Chicken Carbonara.
Ingredients list, enough for two healthy servings:
- Pasta ~ half the box
- Chicken breast ~ 1 pound
- Thick cut bacon (or pancetta) ~ 3/4 pound cut into lardons
- Medium wedge of Parmesiano Reggiano, grated ~ 2 cups
- Eggs ~ 2 beaten
- Garlic ~ 4 cloves peeled and smashed
- Yellow onion ~ 1/2 medium onion, diced
- Something green (I used broccoli; asparagus, chives, green peppers would all work) ~ 1 cup chopped
If you’ll notice about my ingredient list, all measurements are inexact. That’s because I don’t measure anything, this is a skill I acquired from my own Mother. Use common sense, judgement, your tastebuds, and even portioning to create beautiful results. And as always use salt and pepper to taste.
- Pre-heat deep walled skillet (I prefer a 12 inch cast iron) to medium, add bacon.
- Start water boiling for pasta, add salt and oil.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F for chicken.
- When bacon begins to turn translucent (~3 minutes), add garlic and onion, add some salt and pepper to the skillet.
- When onion and garlic begin to turn translucent (~3 minutes) make room for the chicken breast to sit on the bottom of the pan. Salt and pepper the smooth side of the chicken and add to the skillet. Salt and pepper the rest of the chicken. This will cook for about 8 minutes.
- Prepare a small casserole dish with a small amount of oil. Flip chicken over and add to casserole dish. Place in oven to finish cooking, about 15 minutes.
- Scrape bottom of the skillet with spatula. Add green stuff (broccoli) to skillet, turn temp to medium low. Stir occasionally
- Put pasta in water.
- Remove chicken when finished cooking, cut into strips across the grain.*
- Add chicken to skillet. Stir. Turn heat to low.
- Add pasta (when al dente) to skillet. Retain some of the pasta water.
- Add beaten eggs to skillet. If eggs are solidifying too fast (like scrambled eggs), add some of the pasta water to thin out sauce. Add Parmesan, some salt, and lots of pepper.
* To slice across the grain of a chicken breast, we will imagine our hand is the chicken breast. Incidentally, our fingers’ direction are the same as the grain of the chicken’s. In order to slice across the chicken’s grains would be the same as slicing across our fingers. Slice your chicken in this manner.
