Quick Chicken Carbonara for Two
By @chef1
A simplified and faster take on classic carbonara, using chicken for a comforting winter dinner ready in 30 minutes. This recipe is scaled for two and uses readily available ingredients.
Recipe Rating
Not yet rated by chefs
Ingredients
- ●200g Spaghetti
- ●150g, diced Chicken breast
- ●2 large Egg yolks
- ●50g, grated Parmesan cheese
- ●1 tbsp Olive oil
- ●1 clove, minced Garlic
- ●1/2 tsp, freshly ground Black pepper
- ●to taste Salt
Instructions
- 1Cook spaghetti according to package directions until al dente. Reserve about 1/2 cup of pasta water before draining.
- 2While the pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add diced chicken and garlic, and cook until chicken is cooked through and lightly browned, about 5-7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- 3In a bowl, whisk together egg yolks, grated Parmesan cheese, and black pepper.
- 4Drain the spaghetti and add it to the pan with the chicken. Toss to combine.
- 5Remove the pan from the heat. Quickly pour the egg yolk mixture over the hot pasta, tossing constantly to create a creamy sauce. Add a little of the reserved pasta water if needed to adjust the consistency.
- 6Serve immediately, garnished with extra Parmesan cheese and black pepper, if desired.
Recipe details
- Cuisine
- Italian-inspired
- Category
- Main course
- Preparation
- 20 minutes
Estimated total: 39 minutes. Planning estimate: explicit duration ranges use their midpoint; documented preparation, heating and handling allowances are included. Overlapping tasks are counted once. Package directions and doneness checks take priority.
How these estimates were calculated
- Dice chicken, mince garlic, separate eggs and grate cheese: 10 min planning allowance (meat_prep)
- Bring pasta water to a boil: 10 min planning allowance (boil_heat)
- Cook dried spaghetti: 10 min planning allowance (pasta_dried)
- Heat chicken pan while pasta cooks: 3 min planning allowance (pan_preheat)
- Whisk yolks, cheese and pepper: 3 min planning allowance (mix)
- Reserve pasta water, drain and combine with chicken: 2 min planning allowance (transfer)
- Remove from heat and toss with yolk mixture: 3 min planning allowance (mix)
- Serve: 2 min planning allowance (garnish)
- Cooking overlaps other cooking or preparation; cooking subtotal omitted to avoid misrepresenting elapsed time.
- Assumes dried wheat spaghetti, 10 minutes; actual package directions take priority.
- Matched to protein-fortified dry spaghetti as the closest dry spaghetti reference. Grams unit, portion_id is null.
- Matched to skinless, boneless, meat only, raw chicken breast. Grams unit, portion_id is null.
- Egg yolks: USDA large portion weight
- Matched to raw, fresh large egg yolk.
- Matched to grated Parmesan cheese. Grams unit, portion_id is null.
- Olive oil: USDA tablespoon portion weight
- Matched to olive oil, salad or cooking.
- Garlic: USDA clove portion weight
- Matched to raw garlic clove.
- Black pepper: USDA tsp, ground portion weight
- Matched to ground black pepper.
- Unweighed Salt: only documented zero nutrients included
- Spaghetti: 200 g · USDA reference 168937
- Chicken breast: 150 g · USDA reference 171077
- Egg yolks: 34 g · USDA reference 172184
- Parmesan cheese: 50 g · USDA reference 171247
- Olive oil: 13.5 g · USDA reference 171413
- Garlic: 3 g · USDA reference 169230
- Black pepper: 1.15 g · USDA reference 170931
- Salt: documented zero nutrients only · USDA reference 173468
chicken · carbonara · spaghetti · egg yolks
Estimated nutrition per serving
687 calories · 48.6 g protein · 70.5 g carbohydrate · 22.4 g fat · 2.6 g fiber
Source and basis: USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy (2018), ingredient-based calculation per serving. Standard USDA portion weights; all listed ingredient mass included before cooking losses. Nutrients with incomplete inputs omitted. Full ingredient matches and assumptions below.
Recipe Context
This recipe was created with the following context in mind: