Creamy Chicken & Bacon Pasta
First thing I did was slice my large chicken breast into smaller strips. Seasoned each side with salt, pepper, onion powder & garlic powder. Placed chicken in a zip-lock bag and drizzled a little olive oil on top, shook the bag to coat the chicken.
At this point I already had the bacon out on the counter so its not rock cold. I cut off the end unit with the most fat a bit thicker so it has some actual bacon meat on it, then evenly slice the rest of the bacon. Put the uncooked bacon in a cold pan, turn pan heat to medium and cook the bacon pieces. Move the bacon around once warm and it will separate the slices from one another. Mix bacon sporadically to cook, till bacon is nice a crispy. Set aside in a clean bowl.
Somewhere around this time, I had started to boil my water for the pasta. I had less than half a box of both Farfalle & Penne pasta. Both cook at al-dente in 11 minutes, so I just mixed the two pastas together. Boil in salted water, before draining pasta water, reserve 1-2 cups salted pasta water to use for the sauce. Drain pasta, place olive oil in the pasta pot, place pasta back in the pot, mix to coat in olive oil.
With the bacon fat still in the pan, cook the chicken in the bacon grease. About 5-7 minutes each side. Cook chicken till golden on the outside and then the internal chicken temperature reaches 165°F. Place on a plate and let rest. When rested, slice chicken into slices.
Drain as much grease from the pan you can, then add the butter and garlic to the pan, on medium heat. Add 1 cup pasta water to the butter and garlic, then add the cubed cream cheese to the pan. Mix till cream cheese is mixed. If eyeballing the sauce and it looks like you’ll need more sauce to coat the pasta chicken bacon, go ahead and add more salted pasta water. Let sauce cook and thicken till the sauce coats the back of a spoon if you dip it in. When your sauce is a nice consistency, go ahead and add the grated parmesan cheese, and ground pepper. Mix the sauce.
Add cooked pasta to pan and coat with sauce. Add almost all of the bacon, minus enough to sprinkle extra on top of the pasta for plating, and mix to coat. Add sliced chicken to pan and mix till coated. Sprinkle a little dried parsley on top, for some color, mix to coat.
Plate pasta, top with bacon crumbles & grated parmesan cheese.
Ingredients
1/2 lb Chicken breast
salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic pepper.. to coat chicken
Drizzle olive oil, to coat chicken
1 lb bacon, sliced
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4-8 gloves garlic, minced
1 8oz block of cream cheese, cubed
3/4 cup gated parmesan cheese
3/4 - 1 lb pasta (I finished off both a box or Farfalle & Penne pasta)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon dried parsley
