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Chicken Carbonara (My Way)

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healthy chicken asparagus carbonara Chicken Carbonara (My Way)

I’ve been on an Italian chicken variation kick lately. I absolutely love Chicken Picatta and finally figuring out a great recipe for it which inspired a lot of chicken cooking around here lately. I’ve made healthy variations of Chicken Cacciatore, Chicken Florentine, Chicken Marsala (all coming soon) and Chicken Carbonara.

In restaurants, this is often made with an extremely thick cream sauce and served over pasta. I subbed spaghetti squash, made a healthier (and optional) sauce and added some wilted spinach and asparagus for flavor and extra nutrition. My kids liked this one and my hubby (who despises the texture of wilted spinach) even ate it without complaint.

Chicken Carbonara (My Way)
 
healthy chicken asparagus carbonara Chicken Carbonara (My Way)
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Delicious and healthy chicken carbonara.
Author:
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients
  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 8 pieces of bacon
  • 2 small/medium spaghetti squash
  • 12 ounces of spinach
  • 1 small bunch of asparagus
  • ½ cup parmesan
  • ¼ cup heavy cream
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 1 onion
  • spices: sea salt, pepper, italian seasoning, garlic powder.

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Scrape out the seeds and stringy parts of the spaghetti squash with a spoon and place, face down on a baking sheet or in a large baking dish with ¼ inch of water.
  3. Place in oven and cook 30 minutes or until soft when poked with a fork.
  4. While that is cooking, cut the chicken in half lengthwise to make it thinner and pound with a meat hammer or the bottom of a cast iron pan.
  5. In a large skillet, place the asparagus and about ¼ inch of water and cook over high heat until asparagus is bright green and starting to soften. The water should evaporate completely off and when it has, add 1 tablespoon butter (total, not per person) and sprinkle with some sea salt.
  6. Remove asparagus from the pan and set aside.
  7. Cook the bacon in the same pan until crispy and remove bacon.
  8. Cook chicken in the bacon grease in the same pan, and sprinkle each side with sea salt, pepper, garlic powder and italian seasoning.
  9. When chicken has cooked through, remove and set aside.
  10. Dice onion and cook in remaining bacon grease until starting to soften.
  11. Add spinach and extra butter if needed and cook until barely wilted.
  12. Add cream (if using-totally optional) and about ¼ teaspoon of the above spices.
  13. At this point, the spaghetti squash should be soft so remove from oven and scrape out insides with a fork.
  14. To serve, put spaghetti squash on a plate, top with some wilted spinach, then a piece of chicken, some crumbled bacon and the asparagus (chop into small pieces). Top with parmesan if using.
  15. Enjoy!

 

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  • Arica Egan

    Excellent post for the Feast of St. Joseph!!  Thank you!

  • Robin

    Any suggestions for helping us older(45+) paleo gals with perimenopause and menopause symptoms?
    Thanks for any help!
    Robin

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    The magnesium will help a lot, and red raspberry leaf, wild yam, and red clover will help ease the symptoms. Some people also get a lot of benefit from natural progesterone cream used on the skin for the second half of each month.

  • http://www.rpsmiles.com/ Del Mar Dentist

    What is this spaghetti squash and how many servings does this recipe make again?  I would like to try this recipe but beside bacon do you have recommendation for a substitute?

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    You could use any kind of pork, or just omit all together. It is really good with just the asparagus… I’ve made it that way several times and I liked it

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