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.

There might be light variations in the quantities and preparation steps, but the real Carbonara has only 6 simple ingredients: water, pasta, guanciale, eggs, pecorino, pepe. Here's my recipe! well, the first and only trick is related to the ingredients: always use high quality Guanciale and Pecorino and fresh eggs.

The creaminess comes from the eggs and the rendered fat from the guanciale or pancetta. The key to making a creamy carbonara is to toss the spaghetti with the egg mixture and the rendered fat immediately after draining it. This helps to cook the eggs and thicken the sauce.

Spaghetti carbonara

And indeed, there's plenty of recipes that cheat by adding in cream. But today, we're making spaghetti carbonara properly, the authentic, traditional way. No cream. Just egg, cheese and a splash of starchy pasta cooking water.

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.

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.

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.

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. You can either make a carbonara, or the same dish with added garlic (just don't call *that* carbonara, it's not).

A mixture of Pecorino and Parmigiano Reggiano, and a few drops of extravirgin olive oil to help rebdring the guanciale are allowed. Why don't traditional pastas use cream? The reason is that cream isn't used in Italian pasta dishes is that it can be overpowering.

Do you use whole eggs in carbonara? ›

Traditional carbonara sauce is made with whole eggs, not just the yolks. However, some recipes do call for just yolks. In the traditional recipe, the eggs are beaten together with grated Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper, and sometimes a bit of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Should carbonara have cream? Typically carbonara sauce is only made of eggs, bacon, parmesan, olive oil, seasoning, and sometimes, vegetables. As for cream, Italians will tell you that is a big no no.

Pecorino Romano: This aged sheep's cheese is always traditionally used in the Roman pastas, and its salty, grassy, earthy flavor is absolutely delicious in carbonara. That said, if Pecorino is unavailable at your local grocery store, you can use Parmesan as a non-traditional substitute.

Classic Italian carbonara sauce is typically made with just 4 ingredients: eggs, black pepper, pecorino Romano (or parmesan), and guanciale (or pancetta). Of course, you can play around with the ingredients to your liking (we added cream and garlic to this one and often use bacon or ham instead of pancetta!)

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.

What are the differences between chicken Alfredo, fettuccine Alfredo and carbonara? Alfredo and carbonara are totally separate dishes. Carbonara traditionally consists of guanciale, beaten eggs, black pepper, and pecorino Ramano cheese. Traditional alfredo contains Parmigiano Reggiano and butter.

Flavor: Adding pancetta to the carbonara recipe gives the dish its sharp, salty taste and cuts through the creaminess. Alternatively, Alfredo sauce is creamier and richer, without the textural and flavor variation of pancetta.

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.