Rotisserie chicken arrives cooked, which makes this a forty-minute dish. But it also arrives pale, and the finished bowl shows browned edges — so the recipe gives it a brief turn in butter before the sauce is built.
The broccoli never gets its own pan. Three minutes in the pasta water at the end of the rigatoni's cook is enough, and both drain together.
Why This Recipe Works
- Browning the cubed chicken on two sides adds colour and a little fond without drying meat that is already cooked.
- Thirty seconds of garlic in that butter is enough to flavour a cup of cream without turning bitter.
- Four minutes of simmering reduces the broth and cream to a sauce that clings.
- Cooking the broccoli in the pasta water saves a pan and gets the timing right by construction.
Ingredient Notes
- Cubed rotisserie chicken
- Three cups, already cooked. Browned briefly for colour and reheated until steaming hot.
- Broccoli florets
- Three cups, cooked in the pasta water for the final three minutes.
- Rigatoni
- Twelve ounces. The wide ridged tube is what carries a plain cream sauce.
How to Make It
Pasta, with broccoli at the end
Cook rigatoni until al dente; add broccoli during the final 3 minutes and drain.
Brown the chicken briefly
Melt butter in a skillet and briefly brown the rotisserie chicken pieces on two sides; transfer.
Build the sauce
Cook garlic 30 seconds, then add broth and cream and simmer 4 minutes.
Parmesan and pepper
Stir in Parmesan and black pepper.
Toss it together
Toss in rigatoni, broccoli and browned chicken until coated; finish with parsley.
Two Pans, and One of Them Does Double Duty
Forty minutes, and the only real scheduling decision is when the broccoli joins the pasta. Everything else follows from that.
Pasta pot, from the start
12 oz rigatoni in salted water
Cooked to al dente - it is tossed in sauce rather than baked, so it needs no shortening.
Final 3 minutes of the pasta
3 cups broccoli florets, into the same water
Long enough to cook through, short enough to stay green, and it saves a second pan entirely. Both drain together.
Skillet, meanwhile
3 cups of cubed rotisserie chicken into 2 tbsp melted butter, browned on two sides, then out
Colour only. The bird is already cooked, and left in the pan it would dry out.
30 seconds, then 4 minutes
3 garlic cloves, then 1 cup broth and 1 cup heavy cream
The simmer is what turns broth and cream into something that coats rigatoni.
Off the simmer, then everything
3/4 cup Parmesan and 1/2 tsp black pepper, then the pasta, broccoli and chicken
The chicken rejoins last, having been out of the pan for the whole sauce stage.
Success Tips
- Set a timer for the three-minute broccoli window rather than guessing at the end of the pasta.
- Brown the chicken on two sides only; it is cooked already and will dry if you keep going.
- Let the sauce have its full four minutes before the Parmesan goes in.
Serving Ideas
Six servings in white bowls, the rigatoni and broccoli coated in the white cream sauce with browned chicken through it, grated Parmesan and parsley on top.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why brown chicken that is already cooked?
For colour. The finished dish shows seared edges, which a rotisserie bird does not arrive with.
Do I cook the broccoli separately?
No. It goes into the pasta water for the last three minutes and drains with the rigatoni.
Is there lemon in this?
No. This is the plain cream version.
