Recipe: Chicken Carbonara

Stuck for something for dinner tonight?

This dish is the ultimate comfort food in our house, and is everyone’s favourite. It’s quite quick as dinners go, the longest part is cooking the chicken and bacon. If i’m in a real rush, I will cook the bacon in the airfryer, while I am cooking the chicken, and the pasta is boiling.

Ingredients:
1kg chicken tenders, chopped
300g cooking bacon, roughly chopped
1tbsp garlic paste
2 massel chicken stock cubes
200g chopped white cup mushrooms
600ml thickened cream
60g baby leaf spinach
350g gluten free macaroni (or pasta of your choice)
Spring onions, chopped
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese to taste

Method:
Chop chicken and set aside
Roughly chop bacon and set aside.
Chop mushrooms and spring onions, and set aside.
Drizzle olive oil in wok, and cook chicken until lightly browned, before setting aside.
Wipe out wok, and cook bacon. Sit bacon aside once cooked.
Add garlic paste to wok, and cook mushrooms.
Dissolve chicken stock cubes in 150ml water, and add to mushrooms in wok.
Place spinach in wok, and cover to steam for 5 minutes.
Add chicken and bacon back into wok with vegetables, and stir through.
Pour in thickened cream and mix through.
Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir through.

At this stage, you can add the spring onions into the wok, or add them later as a garnish. I choose to mix them through as it really adds to the flavour of the dish.

Drain pasta, and immediately add it into the wok, to ensure pasta doesn’t stick together. I always ensure I add the pasta last, and only lightly stir it in, as gluten free pasta can be quite delicate, and can break up easily.

Grate parmesan over each serve as desired.

Serve immediately, but it’s just as good (or better!) the next day for lunch. It also freezes really well in portions, to serve on nights when life gets a little crazy. This is a big serve, as I cook it with the plan that it will make two dinners (or one dinner, and 4 portions in the freezer for another time).