Creamy Chicken Carbonara with Bacon
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!)
Servings 4 people
Calories 750kcal
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.
Nutrition
Calories: 750kcal | Carbohydrates: 61g | Protein: 41g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 22g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 146mg | Sodium: 1283mg | Potassium: 565mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 1438IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 157mg | Iron: 2mg