The juiciest chicken mixed with a creamy pasta sauce, Parmesan cheese and a blend buffalo style hot sauce!
What is buffalo sauce?
Buffalo sauce has a vinegar base with cayenne, other peppers and mixed with melted butter. There are SO MANY varieties, brands, and styles of buffalo hot sauce. The most famous being Franks Red Hot, which is simply fine. I do find it to be a bit on the salty side, but you can always scale back on salt in other places in the meal. My go-to for this dish is Poirier’s Louisiana Style hot sauce mixed with TRUFF black label hot sauce! It is a dream combo. The TRUFF has such a unique blend and perfect heat. Poirier’s is vinegary and thicker than Franks, so it builds a great sauce with the cream/cheese blend. Again, you can use Frank’s just to hold back on the salt.
Okay now let’s talk about this chicken. I love to chop it into bite size pieces then marinate in buttermilk, salt, pepper, and paprika for 40 minutes or up to 2 hours. This gives us a flavor infused and JUICY chicken bite. I know it is an extra step, but I promise it is worth it.
After the marinated chicken is ready, we will drain, pat dry and cook it up with some olive oil. Remove from the pan and we will sauté garlic, sweet onion, (helps to balance the heat) heavy cream, parmesan cheese, the hot sauce, and then our pasta and chicken joins the party!
I love to garnish this dish with crumbled blue cheese and chopped parsley. It balances the bite and is soooo good! If you are not a fan of blue cheese extra Parmesan will do, however I do highly recommend Murray’s Dansk Blue. Dansk manages to present all the flavor without overwhelming “funk” I am telling you it is the perfect beginner blue cheese.
Let’s get started!
Buffalo Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1 large chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp paprika
Pasta
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 2 tbsp sweet yellow onion, minced
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup shaved/grated parmesan cheese
- 2 1/2 tbsp buffalo hot sauce Plus more for topping (optional)
- 1 tsp TRUFF hot sauce black label is my favorite
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 16 oz box of rigatoni pasta
- blue cheese crumbles (Can substitute parm) Murray's Dansk Blue is my favorite
- minced parsely garnish (optional)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp butter
Instructions
Marinade
- In a medium bowl add the buttermilk, salt, pepper, and paprika. Next goes the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 40 minutes or up to 2 hours.
Pasta
- Start the pasta. Cook unitl al dente and add in 1 tbsp salt.
- After the chicken is ready, drain in a strainer then pat dry with a paper towel.
- Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the chicken. Cook unitl no longer pink.
- Remove the chicken from the pan. To the pan, add the butter and melt it. Add the garlic and onion.
- Saute for 1-2 minutes and then add the cream. Stir and cook until it begins to bubble.
- Add the parm cheese and mix well.
- Next goes the hot sauces and white pepper and salt.
- Mix well and when it starts to thicken add the chicken and pasta.
- Serve with blue cheese and parsely as toppings. I like to drizzle a little extra hot sauce too.
- ENJOY!
