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.

“The tips for the perfect carbonara are essentially: dried spaghetti not fresh; guanciale not pancetta; and a mixture of parmesan and pecorino.

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.

Like recipes for Sunday sauce, recipes and methods for making carbonara vary *wildly* in terms of the number of whole eggs, whites, and yolks used—ranging from as few as two eggs to as many as eight. There is only one thing on which they can all agree: the ratio of pasta to pork and cheese.

Carbonara sauce is typically made with egg yolks, bacon or pancetta, and Parmesan cheese, which gives it a distinct smoky flavour. Alfredo sauce, on the other hand, is made with butter, cream, and Parmesan cheese, and does not contain eggs or bacon.

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.

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).

For an extra creamy sauce, it's best to use mostly egg yolks. The egg whites tend to make carbonara watery, but too many egg yolks can make the sauce too custardy. The solution? Five egg yolks and one whole egg.

Cream is not used in most Italian recipes, with some exceptions. However, it is often employed in other countries. Similarly, garlic is found in some recipes, but mostly outside Italy.

How does Gordon Ramsay make carbonara sauce? ›

The use of thermal processing is the most effective method for Salmonella inactivation in preparations containing eggs. Consequently, according to regulatory agencies, it is generally mandatory that these preparations must be completely cooked to a temperature of at least 70 °C.

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.

Using a large mixing bowl and setting it over the boiling pasta water to create a makeshift double boiler helps prevent you from accidentally scrambling the eggs.

Traditional carbonara doesn't have any cream: it's thickened with fresh-grated cheese and raw egg. Any cream sauce can be thickened by simmering it for a while, if you're using actual cream. If you're using milk or sour cream, you'll need a starch stabilizer, like roux, beurre manie, cornstarch, potato starch, etc.

Cooking process: Thick, creamy Alfredo sauce involves cooking down butter and heavy cream in a sauté pan or saucepan to make a thick, rich cream sauce. On the other hand, carbonara involves combining pasta and a bit of pasta water with rendered guanciale, raw eggs, and grated cheese.

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.

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.