Syracuse, N.Y. — Here’s the thing about ordering chicken riggies at a restaurant: Most versions are not very good. The signature dish of nearby Utica is often duplicated for its seemingly easy use of ingredients, but the finished product is either too spicy or not spicy enough, and the chicken is either dry or bland.
And then there are The Original Chicken Riggies ($23) from Attilio’s Restaurant & Bar in Syracuse. The sauce has a base of chunky tomato, garlic, cherry peppers and onions, achieving just the right balance of vegetable to heat. The cherry peppers are subtle, coming in close to a medium-style chicken wing on the spice scale, but impart just enough vinegar to the sauce to differentiate themselves as their own individual flavor. It tasted as if it was made fresh for our order and wasn’t sitting on a prep line all day. (We have no idea if it was.)