the pasta water when combining the pasta and the sauce in the skillet. This will add flavor, help the sauce to attach to the pasta for maximum flavor and help the sauce thicken.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: chicken rigatoni with mushrooms
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