This Creamy Chicken Carbonara with Bacon may not be ‘authentic’, but it sure is delicious! It features perfectly cooked chicken breast, crispy bacon, garlic, cream, parmesan and pasta… but no egg. (Perfect if you love the flavours of carbonara, but you’re not a fan of the eggy sauce!)
Not an ‘authentic’ carbonara
OK, I’ll be the first to admit, this is not an ‘authentic’ carbonara.
An authentic carbonara actually features very few ingredients: just egg, parmesan, pecorino, guanciale and black pepper.
(A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to spend a week in Rome. And on that trip, I took a pasta making class and learned how to make an authentic carbonara. They were very keen to underline that an authentic carbonara does not contain cream, garlic, or bacon… and definitely NOT chicken!)
So, this is very much an anglicized version of carbonara – much more like what you get when you order carbonara in a restaurant in the UK or the USA: lots of cream and garlic, chicken and bacon instead of the guanciale, and no egg.
But while this is in no way an ‘authentic’ carbonara, it is absolutely delicious (I mean with cream, bacon, chicken, garlic and parmesan, how could it not be?) and of course, as you’d expect from me, it’s very quick and easy!
How to make Creamy Chicken Carbonara with Bacon
This Creamy Chicken Carbonara is very easy to make and it takes just 20 minutes from start to finish!
All you need to do is put your pasta on to boil, then fry the bacon, chicken and garlic. Next, add cream, parmesan, black pepper and parsley. Finally, stir in your freshly cooked pasta and a splash of pasta cooking water.
Serve with more parmesan and parsley sprinkled on top.
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
What to serve with creamy chicken carbonara
This easy Chicken Carbonara really is a complete meal in its own right, and that’s how I usually serve it.
However, if you wanted to make it a bigger meal, you could add garlic bread and/or a simple side salad.
What to drink with creamy chicken carbonara
For me, hands down the best wine match for a creamy carbonara is Chardonnay – it is always my top pick for creamy pasta dishes, as it really goes so well with the richness and the creaminess of this type of dish. Really any chardonnay will work, except the very delicate ones. You want a chardonnay that has a bit of oomph!
Other good white options include: Chenin Blanc, Frascati, Soave or Sauvignon Blanc.
A fruity rosé also works pretty well. And, at a push, you could even pair it with a light to medium bodied Italian red with good acidity, like Barbera or Valpolicella.
Make it your own…
Given we’re messing with tradition anyway, you might as well have fun with this carbonara recipe! So feel free to adapt it to suit your tastes and/or whatever you have available to you in your kitchen! Here are a few ideas:
- Use leftover roast chicken or rotisserie chicken instead of fresh chicken
- Use turkey breast pieces instead of the chicken
- Add cooked prawns in at the end (instead of, or as well as, the chicken/bacon)
- Add smoked salmon in at the end (instead of, or as well as, the chicken/bacon)
- Use chorizo instead of the bacon
- Add peas in at the end
- Add bell peppers, courgette, aubergine, and/or mushrooms (pan fry diced veggies immediately after the bacon, then add back in at the same time as the bacon)
- Add a pinch of chilli flakes or some fresh chilli
- Use basil instead of the parsley
(Did you adapt this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Let me know in the comment section below.)
Love creamy pasta dishes?
Here are 5 more variations to try:
- Easy Creamy Carbonara
- Creamy Prawn Linguine
- Creamy Chicken Tagliatelle
- Creamy Prawn Tomato Pasta
- Creamy Chorizo Pasta
(Check out all my pasta recipes here!)
Can you reheat leftover Chicken Carbonara?
No, this is a dish that is best made fresh.
Can you freeze leftover Chicken Carbonara?
No, this is a dish that is best made fresh.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
Creamy Chicken Carbonara with Bacon
Ingredients
- 300 g linguine or spaghetti (Or any pasta shape you like! This also works well with tagliatelle and fettucine.)
- 300 g chicken breast cut into small pieces
- 200 g bacon lardons or diced bacon (See Note 1)
- Small knob of butter (optional - See Note 2)
- 4 cloves garlic grated or crushed
- 50 ml white wine (optional – See Note 3)
- 300 ml double cream
- 35 g grated parmesan
- Salt and black pepper to taste (see Note 4)
- 2 tablespoons parsley finely chopped (plus extra for garnish)
- More grated parmesan to serve (optional)
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to packet instructions / your own preferences. When cooked, drain, reserving some of the pasta cooking water. (See Note 5.)
- Meanwhile, heat a non-stick frying pan over a high heat for 1 minute.
- Place the bacon lardons in the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring regularly until golden brown on all sides.
- Remove the lardons and most of the released fat to a plate. Leave a small amount of bacon fat in the pan.
- Place the diced chicken in the pan and fry for 3 minutes or until browned on all sides but not quite cooked through. (It will finish cooking in the sauce later.)
- Turn the heat right down and place the frying pan back on the heat. Add the small knob of butter and allow the butter to melt.
- Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds, stirring frequently, taking care not to let the garlic go brown or burn.
- Turn the heat up to medium.
- Add the white wine (if using) and bubble for 1 minute until reduced.
- Add the double cream, parmesan, salt (if using – see Note 4) and pepper, and turn the heat up to medium. Bubble for 2 minutes until a little reduced and thickened.
- Add the cooked chicken and bacon lardons back to the pan together with as much or as little of the bacon fat as you want to add (see Note 6). Then add the parsley and stir well
- Add the drained pasta, together with a very small splash of pasta cooking water. Stir together well. (If the pasta is looking too dry at this point, you can add an extra splash of pasta cooking water – but don’t go too mad. The sauce is supposed to be quite thick and cling to the pasta.)
- Turn off the heat and serve, scattered with grated parmesan, more black pepper and more chopped fresh parsley.
Notes
- For best results, I recommend using bacon lardons. However, if you can’t get hold of lardons, you can chop up streaky bacon into small pieces instead.
- Adding a small knob of butter at this point adds extra flavour and also cools the pan down, ensuring you don’t accidentally burn the garlic. But you can use a little more of the bacon fat at this point instead, if you prefer.
- The white wine in this recipe is optional – but recommended as it really helps cut through the richness of the dish. As always, only use wine in cooking that you would also be happy to drink! (Using bad wine in food will make the food taste bad!)
- I personally only use black pepper in this recipe as I find the bacon is salty enough to provide enough salt in this recipe.
- I recommend cooking the pasta until it’s nearly but not quite your desired texture as it will cook a little bit more in the sauce.
- It’s up to you how much of the bacon fat you add back in. More fat = more flavour, but also more calories! Personally, I add about 1 teaspoon of the fat back in.
- Not suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Jack Hay says
Tried the Creamy Chicken and Bacon Carbonara and it was a great and delicious success!
I used cut up streaky bacon rather lardons and used half a teaspoon of chilli flakes for that extra bite.
Slightly more generous with the wine, but reduces quickly to your liking.
Superb meal and in our top ten recipes of many!
Thank you Eb
Eb Gargano says
Aw – yay, that is so wonderful to hear. Delighted that this recipe has made it into your top 10! Thank you for this lovely review and especially the 5* rating 😀
Simon C says
Stuck to the recipe. Turned out really nice. Very tasty, easy and quick to make. Thankyou for the meal, even my fussy wife enjoyed it!
Eb Gargano says
Aw – yay, that is so great to hear! Thank you for such a lovely review and especially the 5* rating 😀