Student Cooking

Chicken and bacon Carbonara with fried Garlic Ciabatta


 Fast, simple and cost effective, this dish will serve two, or three on a push, and for student it will be cheap as chips! So lets get started; These will be all the ingredients you wil need, I've got the prices from asda as they're the cheapest of the major supermarkets at the moment all of this costs £11.84 between two, £5.92 each? Now that's not bad. Lets move on to cooking... :)
Read all of this before cooking, I have some tips in there for you :)

Ok then so other additional things you will need are a tea spoon of oil and a table spoon of butter at the ready.

Step 1. Boil the Pasta, You can use any pasta, I choose the wholewheat one only because its healthier and at least we can try and balance out a healthy diet with all the consumption of alcohol we will be doing.  Pop the Pasta on the hob and let it boil for about 10/15 minutes (keep an eye on it and constantly stir, don't want burnt pasta).  When cooked, drain through the colander and run cold water through the pasta, still in the colander, and leave at the side until ready for use.

Tip 1. When boiling anything pop the kettle on to get boiling water straight away BUT dont put the water in a cold saucepan, stick the pan on the hob for a little while just before the water is reaching boil in the kettle then transfer into the saucepan to maintain heat of the water

Tip 2. Add salt to the water. Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius, the boiling point of water will increase 1.5 degree celsius for every 58 grams of salt thats in it! Now I'm not saying go wild with the salt but more salt = higher temperature = Faster cooking rate of the pasta. A teaspoon will do. 


Step 2.  Right, whilst the pasta is cooking you need to prepare the meat, I prefer the chicken cut into small cubes. Throw them in the pan with the pre-heated oil and fry them, season well. Chop up the bacon into small bits and leave on the side. Making sure the chicken is cooked properly (Chicken is a dangerous meat to eat not cooked properly, it's not beef) then add the bacon into the mix when 100% sure the chicken is cooked through properly.  Lightly cook the bacon, when done pull off the heat.

Tip 3. For efficiency and practicality i've bought a pair of 'cooking scissors' to cut up my meat into desired sizes.
Step 3. Pour the carbonara sauce into the pan with the cooked meat and let simmer for a while before adding the pasta.  Let simmer at low heat if there isn't much sauce make sure you keep stirring but there should be enough, you need to add in the pasta next.

Tip 4. If there isnt enough suace or 2 much sauce in the bot, indstead of using water, use milk since carbonara is milk based and it keeps the creamy texture of the sauce where as water will thin it down.

Step 4. Add the Pasta like there is no tomorrow. Stir the entire mixture in the pan until the pasta : chicken : bacon ratio is even. Leave on the hob for a bit longer to re-heat the pasta and keep on a low temperature (Keep stirring)

Step 5. Chop the  Ciabatta in half working down the thin edge of the bread so that you have two big flat pices of bread, now cut again to more desirable shape or size if need be. Now add the 2 Table spoons of butter into the frying pan, once melted sprinkle lightly the Garlic salt over the melted butter. when done add your Ciabatta  into the frying pan and fry gently at maximum power ensuring the butter gets on ever part of the  Ciabatta  bread. Once  done remove and place on a plate.

Step 6. Pour the  Carbonara  into a bowl and serve hot with a slice of  Ciabatta bread and enjoy :)

Again not mine but i will update all of my cooking as i go along, but as you can see you can use any pasta you might want in your Carbonara  

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01021.htm