Creamy Chicken Carbonara Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is chicken carbonara sauce made of? ›

The creamy sauce is made by tossing eggs and Parmesan with cooked pasta and its still piping hot cooking water. It's so simple but can be intimidating.

Whisk Like You Mean It

You're using more egg yolks than whites here, which is what makes carbonara so rich and luxurious. But there's still two eggs-worth of whites in there. Whisking your eggs so that the whites are completely incorporated into the yolks will give your sauce a more uniform texture.

“It's the main ingredient, so egg yolk is one of the most important aspects of carbonara. The quantity is crucial: the right amount is two egg yolks for each person. As with all pasta, you have to keep the pasta water – the starchy water is how you get a perfectly creamy sauce.

The difference between alfredo and carbonara is that carbonara contains an egg while alfredo sauce does not. Carbonara is usually thinner in consistency than alfredo sauce, using the egg to coat the noodles instead of relying on the cream.

What not to put in Spaghetti Carbonara? Don't put garlic, cream, milk or butter. It is not needed. It is fine if you want to make a dish with those ingredients, but if you want to learn how to make this dish correctly, use only pecorino, eggs/egg yolks, black pepper, guanciale, and pasta water.

Alfredo is basic – pasta, cream, parmesan, parsley. Carbonara is a little more complicated – pasta, onion, pancetta, garlic, egg yolks, cream, parmesan, parsley. Because this is a gluten-free version we have to use spaghetti – if you're not gluten-free use anything from penne to linguini.

The golden rule to silky carbonara is to whisk your egg whites so that they're completely incorporated with the egg yolks. This will create a smooth, velvety sauce. As like any pasta dish, including carbonara, cook the pasta perfectly al dente so that it's soft but still firm, with some bite.

Because in the traditional recipe there is no garlic, if you add it you will lower quality of a very good food. Why is there no garlic in carbonara? Because it's an Italian dish, not an Italian-American dish, and Italian cooking does not use garlic as heavily as Italian-American cuisine.

The only ingredients that will make your carbonara creamy are eggs. Rule number 2: do not turn on the stove while mixing the pasta with the eggs. If you do, the eggs will cook and your dish will turn into a kind of pasta with omelette. Also, after mixing, immediately serve your carbonara.

Why don t Italians use cream in carbonara? ›

In general, in Italy we have a bad opinion of cream. We prefer to use other ingredients, we consider the cream a "corrector" of culinary errors. If a restaurant puts cream in risotto or pasta, we Italians think it's a bad restaurant. However, there are dishes that contain cream and people who use it more than others.

Equally important is that the fat that melts out of the guanciale is required to thicken the carbonara sauce to make it creamy. Basically, what happens is that when the fat from the guanciale and in the egg yolks is mixed with starchy pasta cooking water, it thickens.

Carbonara is made by rendering Guanciale or Pancetta (traditionally Guanciale) out in a pan, adding cooked pasta, and tossing with a mixture of egg, Parmesan, lots of black pepper so that the egg and fat emulsify to create a creamy sauce. Alfredo is butter and Parmesan cheese. That's it.

The Italian version doesn't use cream or ham. It is made with pancetta (pork belly meat that is salt cured, also referred to as Italian bacon), Parmigiano Reggiano or pecorino romano cheese, eggs, and black pepper—called the basics. The pork is fried in fat, usually olive oil.

While carbonara and boscaiola sauces both start with a base of bacon or pancetta, and are finished with parmesan cheese, everything added in the middle of the sauce is different. A carbonara sauce is made with eggs and black pepper, whereas boscaiola sauce is made with mushrooms, tomatoes and heavy cream.

Does Pasta Carbonara taste like eggs? No, you do not have to worry about your Spaghetti Carbonara tasting like eggs! Although the sauce contains eggs, it also boasts an almost ridiculous amount of sharp, salty, tangy, and pungent Pecorino Romano cheese and rich, salty, savory pork.

Carbonara: History

Because the name comes from the word carbonaro, “coal burner,” some believe the dish was created as a hearty easy-to-make meal by men working outdoors for long periods.

Another kind of heavy white sauce is carbonara. The carbonara sauce incorporates eggs beaten with parmesan and tossed with freshly boiled, hot pasta.