i am a food blog

I Am... The Creamiest Creamy Chicken and Bacon Pasta Recipe

July 29, 2020 • 7 comments • Posted in: quarantine cooking

This is creamy chicken and bacon pasta done right. It’s creamy, cheesy, umami forward, and best of all, extremely chicken-y. Chicken gets a bad rap as a trashy pasta ingredient that it doesn’t deserve. Years of bad microwave chicken fettuccine alfredo has done a number to chicken’s reputation as a good pasta pairing, but I think chicken is, hands down, the most perfect partner for any cream-based pasta because of how silky smooth properly cooked chicken is. This is one of my favorite dishes to make when I’m cooking for myself (or Steph). The combination of crispy guanciale, poppy capers, and soft silky chicken make this a truly perfect pasta. I did this post as a beginner's guide to making any pasta, so feel free to skip the sections you already know about.

Why creamy chicken pasta?

It’s one of the fastest pastas to make.

It could be the best chicken pasta you’ve ever tried

Ingredients for creamy chicken pasta

• High quality pasta. Splurge on some good bronze extruded pasta. The price difference between high quality and low quality pasta is usually just a couple of dollars, but the quality difference is huge. Look for something with a sandy texture to it.
• Garlic. There’s a lot of garlic in this recipe. Over the years I’ve found that the expensive $1 garlic from USA tastes far better than the $1 for 3 pack from China, but that’s just me.
• Guanciale. The guanciale may be harder to find. Most likely you’ll need to look in an Italian deli to find it; I’ve never seen it at a supermarket deli, but it's worth looking for. You can sub with pancetta if you need to. More on guanciale below.
• Chicken thighs. Boneless skinless is the name of the game here. Because it’s a pasta sauce, and because I wanted it to cook fast, yet gently, I cut it into very thin 1” x 1/4” strips. Many people ask if you can switch out for breasts, and yes, you can, but the window for properly cooking breast is lower than with thighs, and if you over cook it, the chicken will be dry and not very tasty.
• Cheese. You need a good quality aged cheese. These can be found at most higher end grocery stores, and most krogers have an excellent cheese section now through their purchase of Murray’s Cheese. My go-to cheeses for pasta are parmigiano reggiano or pecorino toscana. As long as it’s aged and meltable though, you’re good. For this recipe, I went with a 10 month aged Kaasaggio Robusto Gouda. KRG is a little bit legendary in the cheese world, and I highly recommend you try some (although, I actually prefer their originale gouda).
• Capers. Capers add a bright little pop of happiness to this recipe, along with a whole lot of complexity. More on capers below.
• Cream. You need to use full fat cream for this recipe. Because milk won’t reduce into a sauce, you’ll probably end up with something resembling soup. If you are lactose intolerant, low sodium chicken stock is a good sub. I personally haven’t tried this recipe with milk alternatives.
• White Wine. I almost always choose whites for sauces. You can sub out the wine for low sodium chicken broth if you need to be alcohol free for health reasons because burning off the alcohol is a myth. Don't skip it otherwise though: alcohol has been proven to enhance other flavors, which is why vodka sauce works so well.

How to make creamy chicken pasta

1. Render your guanciale. Chop the guanciale up into 1/4” strips, then drizzle a little olive oil into a pan. Turn the burner up to high, and when the guanciale starts sizzling, turn the heat down to low and render for 2-3 minutes. Flip each piece over after a minute or two (if you’re feeling lazy, just give it a stir instead).
2. Add your aromatics. Add your minced garlic and rinsed, chopped capers to the pan once the guanciale has become translucent. Give them a stir every so often so they don’t burn. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the chicken and wine. Add both at the same time, unlike with many other recipes. Turn the heat up to med-high and reduce the wine by half, while flipping the chicken to ensure even cooking.
4. Add the cream. Reduce the cream by half.
5. Add the cheese and black pepper. Finally, turn the heat down to low (or take the pan off the heat entirely if you are going to hold the sauce) and add the grated cheese and black pepper. Whisk for a minute or so to make sure everything is emulsified, taste and adjust seasoning if needed, then your sauce is ready for its pasta date.

How to sauce pasta

1. Cook the pasta to 1 minute before the time indicated on the package. The package time is a very good indication of al dente these days. You don’t need to taste it or throw it against the wall. If you prefer your pasta on the harder side (I do) cook it to 2-3 minutes before the time on the package.
2. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water and drain the pasta into a colander or better yet, use a pasta scoop, and transfer the pasta directly into your sauce.
3. Finish cooking the pasta in the sauce for a final minute. I prefer a nonstick skillet for this step. If it starts to look a little dry and not as creamy, add pasta water, 1-2 tablespoons at a time. Use silicone coated tongs or spatulas to gently toss the noodles as they cook, and you have perfectly sauced pasta!

What is guanciale?

Guanciale vs Pancetta vs Prosciutto vs Bacon

• Guanciale (originally from Umbria and Lazio) is pork cheek that’s been cured with mainly salt, sugar and pepper. At 90% fat with a sugar cure, it’s the fattiest and sweetest of the big 3.
• Pancetta is pork belly that’s been cured in the same way as guanciale, minus the sugar. It’s - ironically - a little less fatty, a little less sweet, and less dry. Pancetta, due to cost and popularity, tends to be widely made and sold everywhere.
• Proscuitto are those iconic legs of ham you see hanging in Italy (and elsewhere in the Mediterranean), cured in much the same way as pancetta, except for an extended drying process that ages the meat and produces amazing flavors. It’s the most expensive, driest, and its subtlety is lost when you’re talking about making pasta sauces. It’s great on its own as a starter, though.

The best substitute for guanciale

How do you cook with capers

What to substitute for capers

Tips & tricks for the best pasta

• Take your time to reduce the wine and cream. Even if your pasta is already done, it can wait while you reduce. Reducing the wine properly is the difference between a complex tasting sauce, and a sauce that tastes like wine. Reducing the cream properly is the difference between a milky soup and an actual sauce.
• Reduce the wine and cream separately. You might be tempted to just throw all the liquids in together and reduce them at the same time, but the wine will never reduce properly if you do that and your sauce will end up tasting a lot like wine.
• Salt your pasta water. Salting your pasta water infuses the pasta with salt and brings out the taste of the wheat. I don't think the pasta water has to be as salty as the Meditteranean (and who has tasted that, anyway?) but if your pasta tastes plain, it's because the pasta water wasn't salty enough.
• Don’t rinse your pasta. The starches on the cooked pasta allow sauce to cling to the noodles and forms a stronger, more robust sauce. If your homecooked pastas always seem a little wetter than the ones you get at restaurants and the sauce slides off, this is usually the reason why.
• Finish in the sauce. Cook the pasta one minute before al dente and toss it in the sauce for that final minute before serving. Plain pasta with the sauce ladled on top firmly belongs in the 90s.
• Prepare the sauce in advance. If you’re preparing for a larger group or dinner party, you can make and hold the sauce in advance. Then it’s just a matter of how many nonstick skillets you own. Add about 1/4 cup of sauce (plus chicken and bacon) to each portion of pasta.
• Make some extra guanciale to snack on. For real, I do this every time. Just drain the little cubes of rendered guanciale onto some paper towels and you have tiny crunchy pops of heaven.

What to serve with creamy chicken pasta?