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This rich chicken carbonara is a perfect homemade Italian dish, loaded with tender chicken, savory pancetta, and a silky, cheesy cream sauce that clings to tender bucatini or spaghetti noodles. An easy yet surprisingly elegant meal based on the very best carbonara I’ve ever had!
Before You Get Started
- When you’re plotting out your grocery list, I beg you – stay away from the prepackaged grated parmesan!! If you want a really rich, creamy, flavorful sauce, you simply must grate your own parmesan right from the block. Prepackaged cheeses contain starches and fillers that can give the melted cheese a gritty or grainy texture., which you don’t want in your chicken carbonara. Fresh parmesan also has a richer, more pronounced flavor than the other stuff.
How to Make This Recipe
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
Boil the Pasta.
Boil 8 ounces of dry pasta in a pot of heavily salted water until the pasta is just al dente – usually 1 minute less than the cook time indicated on the pasta packaging. Drain the pasta really well and set it aside until the end of the recipe.
Cheryl’s Tip: When it comes to boiling pasta, some people say you want to use water that’s so well salted, it smells like the sea. In more tangible terms, the general rule of thumb is 6 quarts of water + 1 ยฝ to 2 tablespoons of sea salt for 1 pound of dry pasta. This recipe uses ยฝ pound of dry pasta, so you’ll want 3 quarts (12 cups) of water and roughly 1 tablespoon of sea salt.
Cook the meats.
Sautรฉ chopped pancetta (or chopped thick-cut bacon) until crisp, then transfer it to a bowl, leaving as much liquid in the pan as possible. Add the chopped chicken to the skillet and cook it in the reserved pancetta drippings until it’s seared on all sides and cooked through.
Make the Sauce.
Remove the chicken from the skillet, and remove the skillet from the heat. Let it cool a little, then add room temperature half-and-half and place the skillet back on the burner, this time over low heat. Whisk the egg yolks into the half-and-half, then the grated parm and black pepper. Keep whisking until you’ve got at creamy, smooth sauce.
Serve!
Return the pancetta and chicken to the skillet, then add the cooked pasta and toss to incorporate. Garnish with more parmesan cheese if you’d like (who wouldn’t??) and enjoy!
What I Love About This Recipe
- There is just something incredibly elegant about chicken carbonara! Very-simply-seasoned pasta, a rich sauce of eggs and cheese, bites of salty pancetta or bacon, and freshly cooked chicken make for a fancy dinner with barely any work.
- The ingredients for chicken carbonara are all super easy to grab at the local grocery, which makes meal planning so much easier. Honestly, everything about this dish makes life easier. The only complex thing here is the flavor profile!
Recipe Variations
- Meet Your Needs: We used bucatini noodles, but you can just as easily use spaghetti, fettuccini, or angel hair pasta. Gluten-free pasta or palmini will also work. If you want to use palmini, I recommend following the instructions in my Paleo Carbonara with Palmini to get the best texture.
- Get Saucy: For a saucier carbonara, use 4-6 ounces of pasta instead of 8. That will give you smaller portions or fewer portions, depending on the way you divide things up. If you want the same amount of pasta with more sauce, keep the 8 ounces of pasta, but use 5 egg yolks and 1 ยพ cups of parmesan cheese in the sauce.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Chicken Carbonara
Equipment
- Large pot
- Large wooden spoon
- colander
- Large skillet
- Slotted spoon
- 2 bowls
- internal meat thermometer optional but recommended
- whisk
- Tongs
Ingredients
For the Chicken Carbonara
- 12 cups water
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 8 ounces uncooked bucatini or uncooked spaghetti
- 6 ounces pancetta sliced into ยฝ-inch pieces; or thick-cut bacon, sliced into ยฝ-inch pieces
- 8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts approximately 1 large or 2 small chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 cups half-and-half at room temperature
- 4 large egg yolks at room temperature
- 1 ยฝ cups grated fresh parmesan at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Serving Suggestions (All Optional)
- grated fresh parmesan
Instructions
- Fill large pot with 12 cups water. Place pot on stovetop over high heat and bring water to rolling boil.
- When water begins to boil, add 1 tablespoon sea salt to pot and stir to incorporate. Allow water to resume boiling.
- When water begins to boil again, add 8 ounces uncooked bucatini. Boil pasta according to instructions on pasta packaging, reducing cook time by 1 minute.
- When pasta is just al dente, pour water and pasta into colander and drain well. Set pasta aside.
- Add 6 ounces pancetta to large skillet, then place skillet on stovetop over medium-low heat. Sautรฉ pancetta, stirring as needed, approximately 6 to 8 minutes or until crisp.
- Once crisp, use slotted spoon to transfer pancetta to first bowl and set aside. Do not drain skillet.
- Return skillet to stovetop and increase heat to medium-high. Add 8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts to skillet. Sear chicken 1 minute, then stir chicken and sear 1 minute more.
- Continue cooking chicken, stirring as needed, until chicken is seared on all sides and reaches 160ยฐ Fahrenheit internally.
- When chicken is cooked, transfer chicken to second bowl and set aside.
- Let skillet cool slightly, then pour in 2 cups half-and-half. Reduce heat on stovetop to low, then return skillet to burner. Simmer half-and-half on low heat until warmed through.
- Add 4 large egg yolks (at room temperature) to skillet. Whisk until egg yolks are fully incorporated into half-and-half.
- Remove skillet from heat and let cool slightly. Add 1 ยฝ cups grated fresh parmesan to skillet and whisk to incorporate. Return skillet to heat.
- Add 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper and whisk to incorporate. Simmer sauce, whisking often, until parmesan is completely melted and sauce is smooth.
- Return pancetta and chicken to skillet, then add cooked pasta. Toss ingredients together until well incorporated.
- Divide chicken carbonara between serving bowls. Top each serving with additional grated fresh parmesan and serve immediately.
- Dairy: The half-and-half and the cheeseย must be at room temperature before you start the recipe. If either are even slightly cold, the sauce can curdle or separate.
- Egg Yolks:ย The egg yolks also need to be room temperature. Adding cold egg yolks to the hot half-and-half can cause the mixture to curdle or separate.
- Parmesan: For best results, do not use prepackaged grated parmesan. Instead, grate your own from a block of fresh parmesan.
- Pasta: Drain the cooked pasta very well. If it’s wet, the excess moisture can cause the sauce to separate.
- For Saucier Pasta: Use 5 egg yolks instead of 4. Increase parmesan in sauce to 1 ยพ cups total.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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