Chopped Chicken Carbonara

By Christie Vanover | Published September 19, 2012 | Last Updated December 28, 2022

An Italian classic with smoky, salty bacon, garlic and whole wheat pasta in a subtle creamy, cheese sauce ~ and it’s less than 350 calories per serving.

I love chopped salads. When I eat, I don’t want to have to work at my meal. I don’t want to have to cut my tomatoes, onions and hard-boiled eggs in order get a good bite. Chopped salads are great because every morsel is packed full of all of the elements and married with a good dressing.

This recipe was inspired by chopped salads. With every bite, you’ll get the satisfaction of salty bacon, chicken sautéed in bacon fat, garlic, wheat pasta and a subtle creamy, cheesy sauce.

One of the keys to this dish is grinding up the bacon and chicken. If you have a mini food processor, it’s really easy to grind meat. If not, just cut your bacon before cooking and buy ground chicken.

Then, you want to break up your spaghetti noodles. This is fun for kids and grown-ups alike. My dogs didn’t seem to mind that a few pieces flew onto the ground in the process.

The best part about this dish is that it’s under 350 calories per serving, and a serving is a whopping 1 ½ cups. If you’re not counting calories, you can splurge and double the bacon, cheese, milk and egg yolks, and you can use whole-fat milk or even cream.

But I challenge you to try it this way first. You won’t miss the calories because of the smoky, salty bacon and the texture of the cooked broken noodles.

Chopped Chicken Carbonara

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Servings 4 servings

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Ingredients

 

• 4 slices bacon
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 lb. ground chicken
• ½ tsp. Italian seasoning
• ½ tsp. kosher salt
• ¼ tsp. Tony’s
• 6 ozs. whole-wheat spaghetti
• ½ cup low-fat milk
• ⅓ cup parmesan cheese
• 1 egg yolk

Instructions

• Bring a pot of water to a boil.
  
• Grind up the raw bacon in a food processor.
  
• Cook it in a large skillet, until crisp. Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute.
  
• Add the ground chicken and cook for about 5 minutes, or until cooked through. Add the seasonings.
  
• Break up the spaghetti noodles. Place in the boiling water while cooking the chicken and cook until al dente.
  
• Drain the noodles and add them to the pan.
  
• Whisk together the milk, cheese and egg yolk. Reduce the heat to low. Add the milk mixture to the pan and cook for about 4 minutes, or until the cheese melts.
  
• 

Nutrition

Serving: 1g

This estimate was created using an online nutrition calculator

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