Roast Chicken & Brussels Sprouts Carbonara

Roast Chicken & Brussels Sprouts Carbonara

I love Brussels sprouts but not everyone does. This is one way for me get my daughter to eat them. Roasting them in the oven not only gives them a crunch but a nice rich caramelized flavor that cannot be achieved by boiling them. Toss them together with chicken, bacon, pasta and a cheesy eggy sauce and you have a winning combination. Carbonaras can get a bit tricky. I only use the egg yolks while true Italians will use the whole egg. Raw egg whites have a texture that I do not find very palatable but you can use the whole egg if you want just reduce the number of egg yolks in this recipe. The pastas that are most commonly used for Carbonaras are spaghetti, linguine and bucatini but I like to use campanelle because I can really get a good fork full of all the ingredients in one bite. Italians typically will use pancetta or guanciale to make their Carbonara but I like to keep it simple and just use bacon. I guess you could call this recipe the American version of Carbonara. Ha!

Roast Chicken & Brussels Sprout Carbonara

2 ½ cup Brussels Sprout, stems removed & quartered

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

¼ lbs. of thick cut bacon (about 3 very thick slices) cut into ½ “pieces

2 garlic gloves, minced

2 T shallots, minced

½ c white wine

¼ c heavy cream

Pinch of red pepper flakes

1 c Parmesan cheese finely grated plus more for garnish

½ lbs. Campanelle pasta

2 c of rotisserie chicken, diced

4 lg. egg yolks

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the Brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread them out over a rimmed baking sheet. Roast the Brussels sprouts in the oven for about 30 minutes or until crispy turning once. Meanwhile cook the bacon in a stainless steel sauté pan over medium low heat until all the fat has rendered and the bacon bits are crispy. Remove the bacon bits from the pan. Add the garlic and the shallot to the pan and sauté for 1 minute. Deglaze the pan with the white wine until all the brown bits have been scraped up and the bottom of the pan is smooth.  Add the cream and simmer until thickened about 3 minutes then remove the pan from the heat. Bring about 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Salt the water to taste. Add the campanelle and cook for 10 minutes. Drain the pasta and reserve ½ c of pasta water. Add the pasta back into the pot and add the chicken, Brussels sprouts, bacon, garlic shallot pan sauce, egg yolks and Parmesan cheese. Mix well then starting with 3 T of pasta water adding more if needed just enough to make a creamy sauce. Season the pasta with salt and pepper. Serve using additional parmesan cheese for garnish.

Serves 4