Chicken Carbonara no Pasta

 Ingredients

• 2 pounds Boneless skinless chicken thighs - Cut into bite-sized pieces
• ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
• pinch pink Himalayan Salt - to taste
• pinch black Peppercorns - to taste
• 6 slices Bacon - Crumbled
• 1 tablespoon Bacon Grease
• ½ cup Onion - Chopped
• 2 teaspoons Minced Garlic
• 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 cup Chicken Broth
• ⅓ cup Parmesan Cheese - Grated
• 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
• 1 tablespoons 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 tablespoon 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 teaspoon 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 teaspoons 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 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.