Spaghetti with chicken and bacon in a cream sauce with garlic and grated cheese. The bacon fat is the only fat in the pan. Twenty-five minutes including the pasta, for three.
The bacon fat is the recipe
The second instruction tells you not to add oil, and it is the most important line in it.
A hundred and fifty grams of bacon cut into strips and cooked over high heat gives up a considerable amount of fat. That fat then cooks the garlic, browns the chicken and carries the flavour of the bacon into everything that follows.
Adding oil as well means twice the fat in the pan, and with 200 ml of cream and 200 g of cheese still to come, the sauce ends up greasy rather than creamy.
Browned outside, raw inside, on purpose
The third step says to brown the chicken and keep it raw in the middle, which sounds like a mistake and is not.
The chicken goes into the milk and cream immediately afterwards and finishes cooking there. That is a much gentler heat than a hot pan, and diced chicken breast cooked through in the pan first and then simmered in a sauce comes out dry and stringy.
Two minutes over high heat is what it needs.
Cheese, not flour
Nothing in this recipe thickens the sauce except 200 grams of grated cheese melting into 300 ml of milk and 200 ml of cream.
That means two things. The heat has to come down before the cheese goes in, because cheese in a boiling liquid separates into oil and rubbery strings. And the sauce will thicken further as it sits, which is why the last step allows for adding broth or cream at the end.
The pasta goes in at the same time and finishes absorbing the sauce in the pan rather than being served under it.
Timing it
The pasta and the sauce are made in parallel and the whole thing is twenty-five minutes. The pasta needs 10 to 12; the bacon, garlic and chicken take about the same.
Start the water first, get it boiling, then begin the bacon. The pasta goes straight from the pot into the sauce, drained but not rinsed.
More pasta
- Macaroni and cheese — the other cream sauce.
- Meat lasagna — the baked one.
- Sopa de pasta — pasta in a broth.
- Béchamel sauce — when you want flour in it.
Spaghetti with Chicken FAQ
No, and the recipe is emphatic about it. A hundred and fifty grams of bacon renders plenty of fat and that is what the garlic and chicken cook in. Adding oil on top makes the finished dish greasy.
Yes. It browns on the outside for two minutes and then finishes cooking in the milk and cream, which is gentler and keeps it tender. The recipe says this and it reads alarmingly, but it is correct.
Two hundred grams of grated cheese. There is no flour in this recipe. Stir it in off a hard boil, because cheese added to something boiling will split into oil and strings.
A splash of chicken broth loosens it better than more cream. The recipe suggests either, and broth thins it without making it richer.
So it stays crisp. Bacon left in the sauce for the whole cooking time goes soft. It comes out after a couple of minutes and returns at the end with the pasta.
It is a generous portion, around 165 grams each, and the sauce is sized to match. Reduce both if you want something lighter.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 500 gr spaghetti
- 300 gr chicken breast (diced)
- 150 g bacon (cut into strips)
- 4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- 300 ml milk
- 200 ml cooking cream
- 200 g grated cheese
- 1 handful parsley (chopped)
- Oil (only if the bacon gives up too little fat)
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
Notas
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to the boil, add the pasta and cook it for 10 to 12 minutes.
- While the pasta cooks, start the sauce. Put the bacon, cut into strips, into a large skillet over high heat. Do not add oil: bacon has plenty of fat and cooks in its own. After a couple of minutes, once it has crisped, lift the bacon out and leave every drop of the fat in the pan.
- Turn the heat down and add the finely chopped garlic to that fat. After a couple of minutes, when it starts to colour, add the diced chicken breast. Raise the heat and stir often to brown the outside. It will still be raw in the middle at this point, and it finishes cooking in the sauce.
- After two minutes, add the milk, the cooking cream, the grated cheese, the bacon you set aside, and the spaghetti, cooked and drained.
- Add a small pinch of black pepper and mix everything together over the heat so it comes together.
- If the pasta is not creamy enough, add a little more cream or some chicken broth. Stir in the chopped parsley and mix again until it has the consistency you want. Serve hot.
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