This Keto chicken carbonara recipe is a household favorite. This recipe is quick, easy, and a versatile dish that can feed your family, perfect for date night with your significant other, or for a group of friends.
This pasta inspired dish allows you to maintain ketosis and enjoy the flavors you already know and love. For another great alternative try my Keto Chicken Tenders, which fits perfectly into any meal plan.
Packed with flavor!
Add this perfect go-to recipe to your weekly meal plan. It is quick, easy and of course, delicious. I love how this dish carries the aroma, it just smells fantastic. As a result, I usually have an audience gather about halfway through preparing this dish, and I love having company in the kitchen to help out.
If you are new to Keto or struggling to avoid carbs like pasta, this recipe will help in a lot of ways. As soon as you try this, you won’t even miss the classic carbonara.
🔪 How to make
You’ll find the complete recipe in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. But here is an overview of how to make this at home for your family, significant other, or friends. This is truly a universal Keto recipe that is delicious and smells great.
Instructions
Making this recipe is fun, easy and can be added to any meal plan. I recommend adjusting the portions to your needs, this recipe aims for 5 servings.
1. Cook your Bacon. Start by preheating your oven or frying pan and get your bacon ready. In this recipe, I prefer to bake the bacon. This allows for extra time prepping without having to monitor a frying pan constantly.
1.2 Put your bacon grease to good use and add 1 tbsp to a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Prep the Chicken Thighs – cut into bite-sized pieces
3. Saute the chicken in the skillet and sprinkle the ½ tsp garlic powder as well as salt and pepper to taste. Continue to saute the chicken until it is thoroughly cooked through. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.
4. In the same skillet add ½ cup of chopped onion and saute for a few minutes until they start to become tender. Feel free to use purple/red onions!
5. Time for Minced Garlic. Add in 2 tsp minced garlic and saute for another 30 seconds. You should start to smell the aroma from the garlic in about 10 – 15 seconds. Yummm!
6. Whisk in the heavy whipping cream and the chicken broth, scraping the bits off the bottom of the skillet. All of those bits are loaded with flavor and help layering flavors.
7.Mix in the Parmesan cheese, chopped basil and Italian seasoning. Reminder to stick to organic-based spices whenever possible.
8. Toss in the crumbled bacon, and 2-3 cups of fresh spinach. Cook until the spinach has begun to wilt. I love this part as everything is starting to layer together.
9. Add the chicken back to the skillet, and toss to coat in the sauce. Sprinkle in additional salt and pepper to taste.
10. Simmer for 3-5 minutes longer, plate and serve.
💭 Quick tips
A pro tip for elevating creamy recipes like this keto chicken carbonara is lime juice. Just before the final simmer squeeze one half of a medium-sized lime into the skillet. This helps layer the flavor profile of the dish by adding a touch of acidity, which elevates this recipe to a straight ten.
Helpful links include Amazon Pantry for the extensive selection of healthy herbs. Plus I always end up saving money on everyday essentials at the same time so win win.
🥗 What to serve with
For this dish we paired our Garlic Green Beans Recipe which is fresh and light, and don’t the forget Chocolate Lovers Keto Fat Bomb Recipe for dessert
📖 Recipe
Keto Chicken Carbonara
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Boneless skinless chicken thighs - Cut into bite-sized pieces
- ½ tsp Garlic Powder
- pinch pink Himalayan Salt - to taste
- pinch black Peppercorns - to taste
- 6 slices Bacon - Crumbled
- 1 tbsp Bacon Grease
- ½ cup Onion - Chopped
- 2 tsp Minced Garlic
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 cup Chicken Broth
- ⅓ cup Parmesan Cheese - Grated
- 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1 tbsp Basil - Fresh Chopped
- 2-3 cups Spinach - Fresh
Instructions
- Cook your Bacon. Start by preheating your oven or frying pan and get your bacon ready. In this recipe, I prefer to bake the bacon. This allows for extra time prepping without having to monitor a frying pan constantly.
- Put your bacon grease to good use and add 1 tbsp to a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Prep the Chicken Thighs - cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Saute the chicken in the skillet and sprinkle the ½ tsp garlic powder as well as salt and pepper to taste. Continue to saute the chicken until it is thoroughly cooked through. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.
- In the same skillet add ½ cup of chopped onion and saute for a few minutes until they start to become tender. Feel free to use purple/red onions!
- Time for Minced Garlic. Add in 2 tsp minced garlic and saute for another 30 seconds. You should start to smell the aroma from the garlic in about 10 – 15 seconds. Yummm!
- Whisk in the heavy whipping cream and the chicken broth, scraping the bits off the bottom of the skillet. All of those bits are loaded with flavor and help layering flavors.
- Mix in the Parmesan cheese, chopped basil and Italian seasoning. Reminder to stick to organic-based spices whenever possible.
- Toss in the crumbled bacon, and 2-3 cups of fresh spinach. Cook until the spinach has begun to wilt. I love this part as everything is starting to layer together.
- Add the chicken back to the skillet, and toss to coat in the sauce. Sprinkle in additional salt and pepper to taste.
- Simmer for 3-5 minutes longer, plate and serve. A pro tip for elevating creamy recipes like this keto chicken carbonara is lime juice. Just before the final simmer squeeze one half of a medium-sized lime into the skillet. This helps layer the flavor profile of the dish by adding a touch of acidity, which elevates this recipe to a straight ten.
Notes
Barbara bryant
Since this is a keto recipe I always look for number of carbs, I see you listed calories but not net carbs.
730 Sage Street
Of course we list Carbs!
Calories: 557kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 43g | Fat: 40g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Cholesterol: 262mg | Sodium: 648mg | Potassium: 660mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 1942IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 153mg | Iron: 2mg
Debbie Lowndes
This was so delicious- thank you for the ability to change serving size.
Sandy
So delicious, this is definitely going in my rotation. Thank you
Gissela Martinez
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Tami
I made this dish for dinner. It was amazing! The flavors blend together so well and my entire family gave it a thumbs up!
Gissela Martinez
I am so happy to read this!! This recipe is definitely one of our favorites at home to 🙂
Joni
Can you make this ahead of time and put in fridge over night then bake next day?
730 Sage Street
Yes of course! I've done this many times, it tastes even better.
Becky
Is your nutrition information for the whole recipe or per serving? If per serving, how much is a serving size?
730 Sage Street
Becky, always per serving. Since this recipe serves 5, one serving is 1/5th of this recipe.
Gisella
Have you ever made it with chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs?
730 Sage Street
Of course, I typically make it with whatever I have on hand.
Avriel Lacy
Delicious! The longer you simmer the more it thickens up and the flavors mesh well together.
Brandi
Can I use chicken breast in place of thighs?
730 Sage Street
Definitely, I typically use whatever I have on hand.
Rose
Very good!!! Thank you!!
Jessica
I don’t EVER leave comments for food I’ve made. But holy cow. This recipe was a favorite. To me it tasted just like the chicken gnocchi soup from Olive Garden. My boyfriend inhaled it. I served it with loaded cauliflower mashed and keto breadsticks.
I will have to work on thickening up the sauce. I did let it simmer for a while before I added bacon and spinach.
For my next trick I will be adding more chicken broth and more heavy cream and making this into a soup, I might even add some mushrooms for texture. Thanks for a great recipe!!!
Lauren
This turned out delicious! I sampled the sauce about half way through and thought it was going to be bland, but once everything came together it turned out to be very flavorful. 4 stars instead of 5, only because the sauce was a bit thin. I added about 1/2 cup of sour cream and that helped it stick to the chicken better.
730 Sage Street
Hi Lauren, glad you liked our Keto Chicken Carbonara.
If the sauce is a bit thin, you can simmer it down. Simmering any sauce helps water evaporate and naturally thicken any sauce. Otherwise almond flour works in a pinch and if your pressed for time.
Cat
I have yet to try but I would think that adding a little Arrowroot flour or starch would fix the thin consistency.
Alicia
I made this tonight. This recipe is sooooo so good!! I see a few people commented that the sauce was really thin. The instructions didn't elaborate so if you're not familiar with making a cream based sauce, know that you should bring the sauce to a boil then reduce to a simmer for probably about 15 minutes or so until it thickens. I'd add in the parmesan and spices about halfway through that time and the spinach right at the end before putting the chicken back in. It's also very important that you stir continuously throughout this time. Typically sauces use cornstarch or flour as a thickener, of course that is not keto friendly, but you can add two to three tablespoons of almond flour, which will also help this thicken. I used three and mine came out great! Also the spinach soaks up some of the moisture so don't skip that step. I served mine over cauliflower rice, and it was divine.
Serina
I found this recipe super easy to follow and make. I used whole chicken thighs bone-in and it was delicious! My whole family had seconds! The sauce was very runny so I modified and added more whipping cream and cheese to get the consistency I like. We also added noodles so it definitely wasn't keto friendly but it was delicious nonetheless! This will definitely become one of the meals I make on the regular. Thank you for sharing!
Miranda
How many servings did you account for in your nutrition info?
730 Sage Street
Servings: 5 listed in the recipe card.
Dan
This recipe was delicious!
My only issue is the sauce ended up being super thin, almost like a broth; it didn’t coat anything, it just laid at the bottom of my dish. Is it supposed to be thin like that or did I miss something that thickens it?
730 Sage Street
Hard to say Dan, I'd need to see it to know for certain. Thoughts include: Less chicken broth? (maybe to much in your case). Swap out heavy whipping cream for sour cream (thicker, good base). Lastly simmer longer, this should help the water evaporate, causing the sauce to thicken.
Caroline
Amazing!!
Candy
I didn’t see the nutritional info? Do you have it?
730 Sage Street
Yes, apparently I missed this the first time around. Thanks Candy!
Sean Beikman
First step didn’t make sense to me and some details were missing. How long to pre heat your oven for and how long to bake your bacon? Recipe never said. I’ve never baked baked bacon before so wouldn’t know
730 Sage Street
Preheating an oven can take a few minutes in some ovens and four time longer in others. The same principle applies to cooking bacon. If you buy thin bacon, it will cook super fast, if you buy thick bacon it will take four times longer to bake. And your oven is your oven, only you know. Some people like really crispy bacon, some like soft bacon, and everything in between.
If your new to cooking, get to know your oven, pans, and have an open mind. Learn as you go and use recipes to guide you!
Julie
Should it be pretty thin or did in not do something right
730 Sage Street
I can't say, I'm not sure what you mean by pretty thin.
Katie
This is my favorite recipe from here!!!! Pairs super well with oven roasted parm asparagus. Will for sure make again!
April
Was the sauce supposed to be thin?
730 Sage Street
From 1 - 5, with 5 being thick and 0 being thin. I'd say this comes out around 2 and can be tweaked to a 3 by simmering it a bit longer.
Elaine
I made this recipe for dinner last night and it was absolutely amazing! Hands down the best keto dish I’ve made so far!
730 Sage Street
Thanks for sharing Elaine, this made my day!