It happens all the time: You go out to eat, try a new dish, take one bite and immediately think to yourself, “I have to re-create this recipe at home!” That’s how this copycat rattlesnake pasta recipe from Uno Pizzeria and Grill—courtesy of Taste of Home Creator Tyler Smith—was born.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to try to source rattlesnake meat from Amazon. All you need is a few kitchen staples to make one of the most insanely creamy, cheesy and comforting pasta recipes you’ll ever try. Fair warning: While this recipe doesn’t contain rattlesnakes, it does have a good, strong bite thanks to the generous amount of jalapenos and jalapeno juice used to make the spicy Alfredo-style sauce.

Our favorite part about this copycat recipe is its fast and easy preparation. Just like these other quick dinner recipes, this copycat Uno rattlesnake pasta recipe can be on your table in around 30 minutes from start to finish. That’s way faster—not to mention more affordable—than dining out or ordering curbside takeout.

Copycat Uno Rattlesnake Pasta Ingredients

• Rigatoni: Rigatoni is one of our favorite shortcut pasta shapes. This large, tubular-shaped pasta with ridges is the perfect vessel for creamy pasta recipes. It acts as a shuttle for the sauce from the bowl to your mouth.
• Chicken thighs: While many chicken pasta recipes opt for lean chicken breasts, we love the extra-juicy, tender flavor of chicken thighs in this recipe.
• Olive oil: Olive oil serves as the cooking oil in this recipe, helping to sear and brown the chicken before it is added to the finished pasta.
• Garlic: Garlic adds a little depth of flavor to the creamy, Alfredo-style cheese sauce.
• Butter: Butter adds extra richness to the sauce’s flavor and serves as a base for the roux, which helps thicken the rattlesnake pasta sauce to make it rich and velvety smooth.
• All-purpose flour: Flour is the other key ingredient to making a basic roux. The starch molecules in the flour react when heated, becoming gelatinous as they absorb moisture, which helps thicken the sauce.
• Herbs and spices: In this recipe, you’ll use a combination of Italian seasoning to flavor the chicken thighs and a bit of salt and white pepper to add flavor to the spicy sauce.
• Dairy: For a supremely creamy rattlesnake pasta sauce, forget about skim or low-fat milk. Stick to a blend of whole milk and half-and-half cream. This is one recipe where you’ll want to use the good stuff.
• Cheese: In this rattlesnake pasta recipe, Colby Jack is melted into the sauce to make it perfectly cheesy. Then, a generous sprinkle of Parmesan is used to garnish each bowl of pasta.
• Pickled jalapeno: To get that signature rattlesnake bite into every bite, you’ll add a generous amount of chopped pickled jalapenos and a bit of the juice from the jar to the sauce.
• Italian bread crumbs: While not included in the restaurant recipe, we love the texture and crunch a handful of toasted Italian bread crumbs lends to each serving of our takeout copycat recipe.

Taste of Home